Simion Mehedinți – a Scholar Minister in a Sacrificial Government

Abstract

Simion Mehedinți was Minister of Education and Cults in the government of Alexandru Marghiloman (March – October 1918), when the great politician from Buzău was called by King Ferdinand I to form a new government and sign the Peace Treaty with the Central Powers. Simion Mehedinţi studied in Bucharest, Paris, Berlin and Leipzig, where he obtained the degree of doctor of philosophy (geography specialty), with the qualification “Summa cum laude”. In 1900, he taught the first university geography course in Bucharest, which constitutes the act of birth of this science in our country, Simion Mehedinţi being considered the founder of Romanian geography, recognized as one of the greatest theorists of this science worldwide. In 1905 he was elected a member of the Romanian Geographical Society, in 1908 he became, at only 40 years old, a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, and in 1915, at 47 years old, a full member of it. As the Minister of Education and Religion, Simion Mehedinţi promoted two education laws, through which he pursued the reform of rural education. Between 1919–1939 he was a teacher at the Superior War School in Bucharest, where he taught General Geography. He died on December 14, 1962, in Bucharest, in total anonymity, at the age of 96.