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VICTOR NEUMANN
established the first institution of this kind in Banat, publishing the regional
newspaper entitled Temeswarer Nachrichten (The Information of Temeswar).
As a result of count Clary und Altringen’s — the president of the Temeswar
city administration and the governor of Banat — benevolence, the newspaper
was first issued on the 18% of April, 1771. The model was borrowed from
papers printed in Vienna, Bratislava and Pest. Thirteen issues of Temeswarer
Nachrichten were kept at the Vienna Imperial Court Archive.' Bythe published
news, but also by the content of some articles, the newspaper created a nice
intellectual climate.
Its first issue popularized information from the Viennese court,” Temeswarer
Nachrichten reproducing passages from the Diarium? issue number 26/23"
of March regarding Empress Maria Theresia’s enterprises, her audiences, the
imperial orders regarding the official course of currency, its circulation, and
the mourning gatherings organized at the death of political personalities
or members of the imperial family. Along with such news, Editor Mathaus
Joseph Heimerl advertised the new orders of Banat’s governor, Count Clary
und Altringen, which referred to the regional economy and trade and which
enforced state control upon the exchange of goods and transportation. It was the
centralist model, of French origin, assimilated by the imperial administration.
In the third issue of the newspaper, published on the 2” of May, 1771,
Mathäus Joseph Heimerl published an article in which, after inserting some
news regarding the Austrian-Prussian relations, he expressed his perspectives
upon the political status of Romanian states, the unification tendencies of the
Tsarist Russian naval army, and Poland’s precarious political and economic
situation. Here are the journalist’s notes: “It seems that the Russians hope to
keep Moldavia and Wallachia under their domination. They seek to comprise
<the cameral works> (Cameralwesen) within a good constitution (gute
Verfassung) and in this regard field-marshal Ruminatsev summoned baron
Gartenberg from Warsaw”. “A fleet from Azov will act on the sea to try the
unification of Russia’s maritime power in the archipelago. Beside all these,
they still talk about peace”. “At the same time, Poland suffers mostly. And if
the war will continue, the country will be deprived of people and cattle”.
1 See Österreichischen Staatsarchiv. Finanz und Hofkammerarchiv, Wien, 1, Banater Akten,
Rote Nr. 73, Fasz. 1 (1770-1778), fol. 652-684 - Alteste Zeitung des Banat. See also Dr.
Joseph Wüst: Die Anfänge des Buchdruckes und des Pressewesens im Banat, Wien, 1954, 47;
Franz Liebhard: Banater Mosaik. Beiträge zur kulturgeschichte, Bukarest, Kriterion, 1976,
208.
? Temeswarer Nachrichten, 18‘ April, 1771, 652-653.
Diarium: one of the best known Austrian publications of the time.
* Temeswarer Nachrichten, 2‘ May, 1771, 657.
* 150 +