Modern history of Timisoara

After World War I, the town was occupied by Serbian troops in November 24, 1918. They withdrew from the city on July 26, 1919 and the Romanian army entered the city on August 3 after an ultimatum of the Romanian government. This situation was confirmed by the Treaty of Trianon.

During the next decades as a result of the city's development and of population movements from the Romanian villages of the surrounding region and from other regions of the country, Romanians became the majority in the city. A relative Romanian majority was first recorded in the 1941 census. After the Second World War many ethnic Germans emigrated in Germany, also almost all of the Jews emigrated to Israel and to the West. Timişoara's population has more than tripled over the last 50 years (it was slightly more than 90,000 at 1930 census), while the percentage of Magyars (Hungarians) has decreased from 30% to 7.5%, the Germans' from 30% to 2% and the Jews from 8% to almost 0%.

On December 16, 1989 many citizens of the town came to support the Hungarian Calvinist pastor László Tőkés against the authorities and Securitate (secret police)'s decision to deport him. In these circumstances on 17th December a popular uprising started in Timişoara against the Communist regime of Nicolae Ceauşescu. This was the beginning of the Romanian Revolution of 1989, which put an end to the Communist regime a week later.

Main Page: 1989 Revolution Timisoara