George Bariţ

George Barit (* 1812 in Jucu de Jos, Cluj County, Transylvania, † May 2, 1893 in Sibiu, George Baritiu, Bariţius, Gheorghe Baritiu ) was a Romanian historian, philologist, journalist and founder of the first Romanian language press in Transylvania.

His parents were of the Greek Catholic ( Uniate Romanian ) priest Ioan Pop Barit and Ana Rafila.

He attended school in Trascău (now Rimetea ) in Alba county and universities in Blaj and Cluj, where he was trained as a priest.

He decided, however, teachers for the Romanian language at the school founded by merchants in Braşov (Kronstadt) to be. There he founded in 1838 the first Romanian newspaper Gazeta de Transilvania with the literature Supplement Foaie pentru minte, Inima şi literatura (music for the mind, heart, and literature).

In 1836 he had traveled with Timotei Cipariu to Bucharest. On his return he gave Johann divinity, the editor of a Romanian newspaper editors.

In the revolution of 1848/ 49 in the Empire of Austria he was politically active. He established links with Romanian nationalists and radicals. After the Hungarian revolutionaries pressure made ​​, Transylvania to break away from the Austrian rule, he called in his newspaper the same rights for Romanians as for the Hungarian population in Transylvania.

Up to the Austria - Hungarian Compromise of 1866/67 he went back to cultural activities. With Andrei Şaguna and Timotei Cipariu he founded the ASOCIATIA Transilvana pentru Literatura Română şi Cultura Poporului Român ( ASTRA ), the first secretary and later as president he was. As ASTRA began to publish the magazine Transilvania, he was the main one editor. On April 1, 1866, he was a founding member of the Societatea literara Română ( Romanian Society of Literature; Today: Romanian Academy ). From 1884 to 1888 he was president of the Partidul Naţional Român din Transilvania şi Banat (PNR, Romanian National Party).

From 1889 to 1891 he published Parti Alese din Istoria Transilvaniei pre Două sute de ani în Urma ( Selected episodes from the last 200 years of Transylvanian history ). He was also an author of the first Romanian language encyclopedia that came out from 1898 to 1904.

Buried he is at the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Sibiu ( Hermannstadt).