Din istoria populației germane a orașului Cluj în secolele XIII-XX
The History of the German Population of Cluj in 13-20 th Century

Summary/Abstract: The city of Cluj (Klausenburg, Kolozsvár) has lost especially during the last years its historical memory regarding its German population, who brought an extremely important contribution to the city history. King Steven V and the subsequent kings of Hungary offered privileges to the Saxon and Hungarian hospites, which built in the 13th century medieval city as the second greatest among the Hungarian Kingdom’s urban centres. The presence of the Germans in Cluj is to be found in the specific Saxon architecture, including certain buildings, houses and dwellings, wine cellars. In 1375, the Cluj brothers, Georg and Marten, made the famous bronze casted statue of Saint George killing the dragon. The original statue is to be admired at the Hradčany palace in Prague, as one of the exquisite works of art of the German Middle Ages; its copy can be seen in Cluj, of course. The German schools were organized in Cluj since the beginning of the 15th century, while the so-called Pelegrinatio academica to German universities was an organic part of the Transylvanian Saxon school-system in the 16.-18. centuries. Two thirds of the wealthy Cluj families of the 15.-16th centuries belonged to the Saxon patriciat, even if their role played in the city leadership was smaller than their number. Besides the economic aspects, involving the Saxon medieval guilds and brotherhoods, Cluj also became world famous due to personalities like: the founder of the Unitarian (Antitrinitarian) confession and church, the Saxon Franz Davidis, better known under his Magyarised name as Dávid Ferenc (1510-1579), or the printer Kaspar Helth, alias Gáspár Heltai (1520-1574), a writer of German mothertongue, as well, who inaugurated none the less the Hungarian literature of fiction. The later centuries of the Modern Age brought an increasing assimilitation and Magyarisation of the Saxon inhabitants of Cluj, a process that found an abrupt ending after the First World War.

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