Out of the leading figures that made the difference at the beginning of
\nthe 20th century in Romania, men – especially politicians and servicemen
\n– held pride of place. In recent years, however, researchers have started
\nfocusing on the activity of women with a remarkable contribution related to the
\nGreat Union of December 1st 1918 and the period between the two
\nwars. One such personality was Queen Marie, the wife of King Ferdinand, who was
\nRomania’s sovereign at the time of the Great Union of 1918. Here is Monica
\nNegru, from Romania’s National Archives with more on the personality of Queen
\nMarie. <\/p>\n
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In recent years there has been an increasing interest in the Royal
\nHouse of Romania and in the country’s former queens. Researchers have started
\nfocusing on the activity and involvement of Queen Marie in the field hospitals
\nduring World War I, where she gave encouragement and assistance to the wounded
\nsoldiers. They have also highlighted her concern for national ideals. However,
\nthe fact that Queen Marie’s activity started being brought to light by
\nhistorians and researchers doesn’t make up for the disregard of the activities
\nof other women who also proved an extraordinary spirit of sacrifice.<\/p>\n
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Marta Trancu-Rainer was one of Queen Marie’s closest collaborators in her
\nmedical and charity activity. Married to anthropologist and scholar Francisc
\nRainer, Marta was Romania’s first female surgeon, a domain, which just like law
\nand sciences, was strictly reserved to men at the end of the 19th century
\nand the beginning of the 20th century. <\/p>\n
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Here is art historian Oana Marinache with a brief biography of Marta Trancu-Rainer:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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She lived between 1875 and 1950 and was of Armenian descent. She was
\nborn in Targu Frumos and graduated from the Medical School in Iasi, where she
\nenrolled in 1893. She later got transferred to Bucharest to study pathological
\nanatomy, her dream also being to meet the famous bacteriologist Victor Babes.
\nIn Bucharest she met Francisc Rainer, the head of the pathological anatomy
\nsection of the Coltea Hospital whom she married in 1903. Marta later specialised
\nin surgery and gynaecology. Her name is mentioned in the Memoirs of Queen Marie
\nand of other royal female personalities as she would take care of the
\nprincesses and queens’ health. During World War I Marta Trancu-Rainer was a
\nmilitary doctor receiving even the rank of major and managed three military
\nhospitals. At Queen Marie’s request, she put in place a temporary field
\nhospital in the Royal Palace and another such hospital on the premises of the
\nSchool of Bridges and Highways in Bucharest.<\/p>\n
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In the book entitled Diary Pages,
\nphysician Trancu-Rainer talks about the mistrust and lack of consideration that
\nshe faced in hospitals when she started her career. The mistrust vanished as
\nsoon as she started proving herself during the war time and again. This is how
\nshe described the day of October 6, 1916, spent in Bucharest, which was already
\nmarked by the war that had been ongoing since that summer: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
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I kept doing surgery at the Coltea Hospital. I took a break at 16:20 to
\ngo to the Royal Palace hospital to see a patient who had his iliac bone
\nremoved. There was nothing to worry about. When I got back to the Coltea
\nHospital, surprise: there were lots of wound dressings lying around. I went to the
\nEforie hospital, then to the Royal Palace, where I removed a bullet from a
\npatient’s neck. I amputated a toe, then I performed an ankle arthrotomy. At 2
\np.m. I went home. Then I went again to the Palace, dressing wounds, operating.
\nI took a shell fragment out of someone’s leg; finally evening came.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Eventually, however, Marta Trancu-Rainer’s efforts and merits came to be
\nrecognised. In 1919, she was awarded the Queen Marie Order decoration, and in
\n1935 she became a member of the Academy of Medicine and the Biological Society.
\n<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Local historians begin to highlight contribution of women to the Great Union of December 1st 1918 and inter-war period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":169175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[45512,45513],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-169174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-marta-trancu-rainer","tag-romanian-surgeon"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n