Nicolae Malaxa

 ( 1884 Births ) 

Malaxa joined the Romanian Railways Company as a constructions engineer. Pandrea implied that this went against procedure, and was the result of Malaxa having befriended Chairman Alexandru Cottescu. 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 Iași and managing a grape-selling business. In 1918–1919, he quit his job at the Company and started a new business dealing with rolling 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.Pandrea, pp. 65-66. Thus, Malaxa revitalized rail vehicles left into disrepair, which he sold back to the state at ten times the investment.Pandrea, p. 66. According to Time, Malaxa "parlayed a shoestring into a chain of arms factories and a partnership in Rumania's largest iron works"."New Order", in Time, February 10, 1940. By the end of the 1930s, the Malaxa factories were mass-producing , diesel locomotives, , rolling stock, steel piping, and were one of the biggest industrial groups in Balkans, 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 Creangă). Anca Vlada, "Nicolae Malaxa, un industriaș vizionar" ("Nicolae Malaxa, a Visionary Industrialist"), in Curierul Național, August 11, 2005. Owning much of Romania's steel industry through his strong presence in Reșița,Nicole Jordan, The Popular Front and Central Europe: The Dilemmas of French Impotence, 1918-1940, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992, p. 127, . he was chairman of the Ford Motor Company's Ford Romania, and arguably the richest man in Romania at the time."Malaxa Wins Permanent Home in U.S.", in The Washington Post, September 9, 1958.

Malaxa was close to the Authoritarianism King Carol II. Together with Aristide Blank and Max Auschnitt, he was one of the major businessmen present in the king's camarilla ( see National Renaissance Front);" "God Help Your Majesty" ", in Time, September 16, 1940.Veiga, p. 128. 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.Veiga, pp. 212-213. 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. 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).Pandrea, pp. 66-67.

Around 1939, Carol's son Michael was rumored to be in a relationship with Irina (Lulu) Malaxa (Nicolae's daughter)."Carol Lunches with Michael's Girlfriend, Pretty Commoner", in The Washington Post, July 1, 1939. Petre Pandrea also alleged that, soon after turning 17, the virgin Lulu had been raped by Carol on board his Luceafărul yacht — before her father decided to intervene, remove her from the circle of friends, and send her to study in Paris. (Two years later, she married George Emil Palade, the future Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine winner.) 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. He also claimed that Elena Lupescu was cheating on the king with his secretary Ernest Urdăreanu, who was also an important figure of the camarilla and who kept close contacts with the Malaxas.

Unlike most other large industries in the country, Malaxa's was not tied to United Kingdom, France or Czechoslovak interests. Instead, Nicolae Malaxa maintained business links with Nazi Germany as early as 1935. At a time when Nazi Germany was gaining more influence in Romania, Nicolae Malaxa collaborated with Hermann Göring in confiscating the assets of the Jewish Auschnitt (who had been arrested and prosecuted on false charges in September 1939),Veiga, pp. 267, 278. and subsequently placed his industrial empire in the service of the Reichswerke during World War II."Nazis Get Steel Works", in The New York Times, February 22, 1941.Veiga, p. 267.

Just after Carol fell from power in 1940, Malaxa was briefly imprisoned on charges that he had resorted to extortion in previous years. Probably sympathizing with Nazism ideology, he had financed the activities of all political parties, including the Romanian far right Iron Guard organization as early as the mid-1930s,Veiga, p. 222. and especially throughout the National Legionary State the latter established.Veiga, p. 306. 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)"Rumania Tries Arms Maker in Guard Revolt", in The Washington Post, January 29, 1941. — he was consequently put on trial by Ion Antonescu's government.

In February 1945, several months after the August 1944 coup d'état which toppled Antonescu, and following the start of Soviet occupation, his Bucharest factories were at the center of mysterious and violent events.R. J. Crampton, Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century, Routledge, London, 1994, p. 229, . At the time, independent Premier Nicolae Rădescu had come into conflict with the rising Romanian Communist Party, and his frequent speeches to his supporters were disrupted by organized workers. This occurred in Malaxa's plant, and the incident ended with shots being fired and several people killed. The Communist Party claimed that they had been targeted by the Army, acting on orders from Rădescu, despite the fact that bullets recovered from the bodies were not of the kind used by the military. Aggravated by another of Rădescu's addresses, in which he deemed Communists "foreigners without God or a nation", and under pressure from Andrey Vyshinsky (sent to Bucharest by Joseph Stalin to demand from King Michael the resignation of Rădescu), 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.

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. Malaxa and his son Constantin (1922–1999) had their Romanian citizenship revoked in by the Communist regime in 1948."Rumanians Lose Citizenship", in The New York Times, October 6, 1948. In May of that year, he met with the ousted Nicolae Rădescu, and financed him money to start issuing an Anti-communism magazine titled Luceafărul (of which philosopher Mircea Eliade was editor).Mircea Eliade, Autobiography, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1990, p. 126, .

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 a CIA report from January 1953 he was labelled a "financial shark," a "slippery fence rider, who plays both ends against the middle for personal reasons," and "the most perfidious man in Romania." In 1955, while Malaxa was visiting Argentina, the Immigration and Naturalization Service briefly revoked his reentry permit."Romania's 'Ford' Wins Conditional Reentry to U.S.", in The Washington Post, December 17, 1955. Both charges were again voiced by Democratic 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."Nixon Is Accused of Aid to Ex-Nazi", in The New York Times, October 7, 1962. A government investigation dismissed the accusations,"Nixon-Malaxa Link Denied by Attorney", in The New York Times, October 10, 1962. 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).Jack Anderson, "Nixon Helped Rich Nazi Stay in U.S.", in The Washington Post, November 16, 1979.

Suspicions regarding Malaxa's alleged communism, dismissed early in the era of McCarthyism by Rădescu,"Malaxa Record Cited", in The New York Times, November 1, 1952. 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.

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

• Malaxa produced a version of the French Renault Chenillette
• * Malaxa, the car developed at Malaxa's plant

• FAUR, the later name of Malaxa's rolling stock plant
• I.O.R., optics company co-founded by Malaxa

• Petre Pandrea, "Cronică valahă cu inginerul Malaxa" ("Wallachian Chronicle with Engineer Malaxa"), in Magazin Istoric, May 2002.
• Francisco Veiga, Istoria Gărzii de Fier, 1919-1941: Mistica ultranaționalismului ("History of the Iron Guard, 1919-1941: The Mistique of Ultra-Nationalism"), Bucharest, Humanitas, 1993 (Romanian-language version of the 1989 Spanish edition La mística del ultranacionalismo (Historia de la Guardia de Hierro) Rumania, 1919–1941, Bellaterra, Publicacions de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, ).