10 Facts About Viorel Tilea

Viorel Tilea studied at the Hermannstadter Evangelisches Obergymnasium in Sibiu, before joining the University of Bratislava.

Viorel Tilea completed his studies at the University of Vienna.

Viorel Tilea published two works, entitled Rolul diplomatiei in politica de stat and Actiunea diplomatica a Romaniei, eventually translated into German, Hungarian, Croatian, and Bulgarian.

Viorel Tilea served as Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Envoy of Romania to London between 1938 and 1940.

Viorel Tilea was the first to work in 1 Belgrave Square at the Romanian Embassy, the current home of the Romanian Cultural Institute.

In mid-March 1939, Viorel Tilea falsely reported to the British government that his country was under the verge of an immediate German attack, which led to a U-turn on British policy of resisting commitments of Eastern Europe, as part of the government's European policy, which became known as the "Romanian war scare".

Whether Viorel Tilea was deliberately exaggerating the German threat to Romania as a way of gaining British support against the German demands to surrender the control of their oil industry, as claimed by the British historian DC Watt, or if the Romanians genuinely believed that they were about to be invaded by Germany in March 1939, as claimed by the American historian Gerhard Weinberg, is still unclear.

The British did not support that and so Viorel Tilea would spend the war in planning the liberation of Romania by external means with the Allies.

Viorel Tilea played a role in assisting the efforts that the British government made to support monarchists in Romania.

Viorel Tilea had three daughters, Ileana Troiano, Ioana Ellerington, and Stanca Lipton, and a son, Scotus Tilea, from his first marriage and a son, Ioni Tilea, and daughter, Anca Tilea, from his second marriage.