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Gustav Schimert

1877–1955

Born
29 May 1877, Miercurea Sibiului
Country of birth
Austria–Hungary, today Romania
Died
13 Aug 1955, Stuttgart
facts
6
sources
1
images and files
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Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

  • Birth29 May 1877, Miercurea SibiuluiProbable1 source
  • Death13 Aug 1955, StuttgartProbableDisputed1 competing claim1 source

A life in time

  1. Born · Miercurea Sibiului

    Birth, Miercurea Sibiului

  2. Child born: Gustav Schimert

    Birth, Budapest

  3. Died · Stuttgart

    Death, Stuttgart

What was it like?

The world around Miercurea Sibiului, 1877: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Gustav was born around the same time as Guillaume Apollinaire, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and Pau Casals.

Born around the same time

  • Guillaume Apollinaire

    1880 · French poet (1880–1918)

  • Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

    1876 · Italian poet and editor, founder of the Futurist movement (1876-1944)

  • Pau Casals

    1876 · Spanish cellist, conductor and composer (1876–1973)

  • Hermann Friese

    1880 · German-Brazilian athlete (1882-1945)

  • Helen Keller

    1880 · American deafblind author, political activist, lecturer, scholar (1880-1968)

  • Konrad Adenauer

    1876 · German politician, Chancellor of West Germany (1949–1963), Zentrum and CDU

Fashion

Festive accessories and courtship customs

For Sunday dances, young peasant women would adorn themselves with numerous strings, pins, flowers, and necklaces made of beads and coins. Additionally, young men often stole the long, colorful girdles worn by women, wearing them themselves to show they were interested in the girls.

Peasant women's daily and festive attire

Peasant women often wore white smock-frocks embroidered with black, red, and orange, sometimes shot with threads of gold and silver for special occasions. They also wore red gowns and yellow or red headkerchiefs while working in the fields.

Music

Călușeri and Bătuta dance performances

In the late 19th century, men's Călușeri and Bătuta dances were performed at balls, festivals, and even at New Year's celebrations, often featuring dancers in traditional national costumes.

Impromptu village musical competitions

During village parties, guests engaged in impromptu musical performances and competitive shouting matches, where men and women split into groups to trade satirical verses.

Getting around
Around 1869–1874

Initial Public Fear of Trains

When early trains arrived, many people were frightened by the machines, fearing they would explode or cause cows to stop giving milk. Consequently, some trains were preceded by a rider blowing a horn to warn people to stay clear of the tracks.

Hardships of road travel

For most ordinary people, long-distance travel via carriage remained prohibitively expensive and arduous, often relying on roads that became nearly impassable mud tracks during autumn and spring. In poor conditions, carriage speeds could drop to as low as 4 km/h, making journeys between towns exceptionally slow.

Daily life

Schooling became compulsory for kids

An 1864 act endowed Romania with free and compulsory elementary education, and later described as compelling families to send children to primary school. Education methods could be harsh and parents often avoided schooling when the benefit was unclear.

Lighting relied on oil lamps

For an ordinary peasant house, the main lighting at night was a small clay oil lamp (opaiț) with a weak, flickering flame; after a few hours from sunset, the home was effectively dark. Candles were reserved for richer meals.

Food

Mamaliga was the primary daily staple food

For ordinary families, mamaliga, a simple cornmeal porridge, was the daily staple, often eaten with onions, garlic, or dairy products instead of bread. Bread was typically considered a luxury reserved for special occasions and major holidays.

Meat was reserved for special holidays

Even in households that raised animals, meat like ox or buffalo pastrami was rarely eaten, usually reserved only for major Christian holidays. Eggs, butter, and poultry were frequently sold to bring money into the home rather than being consumed by the family.

Prices and wages
Around 1878–1878

Food prices in 1878

In 1878, a kilogram of white bread cost 47 bani and a kilogram of black bread cost 20 bani. A liter of cow's milk was priced at 62 bani, and a kilogram of cheese cost 1.67 lei.

Long daily working hours

The workday for laborers often lasted 12 to 14 hours, sometimes reaching 17 to 18 hours, typically with only a break for lunch.

Work

Agricultural Daily Wages

Agricultural day laborers in the late 19th century were typically paid between 0.25 and 0.68 florins per day, with women and children earning less.

Family Field Work Routine

Families often traveled together in barred carts to their plots of land, where they would camp out to work from morning until late in the evening.

News and letters
Around 1850–1874

Post relay stations every 20 kilometers

A post measure was equivalent to 20 kilometers, which was the standard distance between two horse-changing relay stations.

During their lifetime

  1. 1881

    Romania becomes a kingdom (1881)

    In 1881, the parliament proclaimed Romania a kingdom, and King Charles was crowned in Bucharest using a crown forged from a captured Ottoman cannon.

  2. 1883

    First national health insurance introduced

    Germany became the first country to introduce a national social insurance system with the approval of a worker's health insurance plan.

  3. 1895

    Electric trams introduced (1895)

    On 9 December 1895, the first electric tramway was introduced in Bucharest, modernizing urban public transportation.

  4. 1910

    Life expectancy rose to 47 years by 1910

    By 1910, advancements in medicine, hygiene, and infrastructure, such as improved water and sewage systems, increased the average life expectancy to 47 years, compared to 37 years in 1871.

  5. 1914

    Ten percent of households accessed electricity by 1914

    By 1914, approximately ten percent of German households had access to electricity, transforming daily life through new lighting and urban infrastructure.

  6. 1916

    High casualties and epidemic during World War I

    During World War I, around 700,000 Romanians died, including 430,000 civilians, and the population suffered from a raging typhoid epidemic.

Family

Children

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.