Ion Grămadă


Ion Grămadă was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian writer, historian and journalist. A native of Bukovina, he joined the Romanian Army and died in battle during World War I.

Biography

Born in Zahareşti, he was registered at Czernowitz University and afterwards at the Universität in Vienna, where he studied History and Geography. Grămadă received his PhD in those fields with a thesis about the contribution of Romanians at the Siege of Vienna. He also published many stories and some historical studies of Bukovina in numerous literary magazines. Upon returning to his native region, Ion Grămadă founded the news magazine Deşteptarea in Czernowitz in 1907, and also worked as an editor at the local paper Viaţa Nouă.
In 1916, as soon as Romania entered World War I on the Entente side, he enlisted in the Romanian Army, and specifically asked to be sent to fight to the front line. Grămadă was placed in command of an Elite Hunter platoon fighting on difficult mountain terrain during the Romanian Campaign, when the Central Powers fended off Romanian incursions and took fighting into Romanian territory. He was shot down during an assault on August 27, 1917, on the heights of Cireşoaia, now part of Slănic-Moldova in Bacău County.

Style and legacy

Ion Grămadă, who was of the most interesting writers of Bukovina, authored short stories which, in his lifetime, were only published sporadically in various literary magazines. They reveal a beautiful prose, with sensitive tension and mystery, specific to the literary trends of Central Europe, and with psychological technique and remarkable skills of portrayal.

Writings