Munich

Munich (German: München). See Map. The capital of the state of Bavaria (2019 pop 1,484,226) in Germany. Prior to 1914 a number of Ukrainians studied at the arts academy, including Damian Horniatkevych, Mykola Ivasiuk, Yevsevii Lipetsky, Oleksander Murashko, Heorhii Narbut, Mykhailo Parashchuk, Modest Sosenko, Ivan Trush, Abram Manevich, and Mykhailo Boichuk. Parashchuk lived in the city in 1909–15 and founded the Ukrainian Art Society there. Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky studied at Munich University in 1889–90, as did Roman Smal-Stotsky (PH D, 1914). Vasyl Orenchuk headed the consulate of the Ukrainian National Republic in 1918–23. After 1940 many Ukrainians arrived in Munich to study, and after June 1941 many were brought as forced laborers (Ostarbeiter) to work in heavy industry. At that time a Ukrainian Catholic parish was established, as was the students organization Baturyn.

In the immediate postwar period Munich became the largest center of Ukrainian life in Western Europe. In 1945–9 there were approximately 15,000 to 20,000 Ukrainians living in the city and its immediate environs, mainly in displaced persons camps. Over 2,000 were enrolled either in German schools or in Ukrainian educational institutions that had been moved to or established there, including the Ukrainian Free University, the Ukrainian Technical and Husbandry Institute (UTHI), the Ukrainian Higher School of Economics, and the Theological Academy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. The Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh) and the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences were re-established in the city during this time, and three Ukrainian gymnasiums and a teachers' seminary were active. The city also served as the major center of Ukrainian émigré political life in Western Europe (notably the external units of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists—OUN leaders Stepan Bandera and Lev Rebet were assassinated there by a KGB agent) and the headquarters of the Ukrainian National Council. Publishing activity was extensive, particularly in the immediate postwar period, when 74 newspaper and journal titles were issued there.

Munich also developed into a major center of Ukrainian academic and intellectual life. Its three major Ukrainian scholarly institutions (Ukrainian Free University, Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Shevchenko Scientific Society) established the Association for the Advancement of Ukrainian Studies (in 1962), which published the Jahrbuch der Ukrainekunde from 1965. Ukrainian language courses were taught briefly at the University of Munich in 1914 and 1920 by J. Berkener and were part of the curriculum after 1945 under Hanna Nakonechna (1945–65), B. Mykytiuk (1965–73), M. Antokhii (1973–88), and N. Pliushch (after 1988). Yurii Blokhyn taught courses in the history of Ukrainian literature (1962–88). The Institute for the Study of the USSR was active in 1950–72, and produced a variety of studies about Ukraine. The flagship publication of the Ukrainian émigrés in the West, Suchasnist’, was issued in the city in 1961–90. Radio Liberty, established in 1953, transmited a daily Ukrainian program and prepared regular research reports about current events in Ukraine.

A mass exodus of Ukrainians from Munich began in 1948, and in the later 1980s only a small community of approximately 1,000 remained. Nevertheless, Munich continues to be an important Ukrainian organizational center. Groups found there include the Central Representation of the Ukrainian Emigration in Germany, the Ukrainian Medical Charitable Service, the Ukrainian Women's Alliance in Germany, societies of former Ukrainian political prisoners in Germany, the Ukrainian Christian Workers’ Movement, the Ridna Shkola Society (which runs a student residence), the Union of Ukrainian Veterans, the Association of Ukrainian Combatants, the Union of Ukrainian War Invalids, the Union of Ukrainian Students in Germany, and branches of the Plast Ukrainian Youth Association and the Ukrainian Youth Association. The Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations was also centered there.

The Ukrainian press published in Munich included the weeklies Khrystyians’kyi holos and Shliakh peremohy and the monthly ABN Correspondence. Local publishing and printing houses included Suchasnist, Ukrainske Vydavnytstvo (Munich), Molode Zhyttia, Logos, Cicero, and P. Belei’s academic publishing house.

Artists who have resided in Munich include Severyn Borachok, Hryhorii Kruk, Mykhailo Moroz, L. Kachurovska, Vitalii Sazonov, and Volodymyr Strelnikov. Writers who have lived there include Emma Andiievska, Ostap Hrytsai, and L. Semaka.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Prokoptschuk, G. (ed). Ukrainer in München und in der Bundesrepublik, 2 vols (Munich 1958–9)

Myroslav Antokhii, Hryhorii Prokopchuk

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]