Reading from the ‘Ukrainian Diary’ by Oxana Matiychuk

On Saturday, 22 February 2025 at 3 pm, the artists' collective Vierwärts is organising a reading from the “Ukrainian Diary” by our project partner from the University of Czernowitz, Oxana Matiychuk, in the reading room of the Münster City Library.

The artists' collective Vierwärts was founded spontaneously after the Russian attack on Ukraine on 22 February 2022 in order to send a message of solidarity and hope through cultural means. Last year and the year before, it organised art projects in front of the Fürstenberghaus on the anniversary of the full-scale attack.

The artists' collective and the Association for Ukrainian Language and Culture in Münster collect leftover candles for the “1,000 Lights for Ukraine” campaign. These are melted by the association's candle-moulders and turned into tinned candles. This brings light and warmth to Ukraine.
A collection basket from the initiative is located in the foyer of the city library on Alter Steinweg and is emptied regularly. Collection period 13 January to 15 February.

Ukraine on its way to itself and to Europe. From perestroika to the present day

Guest Lecture

Professor Dr Klaus Gestwa (Tübingen):

Ukraine on its way to itself and to Europe. From perestroika to the present day

14.01.2025, 10 c.t. (10-12 h)

Schloss, Senate Hall (Room No. 102)

Klaus Gestwa is Professor of Eastern European History and Director of the Institute for Eastern European History and Regional Studies at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. He has repeatedly addressed the general public with numerous contributions (interviews, videos, magazine articles and lectures) on the background, course and consequences of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in order to provide equally vehement and well-founded information and to identify false claims and narratives of Russian propaganda circulating in German debates. He was awarded the 2024 Prize for Science Communication by the University of Tübingen. The jury praised the tireless commitment with which he has used his extensive knowledge of the history, society and politics of Eastern Europe in recent years to educate the German public about the causes of the Russian war of aggression against the neighbouring country and to counter widespread assumptions and misconceptions. In doing so, he has shown courage and has not avoided public controversy and hostility.

In his contribution, Klaus Gestwa focusses on the recent history of Ukraine. By interweaving contemporary history and current events, he presents a problematic history of the present. The guest lecture is part of a General Studies seminar led by Elena Glökler (Institute for Slavic Studies at the University of Münster). It is aimed at students of all departments and an interested public! 
You can download the poster for the event here. 

Online webinar: "The Role of Religion in post-Soviet Ukraine and the Russo-Ukrainian War"

On Thursday, 12 December, a webinar on ‘The Role of Religion in post-Soviet Ukraine and the Russo-Ukrainian War’ will take place in English from 18:00 - 19:30. Regina Elsner (USiM, University of Münster), Oleksandr Lysenko (Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev) and Frank Sysyn (University of Alberta) will discuss the consequences of Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine for the Orthodox churches in Ukraine, the state-church relationship in Ukraine and the current disagreements between the Orthodox churches under the direction of Ricarda Vulpius (USiM, University of Münster).

Further information can be found on the website of the German-Ukrainian Historical Commission. 
You can download the notice of the webinar in either English or Ukrainian.

Registration for the webinar is possible here.

Exhibition: ‘From afar to my Ukraine’. Letters of the forced labourer Hanna Pastuch from Gelsenkirchen 1942-43 , 21.11.-14.12.24

In cooperation with the Ukrainian NGO Після тиші / After Silence, the Department of Eastern European History and Ukrainian Studies in Münster (USiM) is showing the exhibition ‘From afar to my Ukraine’, letters of the forced labourer Hanna Pastuch from Gelsenkirchen 1942-43 on the history of Nazi forced labour using the example of the fate and first-person documents of Hanna Pastuch, a Ukrainian ‘Eastern worker’ in Gelsenkirchen.
With this exhibition, which was conceived by After Silence in Gelsenkirchen and brought to Münster by Dr Kateryna Kobchenko, a postdoctoral researcher in our department, we would like to commemorate the fate of Ukrainian forced labourers in Germany. Far too rarely are these fates recognised from the subject's perspective, which is often not least due to the language barrier. This exhibition has now been conceived in German and Ukrainian.
We cordially invite you to the opening ceremony on 21 November 2024 at 6 pm in the Studiobühne of the university (Domplatz 23)! The one-and-a-half-hour event will be led by Dr Kateryna Kobchenko and Daria Reznyk, M.A., part of Після тиші / After Silence and associated researcher at the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) in Leipzig.
The exhibition will also be on display in the foyer of the Philosophikum (Domplatz 23) from 22 November to 14 December.
The creation of the exhibition and its transport to Münster was financed by Після тиші / After Silence with the support of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.

Talk with the Holocaust survivor Dr Boris Zabarko (Kyjiv)

On the evening of 30 October 2024, the Ukrainian historian, recipient of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and Holocaust survivor Dr Boris Zabarko spoke at St Paul's Cathedral in Münster. 
After a welcoming address by the University of Münster's representative against anti-Semitism, Ludger Hiepel, and a presentation by Prof. Dr Dr h.c. Hubert Wolf on the Jewish letters of petition that reached Pope Pius XII and the blatant failure of the Holy See to intervene despite internal church sources on the persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe, the audience was welcomed Dr Zabarko. He first greeted his large audience in German. In his address, he called for further support for the Ukraine in its struggle against the russian aggerssion, but also found warm words of thanks for the help already given and emphasised that, unlike the Jews during the Shoah, the Ukraine did not stand alone, but had strong allies at its side. He continued his report in Ukrainian, which was simultaneously translated into German. He told of his childhood in a Transnist village, a Jewish Shtetl, that was surrounded by the Wehrmacht and became a wall-less ghetto for the Transnist and Romanian Jews. He told of those who could no longer find room in the overcrowded houses and who had to freeze to death on the streets in winter, but also of how his family was spared because the Wehrmacht commander had chosen his family's house as his residence. In particular, he emphasised the violent murders of children by the German troops. However, most of the deaths were caused by an outbreak of typhus in the village. 
The energy and willingness to tell his story to as many people as possible was palpable at every point in his talk.

Lecture and discussion on the situation at Münster's partner university in Ukraine

10 July 2024, 18h, BB 401

Research, teaching, voluntary service. The situation at Münster's partner university in Chernivtsi.

Lecture and discussion evening with Dr Oxana Matiychuk (Yuriy Fedkovyč University of Chernivtsi), moderated by Prof Dr Irina Wutsdorff

The University of Münster has maintained a partnership with the Jurij-Fedkovyč University of Černivci since 2023, with Dr Oxana Matiychuk playing a key role in its conclusion. She may be known to many as the author of a diary that she has published at irregular intervals in the Süddeutsche Zeitung since the beginning of the full-scale Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.  Since February 2022, she has been a member of the volunteer staff at Černivci University and is committed to the internally displaced persons and frontline issues. She was and is also head of the ‘Ukrainian-German Cultural Society Chernivtsi’, which is based at the university's ‘Gedankendach’ centre and is dedicated to preserving the heritage of German-language and Jewish literature and culture in Bukovina and Chernivtsi. She is also co-editor of the Handbook of Literature from Chernivtsi and Bukovina, which will be published by Metzler Verlag in December 2023.

Dr Matiychuk will report on the current situation at the university between research, teaching and voluntary service and will talk to lrina Wutsdorff about the perspectives of Ukrainian Studies and the study of the German-speaking and Jewish heritage of Bukovina.

The Vice-Rector for International Affairs, Transfer and Sustainability, Prof Dr Michael Quante, will open the evening with a welcoming address.

An event organised by the USiM network (‘Ukrainian Studies in Münster’), the Cluster of Excellence ‘Religion and Politics’, the Institute for Jewish Studies and the Institute for Slavic Studies at the University of Münster

Author reading ‘Liberation War. Nation building and violence in Ukraine’ with Anna Veronika Wendland, 18.06.24

On 18 June 2024, the DGO Münster branch and the Network Ukrainian Studies in Münster (USiM) cordially invite you to a reading in the Studiobühne. Historian Anna Veronika Wendland, who works at the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe, will read from her latest book ‘Befreiungskrieg. Nation building and violence in Ukraine’. Afterwards, guests will have the opportunity to ask questions in a panel discussion.

‘Liberation War’ is one of a limited list of German-language overviews of Ukrainian history. The thesis that wars of liberation are a common thread running through Ukrainian history invites discussion.

18 June 2024, 7.00 pm

Studio stage in the Philosophikum, Domplatz 23 (entrance to the Siegelkammer)

Moderation: Prof. Dr Ricarda Vulpius

War of Liberation at Campus Verlag

Lecture and panel discussion: ‘Ukraine and Europe. Prospects for EU accession’, 24.02.24

On 24 February 2024, the second anniversary of the Russian invasion, USiM is hosting a panel discussion on the prospects of Ukraine's future EU accession. Nathanel Liminski, NRW's Minister for European Affairs, will give an introductory speech before the panellists come together for a joint discussion. Other invited guests include Prof Dr Niels Petersen, Professor of European and International Law at the University of Münster, Dr Dariia Opryshko, media law expert and Prof Dr Irina Wutsdorff (USiM). Prof Dr Ricarda Vulpius (USiM) will moderate the event

The event will take place in the auditorium of the University Palace (Schlossplatz 2, Münster) and will begin at 19:00.

All interested parties, especially students and non-university members, are cordially invited!