Nicolae Malaxa - cel mai prosper om de afaceri roman din toate

timpurile


Prin anii 30 ai secolului trecut, functiona la periferia Bucurestilor una dintre cele mari si mai prospere fabrici
de material rulant din Europa, Uzinele Malaxa.

Familia Malaxa se aciuise in Moldova la sfarsitul perioadei fanariote, prin anul 1818. Era o familie de aromani,
indeletniciti cu comertul, veniti din Grecia. Un urmas al celor veniti, Costache Malaxa, si sotia acstuia, Elena-
Ruxandra Balalau, fiica spatarului Balalau, au fost parintii viitorului om de afaceri Nicolae Malaxa.

Omul de afaceri a descoperit "nisa" de profil

Nascut la Husi, Nicolae Malaxa a urmat scoala primara si liceul din Iasi, dupa care parintii, dornici sa-si indrepte fiul
spre un viitor modern, l-au trimis, pentru studii, la Politehnica din Karlsruhe, in Germania.

Acolo, obtine diploma de inginer si isi incepe activitatea aprofundand domeniul elaborarii fontei. Concomitent, intra de
timpuriu in afaceri, un domeniu pentru care pare predestinat.

Imediat dupa Primul Razboi Mondial, Nicolae Malaxa sesizeaza ceea ce numim astazi o "nisa" de profil: productia de
material rulant, intr-o tara cu infrastructura incompleta si, mai ales, grav avariata in urma razboiului.

In acest context, el obtine un teren modest in apropierea capitalei, unde la 3 august 1921 infiinteaza un atelier pentru
fabricat material rulant, si pentru reparat locomotive si vagoane.

O colaborare perfecta si un cotracat de proportii

Baza initala a atelierului era mica turnatorie de fonta - domeniu in care se specializase - destinata comenzilor pentru
saboti de frana din partea cailor ferate. Era in perioada cand Romania nu producea fonta de calitate, iar comandarea
sabotilor in strainatate insemna adesea stagnarea transporturilor.

Atelierul Malaxa oferea primirea operativa a comenzilor si livrarea prompta a sabotilor, la un pret care merita
acceptat, pentru a nu bloca transporturile.

Caile ferate, scapate de obsesia importului greoi, au inteles ca Nicolae Malaxa este solutia pentru continuitatea
transporturilor, iar Malaxa intelesese demult ca nimic nu te face mai prosper in afaceri, decat asigurarea unui client
constant si platnic, cum este statul.

Colaborarea a fost perfecta, iar legatura pecetluita cu o reciproca incredere. Pe aceasta baza, obtine un teren in
apropierea garii Titan si construieste in perioada 1923-1927 o uzina de material rulant, cu linie de garare si incheie cu
CFR un contract nu numai pentru repararea, dar si pentru producerea unor locomotive de conceptie romaneasca.

In baza contractului, a primit un important avans din partea cailor ferate, dar si credite de la mai multe banci. A fost
suficient pentru ca sa-si utileze uzina cu 82 de masini-unelte cumparate din Germania, iar uzinele Malaxa sa devina
cea mai performanta fabrica de material rulant din Europa acelor timpuri.

Un om de afaceri prosper, in plina criza

In continuare, a angajat 180 de muncitori germani calificati, pentru a incepe lucrarile de fabricare a locomotivelor, dar
si pentru ca muncitorii germani sa-i instruiasca pe muncitorii romani, care urmau sa le ia locul.

In anul 1928, prima locomotiva cu aburi fabricata in Uzinele Malaxa era livrata cailor ferate, iar in anul 1931 a inceput
fabricarea automotoarelor cu tractiune Diesel - o raritate europeana la nivelul acelor vremuri.

In anul 1933, in plina criza europeana, uzinele Malaxa livrau loocomotiva nr. 100. Presa vremii arata ca locomotivele
din seria 151.001, de conceptie romaneasca, erau printre cele mai puternice din Europa si au cunoscut un succes
comercial rasunator la Targul International de la Milano din anul 1940.

Incepand din anul 1930, in Romania nu s-a mai importat nicio locomotiva, toate fiind fabricate la Uzinele Malaxa, sau
la cele din Resita.

Salariatul propriei sale uzine

Merita retinut si faptul ca industriasul Nicolae Malaxa nu a neglijat problemele sociale ale muncitorilor sai. Acestia
aveau printre cele mai bune salarii din Romania avand totodata asistenta sociala si medicala asigurata, echipamente
de lucru si masa la cantina.

Mintea iscoditoare a industriasului n-avea astampar. In 1945, a construit primul prototip al automobilului marca
"Malaxa", care poate ca ar fi avut, si el, o evolutie stralucitare, daca nu intervenea regimul comunist si nu se
prevedea deja confiscarea uzinelor.

Din motive greu de inteles, regimul comunist l-a tolerat pe Malaxa, chiar si dupa nationalizare. "Tovarasul Malaxa" a
devenit salariatul propriei sale uzine, unde a si functionat ca inginer pana in anul 1948, cand, facand parte dintr-o
delegatie comerciala trimisa la Viena, nu s-a mai intors in tara.

Nu lipsesc controversele

Este incontestabil ca succesul omului de afaceri se datoreaza talentului sau in domeniu, dar si cunostintelor
ingineresti. Totusi, asupra acestei glorii fara precedent la noi in tara, exista controverse.

Astfel, istoricul Ioan Scurtu sustine ca Nicolae Malaxa s-a imbogatit prin sprijinul masiv acordat de guvern sub forma
de credite si comenzi de stat.

Guvernul ii avansa capitalul, iar apoi ii cumpara productia solicitata, asigurand producatorului profituri substantiale.
Au fost ani cand 98% din productie era livrata catre stat, profiturile atingand rate intre 300% si 1.000%.

Se mai insinueaza ca afacerea era puternic sprijinita de regele Carol al II-lea, catre care s-ar fi intors discret o partre
din profituri. Mai mult decat atat, omul poliitic Constantin Argetoianu consemneaza in memoriile sale ca Nicolae
Malaxa "si-a constituit un fond de rulment al coruptiei".

Nimic din toate acestea nu poate fi probat cu certitudine, dar nici nu putem afirma ca exista omul de afaceri perfect,
ale carui succese nu se ascund in intunericul aranjamentelor.

A demonstrat ca romanii nu erau doar plugari si pastori

Dupa ramanerea la Viena, s-a refugiat in Statele Unite, unde, cerand cetatenie SUA, americanii au incercat sa
arunce asupra lui Malaxa stigmatul colaborationistului, care livrase material de razboi Germaniei si ii finantatse pe
legionari (ca si pe comunisti, de altfel).

Demersurile n-au avut succes, iar Nicolae Malaxa si-a dus traiul folosind rezervele banesti pregatite din timp in banci,
pana in anul 1965, cand moare la New Jersy (SUA).

Merita citate cuvintele cu care un fost colaborator al sau l-a caracterizat pe Nicolae Malaxa: "A fost omul si inginerul
care a avut cutezanta, priceperea si simtirea patriotica sa demonstreze lumii vocatia industriala a romanilor pe care
strainii ii considerau a fi numai plugari si pastori".

http://www.ziare.com/afaceri/stiri-afaceri/nicolae-malaxa-cel-mai-prosper-om-de-afaceri-roman-din-
toate-timpurile-1070385

Biography[edit]
Born in a family of Greek origins in Hui, Malaxa studied engineering in Iai (at the University of Iai)
and Karlsruhe (at the Polytechnic University). Late in his life, Petre Pandrea, a Romanian intellectual
who was for long a member of the Communist Party and later became a victim of the Communist
regime, wrote a memoir which, in part, dealt with Malaxa's biography, recording it with a dose of
hostility. In it, he indicated that Malaxa's father died a young man, and that Nicolae was kept in
university with money earned by his mother and sister.
[1]
Pandrea, who called Malaxa "a mama's
boy" and argued that this had shaped his character, also noted that, after graduation and contrary to
his family's wishes, the engineer married a divorce (who had been married to one of his early
business partners).
[1]
In time, he claimed, tensions grew between the two Malaxas, after the
"Puritan" Nicolae came to resent his "frivolous" wife.
[2]

Malaxa joined the Romanian Railways Company as a constructions engineer.
[1]
Petre Pandrea
implied that this went against procedure, and was the result of Nicolae Malaxa having befriended
Chairman Alexandru Cottescu.
[1]
The same source indicated that Malaxa continued to engage in
business ventures, and that, upon the end of World War I and the Romanian Campaign, he was
living in Iai and managing a grape-selling business.
[1]
In 1918-1919, he quit his job at the Company
and started a new business dealing withrolling stock maintenance the venture was instantly
successful, a fact which Pandrea attributed to the infrastructure's decay under the previous
occupation by the Central Powers.
[3]
Thus, Malaxa revitalized rail vehicles left into disrepair, which
he sold back to the state at ten times the investment.
[4]

According to Time, Malaxa "parlayed a shoestring into a chain of arms factories and a partnership in
Rumania's largest iron works".
[5]
By the end of the 1930s, the Malaxa factories were mass-
producing steam locomotives, diesel locomotives, trainsets, rolling stock, steel pipes, and were one
of the biggest industrial groups in Southeastern Europe, and the main provider of equipment for the
Romanian Railways during the period. In several of his locomotive designs, Malaxa used innovative
solutions (in locomotive design those developed in by George Constantinescu on the basis of
his theory of sonics; in factory design in collaboration with Horia Creang).
[6]
Owning much of
Romania's steel industry through his strong presence in Reia,
[7]
he was chairman of the Ford Motor
Company's Romanian section, and arguably the richest man in Romania at the time.
[8]

Malaxa was close to the authoritarian King Carol II. Together with Aristide Blank and Max Auschnitt,
he was one of the major businessmen present in the king's camarilla (seeNational Renaissance
Front);
[5][9][10][11]
such political connections also implied that his success was partly ensured by
preferential deals agreed with the state, and in some cases by the placement of inferior products on
a captive market.
[12]
According to Pandrea, Malaxa had made a habit of manipulating state officials
into granting him preferential credits, which explained his interest in supporting Carol's
moves.
[4]
Reportedly, Malaxa and his wife were especially close to the king's mistress, Elena
Lupescu, and even became related through marriage (after Lupescu's nephew, an engineer, married
the niece of Malaxa's wife).
[10]

Around 1939, Carol's son Michael was rumored to be in a relationship with Lulu Malaxa (Nicolae's
daughter).
[9][13]
Petre Pandrea also alleged that, soon after turning 17, the virgin Lulu had been raped
by Carol on board his Luceafrul yacht before her father decided to intervene, remove her from
the circle of friends, and send her to study in Paris.
[10]
Pandrea also claimed that this was the origin of
the notorious conflict between the engineer and Auschnitt, alleging that the latter's wife, was Carol's
third mistress and resented Lulu's apparent success.
[4]
He also claimed that Elena Lupescu was
cheating on the king with his secretary Ernest Urdreanu, who was also an important figure of
the camarillaand who kept close contacts with the Malaxas.
[4]

Unlike most other large industries in the country, Malaxa's was not tied
to British, French or Czechoslovak interests.
[7]
Instead, Nicolae Malaxa maintained business links
with Nazi Germany as early as 1935.
[7]
At a time when Nazi Germany was gaining more influence in
Romania, Nicolae Malaxa collaborated with Hermann Gring in confiscating the assets of
the Jewish Auschnitt (who had been arrested and prosecuted on false charges in September
1939),
[14]
and subsequently placed his industrial empire in the service of
theReichswerke during World War II.
[8][15][16]

Just after Carol fell from power in 1940, Malaxa was briefly imprisoned on charges that he had
resorted to extortion in previous years.
[9]
Probably sympathizing with Nazi ideology, he had financed
the activities of the Romanian far right Iron Guard organization as early as the mid-1930s,
[5][17]
and
especially throughout the National Legionary State the latter established.
[18]
During the Rebellion and
Pogrom it provoked in January 1941, the Guard made use of arms manufactured by Malaxa, as well
of his house (turned into a citadel and attacked by the Romanian Army)
[5][19]
he was consequently
put on trial by Ion Antonescu's government.
[19]

In February 1945, several months after the King Michael Coup which toppled Antonescu, and
following the start of Soviet occupation, his Bucharest factories were at the center of mysterious and
violent events.
[20]
At the time, independent Premier Nicolae Rdescu had come into conflict with the
rising Romanian Communist Party, and his frequent speeches to his supporters were disrupted by
organized workers.
[20]
This occurred in Malaxa's plant, and the incident ended with shots being fired
and several people killed.
[20]
The Communist Party claimed that they had been targeted by the Army,
acting on orders from Rdescu, despite the fact that bullets recovered from the bodies were not of
the kind used by the military.
[20]
Aggravated by another of Rdescu's addresses, in which he deemed
Communists "foreigners without God or a nation", the crisis ended with the appointment of a new
cabinet endorsed by the Communist Party and the Soviet Union and presided by Ploughmen's
Front leader Petru Groza.
[20]

Malaxa used his opportunity to flee after being sent on an economic mission by King Michael, and
settled in New York City, where his family joined him after being expelled by the Groza
government.
[8]
Malaxa and his son Constantin (19221999) had their Romanian citizenship revoked
in by the Communist regime in 1948.
[21]
In May of that year, he met with the ousted Nicolae
Rdescu, and financed him money to start issuing an anti-communist magazine titled Luceafrul (of
which philosopher Mircea Eliade was editor).
[22]

Alongside accusations involving his endorsement of the Iron Guard, it was alleged that he had been
collaborating with the Romanian Communist Party during his last years in Romania. In 1955, while
Malaxa was visiting Argentina, the Immigration and Naturalization Service briefly revoked his reentry
permit.
[23]
Both charges were again voiced byDemocratic Party politicians during Richard
Nixon's 1962 electoral campaign for Governor in California, after focus was placed on the friendship
and business connections between Nixon and Malaxa.
[24]
A government investigation dismissed the
accusations,
[25]
but, in 1979, his pro-Nazi past was again investigated by The Washington
Post (which claimed that high-ranking American officials close to Malaxa had been involved in a
cover-up).
[26]

Suspicions regarding Malaxa's alleged communism, dismissed early in the era of McCarthyism by
Rdescu,
[27]
were investigated in 1958 by the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on
Immigration, and centered on rich gifts he had sent to Communist leaders such as Ana Pauker
Malaxa defended himself by arguing that these had been sent in order to ensure his family's safe
passage into America.
[8]

Having apparently never applied for American citizenship,
[25]
Malaxa died at his residence in New
Jersey.
[8]

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