Forgotten tales of Germany and Ukraine’s past

Illustration by Andrzej Zaręba

Their contribution to Ukraine’s urbanisation, science, architecture and technological development was indeed impressive. One of the most famous symbols of these achievements is the oldest monument in Kyiv, which stands by the Dnieper River. It commemorates the 1492 granting of the city rights under German Magdeburg Law. The monument is the only one of its kind in the world.

Dynastic ties

Early contacts between Germany and Kievan Rus’ date back to the second half of the 10th century. At that time Poland was emerging as a new state while the other two were already key powers on the European continent. In 962 when the Kingdom of Germany became the core of the Holy Roman Empire, Kievan Rus’, in the East, was already one of the largest and most populous European states. It wanted to serve as a balancing intermediary between the Byzantine and German empires. Illustrative of that argument is the fact that, in 959, the regent of Kyiv, Olga, who had been Christianised in Constantinople two years prior, sent delegates to Germany with a mission to establish the first diocese in Rus’.

Answering her request, Otto the Great sent Father Adalbert, a bishop from Magdeburg and future saint, to Kyiv. However his mission failed, mainly due to the opposition to Christianity by Olga’s son, Sviatoslav I – the Grand Prince of Kyiv. In the 11th century, relations between Germany and Rus’ intensified. This was due to Poland’s destabilisation. As chronicled, the German-Rus’ alliance played a key role in taking down the pagan uprising in Poland and thus hindered its collapse. Overall, this German-Rus’ involvement in Polish affairs was a result of the dynastic ties that yoked the two states and Poland together. It was the Grand Prince of Rus’, Yaroslav the Wise, who supported his brother-in-law, the Polish Duke Casimir I the Restorer, who, in turn, was the great grandson of the German emperor – Otto II. What is more, Casimir’s sister, Gertruda, married Yaroslav’s oldest son, who was a grand duke of Rus’. Throughout her life Gertruda spent many years in all three states: Poland, Rus’ and Germany. In Poland, she is actually known, first and foremost, for her literary writings and contributions which became the part (a codex of prayers) of a beautifully illuminated manuscript called Egbert Psalter. The codex includes Latin prayers written by Gertruda as well as Bizantyne-Rus’ style miniatures. It is very likely that the duchess was educated in monasteries near Cologne where her mother, Richeza of Lotharingia, queen of Poland, lived. Richeza was the daughter of a German palatine and the granddaughter of Theophanu that is the Byzantine duchess and Empress Consort of the Holy Roman Empire. Therefore, it was no accident that both Richeza and Gertruda spoke Greek fluently. The dynastic relations between Germany and Rus’ continued for the years to follow, as evidenced by the granddaughter of Yaroslav the Wise marrying the German Emperor, Henry IV.

Eastwards from the Holy Roman Empire

Geographically speaking, Kievan Rus’ was located on the main Eurasian trade routes, including those linking the East with the West and one of the offshoots of the Silk Road linking Europe with China. Located on this route were such urban centres as the Bavarian city of Regensburg and Kyiv. On the Silk Road, trade was mainly within the domain of the Ashkenazi Jews who had migrated eastwards from the lands of the Holy Roman Empire. They spoke Yiddish – a language which, in many ways, was similar to German. Their role as traders can even be explained by their name – Ashkenazi. It derives from the ancient Iranian nomadic peoples – namely the Scythians, who lived in the Great Steppe.

First as merchants, the Ashkenazi Jews in the Middle Ages started to emigrate from Germany to Central and Eastern Europe. They settled both in Poland and Rus’. There they were joined by German settlers who, around the same time, also started to move eastwards. In the 13th century Halych, which was one of the largest towns in Rus’ and one that gave name to the whole region of Galicia, had a German quarter and a so-called German gate. The number of German settlers increased in Rus’ significantly during the mid-14th century after its lands were taken over by Poland and Lithuania who had established a union state together.

Following the arrival of German settlers, Magdeburg Law was introduced in Rus’ while in many urban areas the German population constituted a large part of the city residents for the next 200 years. This also explains why the first Polish-language documents of the Lviv City Council only date back to the mid-16th century. Clearly, Polish did not replace German as the official language straight away. With time, however, the majority of German city dwellers became Polonised, while others became Ukrainian. This assimilation of Germans living in Ukraine can be illustrated by the case of Innokenty Gizel, who for quite some time ran the Pechersk Lavra Monastery in Kyiv. Gizel was born in Prussia in 1600. He converted from Protestantism to Orthodoxy and was probably the author, or a co-author, of the Synopsis, a chronicle published in 1674 in the then-Russian Kyiv. The chronicle played a very important role in building the identity narrative unifying all Slavs, especially eastern Slavs, under one Russian leadership. Without this work, it would be hard to imagine, even today, the popular concept of Russkiy Mir (Russian world).  

Architecture and university

In the 18th century German artists played a key role in developing the Rococo style in Lviv. Among others, they were the architects of Greek and Roman Catholic churches, bringing architectural styles from Bavaria, Silesia and Austria to western Ukraine. The most prominent representatives of this school were Johann Georg Pinzel and Sebastian Fesinger. The latter was married to a Ukrainian woman born in Lviv.

Bernard Meretyn was also an important German architect whose works can be found in today’s Ukraine. He designed the famous Greek Catholic St George’s Cathedral in Lviv and the magnificent city council building in Buchach, which was commissioned by Nikolaus Basilius Potocki, a Polish magnate who lived with his Cossacks wearing their costumes and speaking mostly Ukrainian. Potocki was a legendary figure known for his cruelty, lechery and drunkenness, but he was also a patron of the arts. He died as a Greek Catholic monk in a gigantic Rococo-style monastery, which he funded, in Pochaiv located in Volhynia. The monastery was designed in its original version by a German architect named Gottfried Hoffmann.

The next wave of German migration to the territories of today’s Ukraine took place at the turn of the 19th century after the Russian conquest of the Crimean Khanate which had ruled over the Ukrainian steppes. As a result, Russia’s borders radically moved to the west while Eastern Galicia, together with Lviv, became part of the Habsburg Empire. Austria also took over Bukovina, which had earlier belonged to Moldavia. Today, the northern part of this historical area, with the capital in Chernivtsi, finds itself in Ukraine. For a few dozen years German was the official language (and the language of instruction) in both Habsburg Galicia and Bukovina. Gradually, Polish started to dominate in administration and education in Galicia. As a result of this shift, the majority of Germans who were Roman Catholic in Eastern Galicia, became Polonised. Some, however, became Ukrainian. Such was the case of the father of Ivan Franko – one of Ukraine’s most distinguished writers.

Despite the assimilation processes that had been underway, by the start of the 20th century German settlers constituted still over two per cent of the inhabitants of the area that makes up today’s Ukraine. After Ukrainian, Russian, Jewish and Polish settlers, they were the fifth largest ethnic group. Among larger cities, the one with the largest German population was Chernivtsi, where the German community was over 10 per cent. For comparison, Ukrainians made up around 20 per cent, Poles and Romanians around 15 per cent and Jews around 35 per cent.

In 1875 the university in Chernivtsi became the easternmost German-language university ever established. Among its lecturers were Joseph Alois Schumpeter, one of the most distinguished economists of the 20th century, and Eugen Ehrlich, who is known as the father of the sociology of law. Chernivtsi University also became an influential centre for Ukrainian language studies. It was there where Ukrainian grammar and phonetics were first examined. Chernivtsi is also a great example how German culture merged into Ukrainian society. It happened through the Ashkenazi Jews who made up close to 10 per cent of Ukraine’s population and were largely German speakers. Not surprisingly, Paul Celan, one the great German poets of the 20th century, came from a Jewish family that lived in Chernivtsi.

From Livonia to Ukraine

The German-speaking farmers who were settling in the Ukrainian steppe throughout tsarist Russia contributed to the transformation of the territories to the breadbasket of the Russian Empire. From there wheat, sugar and other agricultural products were sent on to European markets. The agricultural boom in southern Ukraine stimulated the development of the Black Sea harbour cities, such as Odesa (which at the time was the fourth largest city the Russian Empire). In addition to wealthy German peasants, German aristocrats from Livonia, who were the elite of the Russian Empire, were obtaining land in Ukraine and employing the local population. The great poet Taras Shevchenko, in his youth, worked on a large village farm owned by a Baltic German magnate, Paul Engelhardt (his family was one of the richest in Ukraine).

German settlers did not only migrate to villages, but also to the towns and cities of Russian Ukraine. By the end of the 19th century, they contributed to developing Kyiv’s architecture (as they did in a century earlier in Lviv). As early as the 18th century, a well-known German architect, named Gottfried Johann Schädel, had already lived in Kyiv. He designed, or rebuilt, the bells of the Pechersk Lavra and St Sophia’s Cathedral. His works also included the buildings of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy – the most important institution of education in the Russian Empire – and the Klovskiy Palace which, today, is the seat of the Supreme Court of Ukraine.

Georg Schleifer, in turn, designed the main Kyiv synagogue and the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theatre – the first stationary theatre in Kyiv. The Kyiv opera house, known for having the largest stage in the Russian Empire, was built by Victor Schröter, a Baltic German. It was in this building where Pyotr Stolypin, Russia’s prime minister at the time, was murdered in 1911. In 1898-1915 the post of Kyiv’s main architect was held by Eduard Ferdinand Bradtman who designed numerous buildings in the city, including the one that was transformed into the official residence of Ukraine’s president in 1991. In the 19th century, German residents also played an important role in Kyiv’s academic development. They were the rectors of Kyiv University. With one short break from 1847 to 1887, this position was held by Ernst Rudolf von Trautfetter, Nikolai Bunge and Nikolai Rennenkampf, respectively. Bunge later became Russia’s prime minister, while Rennenkampf would become Kyiv’s mayor. Moreover, Robert Pfenning was the first director of the Kyiv Music School. His compositions made clear references to Ukrainian culture. Today, the school is called the Kyiv Institute of Music and is named after Reinhold Glière, another famous composer of German descent. He was the school’s director between 1914 and 1920.

Mitteleuropa and Lebensraum

During the First World War, Berlin became the main supporter of Ukrainian independence. After Germany defeated Tsarist Russia in early 1918, the Ukrainian People’s Republic was established. It was the first modern nation state in the history of Ukraine. The new republic received international recognition mainly thanks to the support of Germany. The concept of Mitteleuropa assumed that, after the war, Ukraine would become Germany’s client-state – its economic hinterland, and a buffer zone separating across Eastern and Central Europe – to be transformed into a German sphere of influence. These plans failed as Germany won in the East, but lost in the West.

During the short period of Ukraine’s independence (1918-1920) Ukrainian Germans held important positions in public administration. Sergei Mering was the minister of trade and industry, Alexander Lignau was the minister of defence, while Rudolf Schteingel became the first Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany. During Ukraine’s autonomy from 1917 to 1918, Nikolai Porsch was its secretary of labour, and later military affairs.

Interestingly, Ukrainian Germans also held key positions on the Bolshevik side. In 1917-1918 Yevgenia Bosch, the daughter of a German colonist from Ochakiv, was minister of the interior in communist Ukraine. Bosch was also the acting head of the cabinet and is often regarded as the world’s first female prime minister. Germans from Eastern Galicia also took an active role, mainly on the Ukrainian side, in the fight against Poland. Ukrainian Germans were clearly over-represented in the ranks of the officers of the Ukrainian Galician Army, which was created by the West Ukrainian People’s Republic – a Ukrainian state that emerged from the ruins of the Habsburg Empire. Alfred Schamanek, a German from Lviv was twice the head of the Ukrainian Galician Army. For some time he was also its main commander.

In the interwar period, Germany became a key protector of the Ukrainian nationalist movement fighting for the establishment of independent Ukraine. However during the Second World War, after a period of co-operation, the majority of Ukrainian nationalists entered into conflict with Germany. This change took place largely due to the Nazi concept of Lebensraum, which had no role for an independent Ukraine. It was to become one of the Third Reich’s colonies – a gem in the crown of the German global empire. Georg Leibbrandt, who was the right hand of Alfred Rosenberg the head of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, was one of the main theorists of the idea of German expansion to the Ural mountains. Leibbrandt was born in a village of German colonists which is located on the Ukrainian steppe near Odesa. His idea of Ukraine’s colonisation at the hands of the “Germanic Aryan race” was based on his sense of superiority over the Slavs and his hatred towards Jews.

Memory

Ukraine’s key place in the Nazi criminal ideology explains why it paid such a high price during the Second World War. Today, the awareness of German responsibility for the Second World War, and the death of tens of millions of people, is the basis of Germany’s historical memory. In addition to the Holocaust of the Jews, it includes the remembrance of the genocide committed by the Nazis on Soviet civilians and soldiers on the Eastern front. However in the latter case, knowledge of the past is quite selective, as many Germans associate the Soviet Union with Russia and therefore all victims of Nazism in the East are perceived simply as Russians. Yet the truth is that during the Second World War, the death toll of ethnic Ukrainians, especially among civilians, was proportionally much higher than that of ethnic Russians. From all the Soviet republics, only Belarus suffered proportionally more during the war than Ukraine did.

Overall, it would indeed be beneficial if the knowledge about the abovementioned facts was greater in Germany. However, it would be equally desirable for Germans and Ukrainians to understand that the relations between the two nations have a long history and that Germans have made a significant contribution to the development of Ukraine and its ties with Western Europe.

Translated by Iwona Reichardt

Adam Balcer is head of the foreign policy programme at WiseEuropa, an independent Polish think tank. He also works as a national researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and is a lecturer at the Centre of East European Studies (SEW) at the University of Warsaw.

Germany, history, Ukraine