The pain of the “German” Ukrainians

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In Chernivtsi in western Ukraine, many residents have a special relationship with Germany. The German government's hesitant attitude in the Ukraine war plunges them into deep conflicts.

Ukrainian refugees at the Romanian border

It's evening and the room is getting darker. But the governor doesn't turn on the lights. At some point his face can only be seen as a silhouette, illuminated by the sparse light of the computer screen.

A Skype conversation with Serhiy Osachuk, governor of the Chernivtsi region in south-western Ukraine, on a May evening. In the middle of the conversation, the sound of howling sirens can be heard from afar: bomb alert. It sounds everywhere in Ukraine when the air defense reports the approach of Russian missiles. Czernowitz (ukr.: Tschernivzi) has not yet experienced a hail of Russian bombs and rockets in the three months of the war against Ukraine. Nevertheless, many residents usually flee to cellars and shelters as a precaution.

Serhiy Osachuk, historian and governor of the western Ukrainian region Chernivtsi

That evening, Serhiy Osachuk is the only one in the region's administration building who is still sitting in his office. “Actually, I should be in the basement by now,” he says with a smile. “But if I'm going to be staying alone in the office, then I should at least not turn on the lights in the room,” he adds.

Germany has lost its reputation

Serhij Osatschuk, 49, speaks perfect and extremely well-chosen German, he has a slight Viennese accent. Before he became governor of the region in 2019, i.e. representative of the Kiev central government, he was Austrian honorary consul for several years. He has a doctorate in history and studied and researched in Germany and Austria for a long time. He is one of those Czernowitzers who, after the end of the Soviet Union, rediscovered the old Habsburg tradition of their hometown and the historical region of Bukovina in independent Ukraine: their multi-ethnicity, their legendary diversity and tolerance long before the term multiculturalism came up, their primarily German-speaking Yiddish -Jewish culture.

Street scene in Chernivtsi

Because of their connections to German-speaking countries, people from Chernivtsi like Osatschuk were long regarded as bridge builders, figureheads and model citizens of their city. That has changed since the start of the Russian war against Ukraine. Because of the German government's hesitant attitude towards providing military support to Ukraine, Germany has lost a lot of respect among the people in the country. It embodies – despite all the gratitude of Ukrainians for the great support of refugees – fear and cowardice of Russia. It embodies a hypocritical approach to declared values ​​and the lack of responsibility for them. And that puts the “German” Ukrainians in Chernivtsi in a special quandary.

They are sad and helpless about the attitude of the country, which is part of their lives and also their identity. Sometimes they are ashamed, sometimes they are bitter. Sometimes they come under pressure to explain because in the eyes of their fellow citizens they are seen as representatives of Germany or Austria.

Deep personal rift

For Serhij Osatschuk, Germany has been an inseparable part of his life since he was a student – even though it was always clear to him that he wanted to stay in his hometown of Chernivtsi. He studied history in Konstanz and Munich, did research there for his doctorate, and made friends that have lasted to this day. His wife and two sons also speak German very well, and the family is regularly in Germany and Austria. In addition to his work as a historian, Osatschuk worked for a long time as an interpreter at the University of Czernowitz, advised business associations and the Czernowitz city tour on questions of cooperation with Germany, and was Austrian honorary consul for five years.

The building of the University of Chernivtsi

When he talks about all of this, you can feel what Germany has meant to him up until now: it was a role model, a place of longing and a compass for a European Ukraine. However, since the beginning of the war, this feeling has cracked. You can guess how deep it is when you ask whether it pains you that the government of the country that has shaped your personal identity so much is now only hesitantly supporting your home country Ukraine. Osachuk lowers his eyes at the question, he has to hold back tears.

Like the false priests in the church

After a long pause he says: “The whole understanding of Putin in Germany hasn't helped. The solution can only be a Europe free of Putin. But many German politicians are like the false priests in the church, preaching water and drinking wine. You can adorn themselves with words about European values, but in reality they live according to the principle of joining forces with the strongest, and in this case that is Putin. But we are human beings. We want to live. We have a right to it, not bombed, to be destroyed and massacred.”

Chernowitz Germanist Oksana Matijtschuk, here inviting donations for Ukraine in Romania

Oksana Matijtschuk, 45, a Germanist and literary scholar from Chernivtsi, who also studied and researched in Germany for a long time and now heads the Ukrainian-German cultural society in Chernivtsi at the university in her hometown, feels very similarly. “I now have a divided relationship with Germany,” she told DW. “On the one hand there is a lot of help from civil society, on the other hand the attitude of the German government is a great disappointment. I think in Germany there is the problem of a misunderstood historical responsibility. Perhaps, and this is a bad suspicion, but business is simply more important than human life.”

In her circle of friends and acquaintances, she does not come under any pressure to explain, says Oksana Matijtschuk. “But acquaintances have already told me sarcastically that if I already had so many personal connections to Germany, I should explain our situation to all the people there.”

Reproachful questions

Mykola Kuschnir, 48, historian and director of the Jewish Museum in Chernivtsi fares differently. He was also in Germany for study and research stays in the 1990s and had to listen to many reproachful questions since the beginning of the war. “My friends and acquaintances know that I have a special love for Germany and the German language,” Kuschnir told DW. “Some are now asking me how I can still keep in touch with my German friends and colleagues. Or they say: Do you see how 'your' Germans are behaving?!”

Mykola Kuschnir, historian and head of the Chernivtsi Jewish Museum

Kuschnir says that he himself is sad about the hesitant attitude of German politicians on the issue of military support for Ukraine, although he knows the background to the complicated German sensitivities. “But many people in the Ukraine don't understand that, and they ask me very simple questions: Why do you still have friends in Germany? Or: Why don't you break off contact? That makes my life difficult sometimes at the moment.”

The worthy helpers

It's pitch black in Serhiy Osachuk's office. The governor's face can only be seen dimly on the PC screen. The bomb alert has not yet been lifted this evening, perhaps it will last all night.

Note on an air-raid shelter at the entrance gate of the University of Chernivtsi

It's time for Serhij Osatschuk to finally visit the air-raid shelter. At the end of the conversation he says something that almost makes you blush. “We receive a lot of support from other states, not only from countries like the USA or Great Britain, but also from smaller states like the Baltic States or Romania. One day they will all be able to stand next to us with dignity and say: We helped you, our full freedom to defend our European home. But strong Germany will not be there. It will stand without dignity because it hid and was afraid to help us.”