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- Martin Schulze Wessel: Ukraine and Germany in the 20th Century
- Oleksandr Zaitsev: Ukrainian Nationalists and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s
- Natalja Böhm: Contacts, Conflicts and Co-operation: German-Ukrainian Political Networks and their Actors between the First World War and the Early Years of the Federal Republic
- Yuri Radchenko: The OUN (m) and Nazi Germany in 1940-1945
Content
This thematic axis examines the controversial issues surrounding the activities and ideology of various Ukrainian actors and groups before and during the Second World War and their relationship to National Socialist Germany. The projects in this thematic axis are thus closely linked to the projects in the first and third thematic axes.
Martin Schulze Wessel: Ukraine and Germany in the 20th Century
To date, there has been no comprehensive monograph on the history of Ukraine and Germany in the 20th century. Today, both countries are close partners, and in the coming years relations between Berlin and Kyiv will deepen as a result of Ukraine's planned accession to the EU and NATO. However, historical knowledge about Ukraine and German-Ukrainian history is weak in Germany - much weaker than in German-Polish relations, not to mention Germany's relations with its western neighbours.
This is where the planned book comes in. It aims to inform and contribute to creating a critical awareness of the history of German-Ukrainian relations among the German public. It aims to influence the political discourse and also provide impulses for school and adult education. The book presents German-Ukrainian history chronologically with specific thematic focuses.
Structure
- 1. Prehistory of German-Ukrainian relations in the 20th century: the perception of Ukraine in the German territories since the early modern period
- 2. Germany's imperial project in the East and the founding of the Ukrainian nation state in 1918
- 3. Weimar Republic and Ukrainian exile in Germany
- 4. Germany's war for "Lebensraum in the East", Ukraine in the decades of unleashed violence: 1933-1945
- 5. The German states and Ukraine during the Cold War: official international friendship between the GDR and the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, problematic reappraisal of German crimes in Ukraine in the Federal Republic of Germany
- 6. Germany and Ukraine since 1991
Oleksandr Zaitsev: Ukrainian Nationalists and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s
The study is divided into two unequal parts. The first part examines the relationship between Ukrainian nationalists and Weimar Germany during the 1920s and early 1930s. By Ukrainian nationalists, I primarily refer to the radical wing of the nationalist movement, whose ideology, largely shaped by Dmytro Dontsov, is commonly described as “integral nationalism.”
The second, more extensive part of the study addresses one of the most controversial topics in 20th-century Ukrainian history: the relationship between the Ukrainian nationalist movement and Nazi Germany.
While connections between the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO), Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), and Nazi Germany’s Reichswehr and Wehrmacht are relatively well-researched, less attention has been given to the political and ideological dimensions of this cooperation. In recent years, the topic has gained new relevance due to Russian propaganda’s use of “Ukrainian Nazism” to justify aggression against Ukraine.
The purpose of the project is to investigate the connections between the Ukrainian integral nationalist (ultra-nationalist) movement and German state and political circles during the 1920s and 1930s, with a particular focus on its relationship with National Socialism. This includes analyzing Ukrainian nationalists’ attitudes toward National Socialism, their interactions with the Nazi regime, and whether they adopted or rejected aspects of Nazi ideology, organizational principles, and methods. The study will focus on the OUN, its predecessor the UVO, and other key figures and organizations, including Dmytro Dontsov and his journal Vistnyk, and Dmytro Paliiv’s Front of National Unity (FNU), which has received little scholarly attention.
This project seeks to move beyond the polarized perspectives of viewing Ukrainian integral nationalism as either fascist/Nazi or as part of a legitimate national liberation struggle. Instead, it acknowledges that both the European “epoch of fascism” and Ukraine’s fight for independence were critical contexts for understanding the development of Ukrainian nationalism in the interwar period.
A broad range of sources will be utilized, including ego-documents (correspondence, diaries, memoirs), political and ideological writings of key Ukrainian nationalist figures such as Dmytro Dontsov, Mykola Stsiborskyi, Volodymyr Martynets, and Yevhen Onatskyi, as well as writings by National Socialist ideologues. Both official publications controlled by the OUN and FNU, such as Rozbudova Natsii, Nash Klych, Proboiem, Nove Selo, Homin Baseinu, Peremoha, and Ukrainski Visti, and internal documents like Mykhailo Kolodzinskyi’s “Military Doctrine of Ukrainian Nationalists” and analytical reports circulated within the OUN leadership, will be analyzed. Most of these materials were reviewed by the author in archives and libraries in Ukraine and Poland. Further research will focus on the recently discovered “Senyk Archive” (documents of the OUN Leadership) in the Central State Archives of Ukraine in Lviv.
Natalja Böhm: Contacts, Conflicts and Co-operation: German-Ukrainian Political Networks and their Actors between the First World War and the Early Years of the Federal Republic
The research project investigates the complex network of relationships between German and Ukrainian actors from 1917 to the 1950s, with Hans Koch as the central figure. As a theologian and historian of Eastern Europe, who had fought in the Ukrainian Galician Army and later became a major in the Wehrmacht, Koch exemplifies the ambivalence of German-Ukrainian relations during this period. His diverse contacts with Ukrainian personalities from the fields of politics, the military and science provide a unique insight into the dynamics of network formation.
The analysis focuses on two central dimensions: first, the personal networks between German and Ukrainian actors and, second, the institutional interdependencies. The project traces how these networks developed over different historical phases: from the German occupation of Ukraine in 1918, through the Weimar Republic and the Nazi era, to the early post-war period. The project reveals how personal relationships, political interests and ideological convictions intertwined and shaped German-Ukrainian relations.
The research is based on previously neglected archival holdings, private papers and correspondence. It provides new insights into the motivations and scope of action of the actors involved, particularly into the role of institutions such as the Ukrainian Scientific Institute in Berlin and the German-Ukrainian Society. The results contribute to a more differentiated understanding of German-Ukrainian relations and show how personal networks influenced political developments well into the post-war period. Analysing the continuities and ruptures in German-Ukrainian networks across different political systems promises new insights into the complexity of transnational relations in the first half of the 20th century.
Yuri Radchenko: The OUN (m) and Nazi Germany in 1940-1945
The events involving the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists’ (OUN) activity draw attention of numerous researchers, publicists, politicians, and agitators. Many academic texts address the OUN members’ participation in persecution and massacre of Jewish, Polish, and disloyal Ukrainian population, fulfilled under command of Stepan Bandera. There is also research on Taras Borovets’ (Bulba) and his movement. At the same time, academic research on the OUN’s performance led by Andriy Mel’nyk as a matter of fact do not exist. The personality of Stepan Bandera arouses much interest as well. In spite of the fact that scientific studies of his biography are not numerous, the list of propaganda literature and films is truly impressive. Meanwhile, Andriy Mel’nyk’s biography remains practically unstudied (apart from a few propaganda publications).
OUN Bandera had a fellow feeling for European right-wing radical parties and stateless societies’ movements. For example, Banderites had good relations with Croatian Ustashi in the pre-war, war, and postwar periods. What was the OUN (b) and Andriy Mel’nyk’s attitude to the Ustashi and their leader Ante Pavelich?
OUN (b) and OUN (m) are known to have conducted a point-blank anti-Semitic propaganda in summer, 1941. At that time, there was a spree of pogroms in Galicia and Volyn, Ukrainian extreme rightists being part of it. The majority of the research concentrates on the OUN (b)’s participation in pogroms. But what was the role of Mel’nyk’s followers in the persecution and massacre of Jews in 1941? Andriy Mel’nyk was against pogroms during the Revolution of 1917-1921 and was trying to stop them. But in 1941 his organization was actively calling for murdering Jews. How did this political evolution take place in 20 years? What affected it?
The post-war period narrative of Mel’nyk’s followers states most that their leader was “isolated” in Berlin in 1941 and did not have any influence on the events in Ukraine. What do the available sources claim on the subject? What was Andriy Mel’nyk’s attitude to the pogroms in the summer of 1941? What was his relationship with Nazi Germany in that period of time?
At the end of 1941 beginning of 1942 the Germans started to conduct repressions against OUN (b) members. In Kyiv, for instance, a group of Mel’nyk followers were shot, including a poet Olena Teliga and a journalist Ivan Rogach. What was Andriy Mel’nyk’s attitude to the murder of his party fellows?
At the end of 1942 – beginning of 1943 the OUN (b) established its guerrilla units. By that time Mel’nyk’s followers had also tried to arrange an army. In March 1943 a considerable number of police officers in Volyn deserted to join the Banderites. Did the auxiliary police officers become Mel’nyk’s guerrillas?
After the war, a considerable number of Ukrainian political émigrés settled in Western Europe, North and South America, and Australia. Among them, a big number of former OUN (m) members and those involved in its activity. How did the OUN (m)’s ideology change after the war? With what intelligence services did Andriy Mel’nyk and his party cooperate at that period of time? What relationship did OUN (m) have after 1945 with other Ukrainian emigrant political groups, as well as with Jewish and Polish expatriate communities in the West?
After 1945, a large number of Ukrainians and Germans who fought on the Axis side during World War II and participated in the Holocaust appeared in Western Europe, North and South America, and Australia. What was their fate? What was the attitude of the Ukrainian and German diasporas toward Jews? I will try to answer these questions by analyzing some new sources.