UFU hosts Ukrainian and Bavarian scholars (12/14/03)

UFU hosts Ukrainian and Bavarian scholars

MUNICH - During the last week of October, the Ukrainian Free University of Munich hosted the third congress of Ukrainian and Bavarian scholars of Germany. This meeting differed substantially from its two predecessors which were held in Munich and Lviv, respectively.

The theme of the congress, "Germanics as an International Discipline," afforded a wider thematic range. In contrast to past meetings, the papers presented here dealt not just with the German language and literature, but also with jurisprudence, political science and philosophy.

A total of 39 scholars participated - 14 of whom came to Munich especially for the congress from various universities in Ukraine. Among the German institutions represented at the congress were the universities of Eichstutt, Heidelberg, Munich, Ulm and Wurzburg and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

Many of the papers presented dealt with the role and function of German as a medium of international communication and with language as a political factor. These topics were ably treated by Taras Kyjak (Kyiv), Antony Rowley (Munich), Volodymyr Sulym (Lviv), Richard Brunner (Ulm) and Hansjuergen Doss (UFU).

Other presentations had a comparative aspect. Leonid Rudnytzky (UFU) placed Ivan Franko's long narrative poem "The Master's Jests" (Panski Zharty) within the framework of 19th and early 20th century German literary theories; Svitliana Fiskova (Lviv) analyzed the relationship between literature and music, and Tetiana Struk (Lviv) compared and contrasted the perfective aspect in German and Ukrainian languages, and Mykola Szafowal (UFU) examined the role of the Ukrainian Scientific Institute of Berlin (1926-1945) as a link between German and Ukrainian studies.

A programatic paper, very relevant to the contempary Ukrainian situation, was presented by the renowned professor of international law Dieter Blumenwitz (Wurzburg), who, taking the famous dictum of Isidors of Sevilla that languages have created nations and not nations languages, developed a compelling theory based on linguistic, sociological, psychological and juridical factors. Equally well received was Peter-Arnold Mumm's (Munich) paper on linguistic relations north of the Black and Baltic seas in ancient times, which also dealt extensively with etymologies of numerous Ukrainian words.

A striking feature of the gathering was the participation of many young scholars and graduate students, both from Ukraine and from Germany, all of whom gave a very good account of themselves, eliciting praise from their senior colleagues and assembled guests.

The congress also served as a forum for many academic, social and civic events. Hans Gerhard Stockinger, a member of the Bavarian Parliament and a good friend of the Ukrainian Free University, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Lviv, which was bestowed on him by the dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Volodymyr Sulym, and the chairman of the German department, Bohdan Maksymchuk, both of whom also read papers at the congress.

At the conclusion of the final session, the participants signed several documents concerning the present status of scholarship in Ukraine and the role and function of the Ukrainian Free University as a link between Ukraine and Western Europe. Before adjourning, the scholars decided to hold their next meeting in Lviv during the fall semester of 2004-2005.

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