Professor Iosif Viehmann (1 September 1925 – 6 August 2016)

Abstract

IOSIF VIEHMANN (Pepi, for family and friends) came to this world the first of September 1925, as the son of Iosif Viehmann, violonist at the Romanian Opera in Cluj, and Elisabeta Mureșan.

In 1940, after the loss of a part of Transylvania by the Vienna Dictum, Iosif (16 years old) and his brother Eugen (11 years old) fled to Timișoara with their mother. Here, the young Iosif Viehmann graduated the National College “C. D. Loga” in 1944.

After returning to Cluj, Iosif enrolled in the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the “Victor Babeș” University and graduated in 1950 with a thesis on the genesis of stalagmites.

There is a Romanian saying: “The man blesses the place”. This is certainly true for Pepi, throughout his life. The university assistant position was refused to the newly licensed Iosif Viehmann, because of his declared sympathy for the Liberal Party and for the Americans, his monarchist feelings, and for having close relatives in Germany (his father and brother). Therefore, he ended as a highschool teacher in Năsăud (Pedagogical School, 1952-1956), where he succeeded to inspire his pupils the love for studying, for nature, culture, and... for caves. He founded, with their help, a Laboratory for Natural Sciences, organized school trips and spelelological explorations. In 1956, he was finally nominated scientific researcher at the “Emil Racoviță” Speleological Institute in Cluj, where he worked for the rest of his long and successfull career.