Earthquake 1940 Nov. 11th in Bucharest

On early morning of November 11th of the year 1940 there was a very heavy earthquake in Bucharest. This earthquake was lived and experiencend by the soldiers of an army unit in Gaesti.

- What is known about this earthquake?
- Where is Gaesti exactly? Is it a part of Bucharest or is it in the outerskirts?
- Which army unit was in the night from November 10th to November 11th 1940 stationed in Bucharest?

Thanks in advance.

Gaesti is a small town located to the Northwest of Bucharest, some 60 km on the road to Pitesti.

The earthquake happened at 3.39 on November 10 1940. It was the most powerful in the recent history of Romania, with an intensity of 7.7 on the Richter scale.

Many recently-completed buildings collapsed in Bucharest, because of the faulty way in which they were built.


Iron Guard members during rescue operations at the collapsed "Carlton" building in Bucharest (from www.miscarea.com)

The same site has an interesting movie clip with the aftermath.

This post has been edited by dragos03 on November 15, 2005 08:30 pm

If it is so, it should be possible to find out what kind of units must have been stationed there. Was that a place where the basic/the beginning training/ the instruction for soldiers took place?

In the book I read it I found also the information of November 10th 1940, but in the (handwritten)comment of an eyewitness (a soldier in Gaesti then) there was written on the side of the text "it was already early morning of November 11th".

It really must have been a terrible event. The book I´m refering to shows pictures of buildings of Bucharest (also the Carlton Hotel, but from the outside) before and after the earthquake and it really looks like the aftermath of the hurricane Katherina.

Unfortunatelly I cannot tell the title because the book is not complete, but it contains a lot of pictures of Bucharest in the years 1940 and 1941.

The photo you include is very impressionating. What was the Iron Guard (police, militars? legionars¿...?)

It´s a pity that I couldn´t load the film of the earthquake.

Greetings

I have a film from that period with the earthquake it has 1:49 minutes.

Garda de Fier was one of the names of a Romanian extremist right wing, totalitarian-type party/movement, also generically used for its paramilitary structures. It was also known, along the time, as Legiunea Arhangelului Mihail, Miscarea Legionara, Partidul Totul Pentru Tara or simply Legiunea. The party developed links with the Italian fascists and with the German NSDAP and introduced the political assassinates as accepted instruments in the Romanian politics.

The ideea if "Garda de fier" to "help" was a very stupid one;
The Carlton building ,had a cinema in the basement ,hundreds of people were trapped inside,but were alive.They even had a phone who worked and abled them to have a contact with the outside.Water pipes were broken,and they had also some water.
German inginers,came and wanted to dig a tunnel from the street,till the basement.
The Iron guard did not agree and started with a human chain,lifting block after block.
It took them two weeks...
You can imagine that no one survived more then a few days.
They somehow made a propaganda in their favor with this subject.

@ Claudiu:

QUOTE]I have a film from that period with the earthquake it has 1:49 minutes. [/QUOTE]

Would it be possible to send it by e-mail?


@ Agarici @ C-2:

thanks for the explanation about the Iron Guard.

Didn´t Romania have "normal" policemen or "normal" soldiers at that time who could help in case of a natural catastrophe?

Greetings

Of course there were..
But the most "famous" building that fell during the earthquake was the Carlton.
The cinema was one of the biggest in Rom.
To help the trapped people get out from under the ruins could be like an "infusion" to the iron guard.
Only that they didn't had the brain to do it right,and caused the death of many people.
Do not forget that they were a paramilitary movement and they came to the Carlton in large number.No one wanted to mess with them...

From what my father told that was the cause of the collapse. To build a big cinema you need a big space, and the building was not initially designed without the space for the cinema so they cut some “unimportant” resistance columns at the base. And so they sealed the destiny of the building.

Like everybody seems to be doing these days. Crazy people.

I registered just to clarify some things regarding the Carlton Building.

The cause of collapsing was not the Cinema. The Carlton was shaped like a big L and had a tower in the corner. The Cinema was located in the back of the tower, between the two flanks. There was nothing above the Cinema.

The Carlton Building was financed by the apartment prices paied in advance by future owners. Some owners didn't liked that some pillars somehow distorted the apartments design and wanted those pillars removed. The pillars was not removed but moved from their original places. Also, from an estetic reason, the pillars had different shapes (and also resistence) at various levels. This was the main reason why the building collapsed.

The pillars was also smaller than they should have been. They weren't build in conformity with the blueprints.

Also, the building had 2 basements. This way, the foundation was too close to the water table from the ground. Because of this the fundation shifted in time. The foundation of the pillars from a flank was shifted with more than 20 cm. This was another reason why the building has collapsed.

In 22 october 1940 there was the first earthquake, precursor of the disaster that took place on november 9. The 22 october earthquake was felt in Bucharest with a 7 Mercalli intensity. This earthquake created cracks and fractures of the Carlton's pillars, but nobody cared.

Romeo Muresanu, a lawyer, tryed february 1940 to get a loan from Creditul Funciar Urban Bucuresti, granting with his apartment that he owned in the Carlton Building. Two architects, Tiganisteanu and Simionesc was sent by Creditul Funciar Urban Bucuresti to evaluate the appartment. They constated cracks in the walls between the concrete and the masonry walls. Also there was cracks in the pillars, from the apartment level trough mezanin and until the first floor. The architects didn't gave their approval.

Romeo Muresanu requested another evaluation and Creditul Funciar Urban Bucuresti sent architect Constantin Pomponiu to the apartment. He confirmed the existence of cracks and ruptures in the pillars. Creditul Funciar Urban Bucuresti refused to offer the loan.

Carlton was the only building in Bucharest that had so many distructions in only three years since it's construction, and this was before the earthquakes.

After Carlton collapsed, there was a trial regarding this event.

Was convicted (between 3 months and 2 years jail):

Carol and Leopold Shindl, the owners of the construction company
Franz Schussler, chief engineer, responsable with concrete preparation
Oscar Schneider, chief engineer of the construction site
Teodor Achim, engineer, supervisor
Otto Schattenberg, administrator
Gheorghe N. Cantacuzino, architect

Very interseting!!!!

Slightly off topic:

Looking at some of the construction techniques in practise in Romania today God help Romania if a big earthquake was to hit again, for sure one place I would not want to be is Bucharest.

Kevin in Deva.

True indeed!