Aurel Cosma
Aurel Cosma (September 26, 1867 – July 31, 1931) was a Romanian lawyer and politician. A leader of the National Party in Timișoara before World War I, Cosma was a representative of the Banat in the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia that voted for the Union of Transylvania with Romania on 1 December 1918. Early life Aurel Cosma was born in the village Beregsău Mare in the family of the school teacher Damaschin (1844–1915) and Maria Panaiot. He went to the primary school in Topolovățu Mare. Later (in 1877) Cosma moved to a state school in the Fabric district of Timișoara where he was taught in Hungarian language, which was required in order for him to be able to attend a secondary school ("Gymnasium"). He graduated in 1888 from the in Timișoara. Afterwards he received an "Emanoil Gojdu" scholarship of 150 florins, enabling him to study Law at Debrecen. In 1890 Cosma was drafted in the army, graduating from the Artillery School in Sibiu after a year. In October 1891 he resumed his law studies at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, earning on 28 April 1894 his PhD degree in Law with the thesis "Death Penalty". Professional activity At his parents' insistence, Aurel Cosma returned to Timișoara and started his internship in the office of Pavel Rotariu and Emanuil Ungurianu. On 16 April 1894 he passed his bar examination, being admitted to the Lawyers' Chamber of Timișoara on 7 May 1894. On 7 February 1921 the Lawyer's Chamber decided to become a bar association, electing Aurel Cosma as its chairman. He practiced law for 35 years, also as the lawyer of the "Timişiana" Bank. Political activity Romanian national movement During his studies Aurel Cosma became a supporter of the Romanian national movement. He compiled a memoir for the rights of the Romanians in Transylvania and the Banat, contesting the immigrationist theories regarding the origins of the Romanians, and he had a major role in spreading the Eugen Brote's political manifesto Cestiunea română din Transilvania şi Ungaria ("The Romanian Question of Transylvania and Hungary"), which was published in the wake of the Transylvanian Memorandum. In 1902 he was elected chairman of the Romanian National Party in Timișoara. World War I, the Banat Republic and Union of the Banat with Romania During World War I he was conscripted and fought on the Eastern Front at Kraków, however as he reached 50 years of age (in 1917) he was appointed the commander of the Timișoara POW camp. On 31 October 1918, at a meeting of all Austrian-Hungarian officers in the Military Casino, in protest at the proclamation of the Banat Republic by Dr. Otto Roth (who was soon to be elected the Commissioner-in-Chief of the Republic), Cosma established the Romanian National Military Council, composed of commissioned officers only, declaring "We, the Romanians, cannot accept Mr. Otto Roth's proposal. The aspirations of our people urge us to follow a different path". Almost nine years later, Otto Roth recalled on 25 September 1927