Talk:Magda Lupescu

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Limerick[edit]

Does the recently added limerick really belong in an encyclopedia article? -- Jmabel | Talk 01:35, May 7, 2005 (UTC)

Name, Childhood[edit]

Is there any evidence that she was ever "Elena Wolff"? I know her father was born "Wolff", but he apparently changed it to "Lupescu". Does anyone have a decent citation on this either way? I'm rather inclined to move this to Magda Lupescu, which I believe is how she is almost universally known.

Also, I gather that a lot about her childhood is shrouded in mystery and controversy (for example, she went to a very elite Roman Catholic school, quite unusual for the daughter of a Jew, and there is a lot of speculation about how she was admitted, whether she or her father had a patron of some sort). Does anyone have anything citable on any of this? -- Jmabel | Talk 07:09, 3 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Easterman Is Problematic[edit]

There are several problems with Easterman, from whom most of the material for the article comes.

(1) Name: Her name was Elena Lupescu. Calling her "Wolff" was a propaganda device, analogous to calling Hitler "Schicklgruber". "Elena", of course, was the Romanian form of Helen.

(2) Father's surname: The original surname may have been "Wolff", or it may have been "Grünberg" or "Grunsberg". It's even possible that "Wolff" was an invention of Elena Lupescu's adversaries. In 19th cent. Romania, some baptised Jews took surnames which, rather than being translations of their Jewish surnames, were connected to the place of baptism (town or church) or to the officiating priest.

(3) Father's religion: Other sources state he converted to Christianity (probably at the same time he changed his name to "Lupescu"); his wife was already a convert. This is the most parsimonious assumption, and removes any mystery about his owning a drugstore. Given Romania's circumstances, it's not surprising that no record of his conversion survived.

Morever, Easterman misunderstands the issue. It's not that Jews were not considered "Romanian"; rather, it was an issue of citizenship: at the time, a Jew could not become a Romanian citizen except by an act of Parliament. However, as in other countries in Eastern Europe, there was a great deal of corruption, and a big gap between the law as enacted in the capital, and the way it was put in practice in the rest of the country.

Some time ago, a Romanian newspaper (Ziua, Bucharest, 2003/02/15) published a police report about Elena Lupescu, dated 1935/06/29, in which her father was described as "Nuham Grunsberg, baptised Nicolae Lupescu" [1]. However, the document's authenticity may be doubtful.

(4) Elena Lupescu's education: First, there was no "second-rank nobility" in Romania. There were great landowners, some of whom could trace their ancestry back to the 18th cent., but there was no nobility in Western sense, and there was no "gentry" in the Hungarian or Polish sense. Second, anti-Semitism in Romania at that time was closer to medieval anti-Semitism rather than to the modern, racial type. So Elena Lupescu would have found no problem in being accepted as a student at a school run by German nuns; on the contrary, as the German-speaking Catholic daughter of an Austrian-born mother, she would have been precisely the kind of pupil "Diaconesele" were looking for.

(5) Her first marriage: I can find no source confirming Tampeanu's "high-born parentage". At any rate, the regulation prohibiting army officers from marrying Jews would not have been applicable in this instance, because Lupescu was the Christian daughter of Christian parents.

So, once again, nothing unusual and no real mystery.

(6) "Magda": According to a different story (I believe it's in Robert St John's reminiscences), "Magda" was Bucharest slang for a prostitute, and it was yet another invention of her enemies. Aleksis 03:07, 19 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think Easterman may be problematic on several of these points, and I would welcome other bettter sources.
  • On point 1, you are simply agreeing with Easterman.
  • On point 2, I've heard the "Grünberg" / "Grunsberg" claims elsewhere, and they could well be true. But I've never seen anything particularly citable on it. Do you have something?
  • On point 3, if you have a source for this, great. Yes, I agree that it is "the most parsimonious assumption".
  • On your comment that begins "Morever, Easterman misunderstands the issue…" I don't see where you are disagreeing with Easterman. He discusses the citizenship issue at some length and, as far as I can tell, accurately. But clearly "Romanian" in the sense of the 1874 law applied precisely to citizenship. If you think this is unclear in the article and want to reword, feel free.
  • It looks like there is quite a bit of information in that linked article from Ziua. We should probably see what we can mine from that.
  • On point 4: I have no independent knowledge of the "Diaconesele" school other than what I read in Easterman. Your "parsimonious assumption" in point 3 woud go a certain distance to explain things. I agree that in the time of Lupescu's childhood anti-Semitism in Romania would have been more against people of Jewish faith than of Jewish blood. Still, Easterman seemed pretty confident that the "taint" of even Jewish ancestry would have been an issue at that particular school unless something outweighed it. I'd love to have a citation more recent and scholarly on this. Do you have anything?
  • On point 5, agreed, the "parsimonious assumption" is looking quite good; again, is there a citable source for it?
  • On point 6, yes, for obvious reasons, in most of the Christian world a "Magdalene" can mean a prostitute—nothing specific to Bucharest about that—but I'll admit to doubting its relevance here. If you have something citable on this being a possible origin of her nickname, I'll probably continue to be skeptical, but I won't object to adding it to the article as another theory.
I'm at a bit of a liability here: I'm on the West Coast of the U.S., not exactly a great place to find books on interbellum Romanian history, so except for what my own book collection and the paltry few things I've found in the public library or the University of Washington Library, I've been largely at a loss for sources. I agree that Easterman has a few weird theories on Lupescu; elsewhere, on more public figures, he seems more reliable. Most of what I've seen on the Internet about Carol II and Lupescu seems to me even less reliable than Easterman: the contempt for both of them practically drips off the page (well, screen), and much of what is said is so clearly so wrong (or oblivious to context) that I hesitate to assume they got anything right. -- Jmabel | Talk 03:58, 20 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I do plan to edit the article, but I haven't had time yet, and there are a few other references I want to check first.

Regarding Easterman, I am at a disadvantage: I read it some time ago, and I don't have it at hand now, so I can't verify what it actually says. So, instead of "Easterman" I should have said, "Easterman as quoted in this article". For instance, on (1) the article says that Elena's father changed his name from Grünberg to Wolff, and the source for this appears to be Easterman. That's what I'm disagreeing with.

On (3), most sources I know are in agreement, but they are either general references (e.g., Ionescu), or mention the subject tangentially (e.g., Pakula).

Regarding Easterman's misunderstanding, I can only judge on his views as reflected in the article; that's why I posted to the discussion rather than editing the article.

Regarding the police report in the "Ziua" article, it is very interesting, but I have some doubts regarding its authenticity.

On (4), I'm afraid I have no quotable source. Regarding Romanian conditions in general, Easterman (in common with many other Western, and particularly Anglophone, authors) simply doesn't understand them, or interprets the situation at the turn of the century in terms of developments of the 1930s and '40s. Sources which would help understand this would not be suitable for this article. On the specifics of the "Diaconesele" I have only a personal communication. Some time ago I met an elderly Jewish lady, born in Romania of Austrian Jewish parents. She was 10 or 15 years younger than Lupescu, but she was educated at the "Diaconesele", of which she had fond recollections. Unfortunately, the lady has passed away. At any rate, such a source is clearly unsuitable for Wikipedia.

On (5), I'm not sure what source is needed. Lupescu wasn't Jewish, therefore the regulation wasn't relevant in her case.

On (6), apparently, the usage of "Magda" as synonym of "prostitute" was specific to that time (much like "John" is in US slang a the client of a prostitute). Aleksis 14:55, 20 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Lycée “Gheorghe Lazăr”[edit]

Comparing to the Lycée “Gheorghe Lazăr” seems quite arbitrary. I don't know a ton about the "Diaconesele", but I know the Lycée “Gheorghe Lazăr” well, and it is not a religious institution, for starters. To the best of my knowledge it never concerned itself any more with the ethnicity of its students than would have been almost universal at the time (which is to say, like most European and American universities of the time, it would have had some restrictive quotas), and its elitism was always more based on academic strength than the familial connections of its students. - Jmabel | Talk 05:08, 29 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Re Lazar "is not a religious institution", two issues. First, keep in mind the enormous changes which have occurred over the years in Romania. What a school in Bucharest is today is entirely different to what it was before WWI, even if it has the same name and it is housed in the same building. Second, the "Diaconeselor" and the other schools run by the Institutul Sf Maria were not religious institutions! So I think the comparison is quite valid. I suggest consulting Livezeanu for more details, it's a very instructive study. Of course, data about the "Diaconeselor" would be preferable, but I haven't found any so far. Aleksis 15:38, 29 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Really? With that name it wasn't a religious school? So it had a lay faculty? - Jmabel | Talk 01:20, 31 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The school was on Str. Diaconeselor, later Spiru Haret. (Making assumptions based on the school's name is unsafe -- e.g., I don't think that any saint ever graduated from Sf. Sava.) I don't have data on the faculty, but, since the school was run by nuns, I'd assume the school was staffed mostly, if not exclusively, by nuns. How is that relevant? Aleksis 20:00, 3 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

OK, didn't know the name came from a street, just knew the name and thought I was right in recollecting that it was staffed by nuns. That didn't exactly suggest a secular institution. Indeed, it can't have been all that secular if it was staffed by nuns. But there's really no point to pursuing this further till someone can track down a decent reference. I don't have a lot of chance to do that from Seattle (not exactly a trove of works on Romania). - Jmabel | Talk 06:41, 4 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Birthdate[edit]

The claim of a birthdate down to a particular day is simply absurd. Yes, one normally good source gives this date. And other normally good sources give other dates. The article used to say, accurately, "Her birth year is variously given as 1895, 1896, 1899, or 1902". It now, absolutely misleadingly, gives the single date 15 September 1895. - Jmabel | Talk 08:26, 2 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Time magazine wrote "In 1947, the ex-King was 53 years old. Magda never told anyone her age, but it was at least 50." [2] Britannica says "1896?" [3], as does the Columbia Encyclopedia. [4] I think we should do the same: we can indicate these various possibilities (including the one currently in the article and any others we may encounter in usually acceptable sources) in a footnote. - Jmabel | Talk 08:44, 2 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Given lack of response (and another arbitrary, uncited change of birthdate in the meanwhile), I have edited accordingly. - Jmabel | Talk 08:01, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

POV Footnotes[edit]

Several of the footnotes are rather POV. For example:

Many sources give her name as “Elizei”. That is an obvious misunderstanding, caused probably by an original author who did not speak Romanian. In Romanian, “Elizei” is the genitive case of “Eliza”; thus, the phrase “Eliza’s daughter” is in Romanian “fiica Elizei”, just as “Mary’s son” is in Romanian “fiul Mariei”. “Eliza” is, of course, the Romanian form of “Elise”.

Doubtless largely true (although "Romanian form of “Elise”" is a bit odd: "Eliza" is probably a more common name in English than "Elise", which is more French, and all are variants of "Elisabeth" / "Elisabeta" / etc. But who are the "many sources" and whose voice is saying "obvious misunderstanding"?

No author has ever explained why Elena Lupescu’s father should have changed his name from “Grünberg” to “Wolff”. It appears more likely that the name Wolff, which is the approximate German or Yiddish equivalent of Lupescu, was an invention of Elena Lupescu’s detractors.

"No author": that's audacious. Who is speaking, who claims a comprehensive knowledge of the relevant literature? And, above all, "It appears more likely" to whom?

It's really hard to get decent sources on anything about her birth and childhood. Britannica clearly gets a lot wrong: they give her birthname as "Magda Wolff". They are almost certainly wrong on "Wolff" and absolutely certainly wrong on "Magda", a nickname she acquired no earlier than the 1920s. So this does call for judicious handling of sources, and it is hard to avoid falling into some original research here, but we should still be circumspect.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of problems. Several other footnotes (and some parts of the article proper) have similar problems. - Jmabel | Talk 07:58, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Limerick[edit]

She is also the subject of a bit of doggerel:
Have you heard about Magda Lupescu
Who came to Romania’s rescue?
It’s a wonderful thing
To be under a king —
Is democracy better, I esk you?

In: The Limerick, 1700 examples, with notes variants and index, by Gershon Legman (ed.) ISBN 8148-0699-6

The above piece is removed from the "Trivia" secion, until clarification: the title of the book does not match the author. ISBN is invalid. Please reinsert only after checking with the book (not with some stupid website.) `'Míkka 01:49, 7 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Iași[edit]

According to TGN (http://www.getty.edu/vow/TGNServlet?english=Y&find=Jassy&place=city) Jassy is alternative spelling of Iași. I will change Jassy to Iași so we call the same city with one name. MauriceM3 (talk • contribs) 23:57, 13 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, no, it's not an alternative spelling.
There was never a city named Jassy in Roumanian (language).
Jassy is the name used in the "old" diplomatic correspondance, being a name that sounded nice to the ears of both Moldavians (later Roumanians) as Frenchmen, considering that Français was that time the diplomatic language. The same way that London is named in Roumanian Londra, Dresden Dresda and Leipzig Lipsca - they sound better this way :) Since it was used so long, Jassy remained in use today, but only in that particular historical context and in French/foreign papers. The fact that during those times of resuming the diplomatic relations with the Western Powers (the Principalities being step by step freed from the Turks between 1829 and 1877) the written language also changed from Cyrillic to Latin, via several intermediate forms (with variable ratios of Cyrillic and Latin letters and variable assignments of the Latin letters to Cyrillic ones) together with a relatinisation of the language (the etymological principle), it was for a short time that Iaşi was written as Iassi or Yassi (for a very short time the letter ш ş was written ss). The J as the first letter instead of I came I think from the artistic handwritting of that century (it gave a better impact upon the name - see the other capital cities names in chancelleries handwritting).
The name Jassy also appeared in the private correspondence of Intelligentsia but only if written in foreign languages (mostly French as this was the elite's language of choice, but also in English, German), for the simple reason that traditionally, these languages already adopted Jassy as their own name for Iaşi.
Cheers,
Marian--79.220.59.178 (talk) 07:57, 9 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

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Who invented Magda?[edit]

Well, I don't think the Roumanians (nick)named her Magda, and there are no credible sources that prostitutes were called Magda in that country.
I think the name of Magda was invented by a Western scandal journalist (for it was used almost exclusively outside of Roumania), in order not to confuse their not very bright readers with the other Elena, the lawful wife. It also avoided some legal actions against them. In her "Memoirs" (firstly written for the Hearst press conglomerate, later translated in other languages), Elena mentioned that she was called this way (that red-haired Jewess, Magda Lupescu) while staying abroad, la Neuilly. If Magda was used in Roumania, it came via the two translations of these stories she told New York American and Los Angeles Examiner, both in 1927 (Realitatea Ilustrata and Memoriile doamnei Lupescu traduse de Vicanu).

Concerning the origin of her mother, she (and then Carol repeated this in his memoirs: she was most probably the source, too) claimed her mother was of Russian origin. I don't think there were too many Russian Catholics in Russia at any time (they were mostly original Catholics like Polish, Baltic etc minorities). So it may be one of her inventions.

Also little is known of her relatives (she had sisters, one of them married some exotic diplomat, in Brazil or something, I don't recall now).

Concerning her disease, well, according to the contemporary press, no matter what medicine she took (the wedding ring or the pharmacy stuff), the effect was overwhelming, the very next day, the newly wed Lupescu (now Caraiman), was as fit as before that long (blood-related: anaemia???) sickness. Too bad the recipe was not published, to help cure other "dying" ladies and save them from the cure by marriage. Considering that the fortune left by Carol was mostly shared between Elena and Lambrino, leaving Mihai almost out, I believe he had all the interest in the world not to attack her (Paul was legally challenged for this legacy by Mihai, but the latter lost).

As one of the inheritors, Elena also got the grip on the Carol's Memories, and edited them to cut off her name from the "problematic" passages. And some really important events were completely torn away from the notebook, and thus missing forever.


Cheers,
Marian--79.220.60.245 (talk) 08:53, 7 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I stand corrected, not a sister, but a brother (Constantin Schloim Lupescu) - it was one of her cousines that married that diplomat. If I will remember who's the "lucky one" I'll come back.
Sorry,
Marian — Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.220.59.178 (talk) 10:37, 9 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Wolff from Grünberg[edit]

Speculations are created by those not knowing how the Jews got names in Roumania. Depending on the epoque, the names were given either via a decree or by ministerial Journal.
The baptised/roumanised Jew could not use any name s/he wanted, but rather either a translation or a "roumanisation" (exemplia gratia Schein -> Șăineanu pronounced exactly as before but with the suffix eanu anu and the like; Würtzel -> Rădăceanu which the is the translation of Root into the Roumanian Rădăcină plus the same suffix; Wolff -> Lupescu which is the translation of Wolf into Lup plus another common suffix escu etc - the three examples are provided for Lazăr Șăineanu, a linguist, Lotar Rădăceanu, a know socialist politician later communist, and the present case).

Another fact to be known is that, because of the illegal and massive immigration, many Jews had several names.

Therefore, in order to become Lupescu, old Grünberg should have been one time also Wolff. Or, this could be another possibility, is that they tried and managed to get the name Lupescu from Grünberg, and everyone else, aware of how these names are made up, retranslated Lupescu back into Wolff, assuming this was the christianised name. The real stuff can only be obtained by browsing all the editions of Monitorul oficial since say 1866, as all these decrees, ministerial journals and decisions had to be made public.

Cheers,
Marian--79.220.58.254 (talk) 10:42, 8 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Army rank of Têmpeanu[edit]

Ion Têmpeanu (please note that this was the correct spelling of his name by the norms of the time when his birth certificate was filled up) was at the time of his marriage with Elena Lupescu only a captain. Godfathers for their marriage was (extremely unusual) was a Romanian war hero, general Grigorescu.

Later on, after divorcing her, and as a result of his former wife's position, he advanced in the army and was honourably discharged as lieutenant-colonel. However, the unwritten coutumes used to call any ltcol as it were a full colonel.

His name means in Roumanian "the moron one", which may be considered as an omen, well, he married Elena afterall :)

Marian --79.220.53.181 (talk) 15:17, 25 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

garrison life[edit]

According to Quinlan, Elena did not adapt well to garrison life

This is probably incorrect, because it suggests, me at least, that Quinlan had no idea of how the "garrison life" was in Romania. Unlike US Army, Roumanian army did not provide its officers quartiers inside the garrison, but they had their civil homes in the cities close to or inside of the garrison resided. The officers had a "duty time", sometimes over night, but essentially they were free to do whatever they wanted (within the laws ;) ) outside this duty and the regular meetings. Only in war times, the officers have been confined within the garrison. So, Elena was free to do whatever she wanted during the times her husband was in the garrison, the usual time spending activities all other officers' wives did. Also, part of the military life, the officers spent some times in the pubs or the nights playing cards. This could be seen as a neglection. This was the "garrison life" of Elena.

Other facts:

  • the officers were forced by the army regulations to have a wife whose morality was beyond any doubt, and had a proper endow. The first requirement could not be broken, but the second could be derogated by the written recommendation of the superior and approved by yet another higher superior, as up as the minister of war or the king himself.
  • divorce was still badly seen by the population, and particularly the church. It was also during the '30ies that people started to divorce, so that it was something "normal". The divorce being given somewhere in 1922-23-24, the Major Tâmpeanu probably used his wife's morality as an argument (solid arguments had been needed to get a divorce).
  • the "marrying" rank of Tâmpeanu (new orthography) was captain. Reaching this rank was rather difficult, even in war times, meaning that Tâmpeanu was of a rather higher age (say 35-40 or so), an age very high by the standards. There were no minimum age requirements for the woman back then, these have been introduced AFAIK after 1930s, but 16-17-18 was the proper age.

Cheers, Marian

PS: In order to avoid any misinterpretation, I would change that into did not adapt well to her husband's garrison life or similar. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.158.133.55 (talk) 10:48, 26 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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