Between Abstinence and Prohibition: Actions for Combating Alcoholism in Transylvania during World War I
Between Abstinence and Prohibition: Actions for Combating Alcoholism in Transylvania during World War I

Summary/Abstract: Over time, World War I has prompted the interest of many specialists. In our presentation we will focus on a lesser known reality of this period, namely the anti-alcohol movement in Transylvania during the Great War. The sources we used for this research were archive materials, the press of the time, of a secular and ecclesiastical nature, and memoirs. Alcoholism as well as the anti-alcohol movement behind the front line were not in any extent “isolated” realities specific to the Southeast European area, but were part of serious legislative actions and changes that, by the end of the war, occurred all over the world. After 1918, at international level, attempts were made to control and regulate the drug and alcohol commodity markets, which before 1914 had been largely unregulated. For many states, the war itself was a triggering factor in intensifying such internal regulatory processes regarding alcohol use. Making a comparative presentation will help us understand the whole mechanism, especially since such measures had been previously undertaken in Western Europe. We will then analyze the situation of alcohol use in Transylvania during the war, as well as the actions undertaken by the Romanian ecclesiastical and civil authorities regarding the thorny issue of alcohol consumption behind the front line. We will emphasize the changes that took place in Romanian society during the war, and explore in depth whether they had the expected effect or, on the contrary, whether they intensified alcohol abuse.

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