Ernest Bernea (en)

Ernest Bernea and the “incense monastery”

Whoever reads “Space, Time and Causality in the Romanian People” or Ernest Bernea’s essays contained in “An Appeal to Simplicity” or “Dialectics of the Modern Mind”, feels the refinement and depth of thought, the balance of judgement, the sensitivity with which he “feels” every tremor of the problem he tackles, the good nature that radiates from every line he writes. Reading him and studying his life, one is reminded of the image of the “monastery of incense” in Romanian fairy tales, a place of purity and perfection. Born in Focșani on 28 March 1905, Ernest Bernea grew up in Băila. […]

Ernest Bernea, a mystic lost in politics

Sociologist, ethnographer and philosopher, Ernest Bernea was one of the leading intellectuals of the inter-war period. Ignored by the intelligentsia today because of his ignorance and political past, Bernea remains a reference in Romanian culture. Much of his work remains unpublished because publishers fear that Bernea is not marketable. Born in Focșani on 28 March 1905, Ernest Bernea grew up in Brăila, where he attended primary and secondary school. His father, Marcu, was a Moldavian peasant from the outskirts of Galați, and his mother, Tudora, was the daughter of an Arad man who had become a harbour boatman. His hard […]

Professor Ernest Bernea and the reasons for his detachment from the Legionary Movement

In the Canal camps I was able to clarify the last questions about the Legionary ideology that had haunted me for ten years. In Aiud, in the first prison, I spoke with one of the most intelligent legionary commanders, who had only begun to enlighten me, followed by many discussions with young intellectuals, with whom we completed each other’s questions, which had become more and more serious. Everywhere I went, I met legionaires who refused to discuss the legionnaire’s ideology, precisely because they had begun to see its utopia beneath its bombastic veneer and could not help but recognise its […]

Ernest Bernea, the professor of great honesty of soul and superb naivety

In the autumn of 1948, something new appeared in the cell regime – a certain relaxation, the meaning of which I could not deduce[1]. It was enough to want to move from one cell to another, and one could see one’s acquaintances. There was also a wall diary – the diary of communist intellectual misery. The people in charge of this work, appointed by the political officer Dincă, had been given pencil and paper, which they could not part with. The first was called Teianu, later nicknamed Tăune. […] The second was called Bojâncă, a significant name. […] Not before […]

Ernest Bernea, a man of rare modesty

Ernest Bernea was arrested because of his affiliation to the Legionary Movement, former director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, professor of sociology, colleague of Traian Herseni. He was a man of rare modesty. He told beautiful stories between illnesses, when he forgot them. He was obsessed with the idea of being the sickest. I regretted parting with him and his culture[1]. (Salcă Alexandru – Dăruit cu suferință. Memories I, Transilvania Expres Publishing House, Brașov, 1998, p. 159) [1] The meeting between the memoirist and Ernest Bernea took place in the prison of Brasov, room 5.

Teodora Bernea: “My father was a god to us”

Mrs. Teodora Bernea is the only direct descendant of Ernest Bernea living in Romania. His twin sister Ana emigrated to the USA and Horia Bernea, the famous painter and founder of the Romanian Peasant Museum in Bucharest, died a few years ago. Teodora Bernea, a qualified hydrotechnical engineer, is now retired and lives in the Drumul Taberei district of Bucharest, in the apartment that belonged to her father. – What is the most vivid memory you have of Ernest Bernea? – I remember that he looked at me calmly, as if he had gone somewhere else. I can think of […]

The last interview with Ernest Bernea

The following text is transcribed from an interview given by Professor Ernest Bernea on 12 August 1990. Shortly afterwards, the professor fell ill and had to stay in various hospitals, from which he never left. He died on 14 November 1990 and was buried in Cernica. Known in his generation as one of the country’s leading sociologists and ethnologists, this highly cultured man was also a philosopher, prose writer and poet. His work, which branched out in many directions, is far from being known, even by the older generation, let alone the younger one. Volumes and volumes of manuscripts, systematically […]