V.Staryk. Austrian/German Chernivtsi

Despite the fact that the first German settlers appeared in Bukovyna already in pre-Austrian times, the mass transmigration of German peasants, craftspeople and officials began only in 1780th. Chernivtsi was the most important centre of German settlement, where 12747 Germans resided in 1910 including one third of Protestants and two thirds of Roman-Catholics. The powerful network of German educational, cultural, public and confessional institutions was established in Chernivtsi in a short period of time. Their activity promoted the process of transformation of Chernivtsi into the most Eastern European centre of German culture.
The oldest monument of German culture in Chernivtsi is the Roman-Catholic Church of the Holy Cross. The numerous paintings and sculptures preserved in this sacred place, especially stained-glass windows with clear Gothic scripts remind us of German founders and priests of this Church. Another famous church, where Jesuit confessors preached in German was the Roman-Catholic Church of Sacred Heart of Jesus, constructed in 1891-1894 in neo-Gothic style and prided itself on an excellent organ.
The protestant Germans also constructed a few vast churches in Chernivtsi. The largest were the Evangelical Church in University St #23 (it was rebuilt into the Club of technical work in the Soviet times) and the Evangelical Church in Lozivs’ka St #20. The memorial dedicated to the Chernivtsi Germans who died on the World War I battlefields was situated in the church yard in University St; each war victim was named personally. This monument was destroyed by the Soviet power in the middle of the 1940th as well as the Schiller monument in the yard of German National House and the monument dedicated to the warriors of the 41st Infantry Regiment.
German educational institutions had a significant importance for the civilization development of all inhabitants of Bukovyna. The first German so called Normal District School was established in 1784; only one of its buildings remained intact in School St #6. Former I State German Gymnasium in Eminescu St #1 was established in 1809; it was the only classical gymnasium in Chernivtsi during almost an entire century. Such known Austrian writers as Ernst-Rudolf Neubauer, Ludwig-Adolf Simiginowicz-Staufe and Karl-Emil Franzos were among its professorship in different times.
Established in 1875 German Franz Josephs I University has won European recognition. Although the German University in Chernivtsi was abolished by Romanian power in 1919, the University status of our city remained to this day. All without exception German professors of Chernivtsi University deserve our respect as scientists, who had been developing scientific researches of European level in Chernivtsi for several decades. Here we shall briefly mention only three of them.
Ferdinand Zieglauer von Blumenthal was the author of fundamental investigations in Bukovynian history of the 18th century; he resided in Kobylyans’ka St #27. Raimund Friedrich Kaindl was an author of «History of Bukovyna» in 3 volumes and many other monographs, such as «Hutsuls», «History of Carpathian Germans», «History of Chernivtsi»; he resided in Kobylyans’ka St #94. Theodor Gartner, who resided in Mayakovski St #15, investigated the Romanian dialects in Bukovyna; he was the co-author of fundamental «Grammar of Ruthenian (Ukrainian) Language» (written together with professor Stephan Smal’-Stots’kyj).
The establishment of book-printing was the irrefutable merit of German printers. The first printing-house in Chernivtsi was founded by Transylvanian German Peter Eckhardt at the end of the 18th century; his business was kept on by Johann and Rudolf Eckhardts. Eckhardt’s printing-house was situated on the Soborna Sq #3 and printed not only the Austrian/German literature. The first Bukovynian editions in Church Slavonic, Moldavian/Romanian, Polish and Ruthenian/Ukrainian languages were published here.
Another known Austrian/German printing-house was situated in Schiller St #5 – it consisted of a printing plant «Austria» and an editorial office of daily paper «Czernowitzer Tagblatt». One of the important poetry books of Lesya Ukrainka «Vidhuky» (Consonances) was edited in printing-house «Austria» in 1902 shortly before the 1914, when Russian soldiers destroyed this printing-house with extreme brutality.
The German musical and theatrical life in Chernivtsi achieved much success in the second half of the 19th – at the beginning of the 20th centuries. The building of Music Society, present-day oblast Philharmonic Society was established in 1877 thanks to the feverish activity of different German musical societies. Local German troupe, as well as the popular German theatre collectives from other cities and even countries performed their theatrical performances on the stage of Chernivtsi theatre. The first city wooden theatre was constructed in School St #6 in 1877 (nowadays the city polyclinic #1 is situated on its place), and the new splendid City Theatre with the Schiller monument in front of it was built on the Theatre Sq #1 in 1905.
Though the German National Council welcomed the Romanian occupation of Bukovyna in 1918, the German Theatre in Chernivtsi was brutally closed down by Romanian power at the beginning of 1922. It became a painful trial for the German community of the city, as well as almost total abolishment of German school and University education in Bukovyna at the same time.
German National Houses were the real centres of public life of Chernivtsi Germans. The most significant of them, established in 1910 by the «Society of Christian Germans», was situated in Kobylyans’ka St #27; its first two presidents were T. Gartner and R. F. Kaindl. The Boarding School for German pupils was established by the society «German School House» not far in Cheluyskintsi St #8. Nowadays the museum of Austrian famous writer Georg Drozdowski, who resided not far in Shevchenko St #42, as well as several German/Austrian public organizations works in its building.
Another representative German National House was constructed in Zastavnyans’ka St #84 for the numerous German citizens of the suburb Rosha.
The interests of German states in Chernivtsi were represented by German Consulate in Kobylyans’ka St #16 (before World War I) and Austrian Consulate in Zan’kovets’ka St #11 (after World War I). The last act of self-destruction of Chernivtsi Austrian/German community took place in the building of German Resettlement Commission in University St #24. All inhabitants of Chernivtsi who were recognized as «Volksdeutsche» here left Bukovyna forever in October 1940.
«On the cemetery they said good bye to their dead compatriots, who consisted the powerful chorus around the place where Catholic and Protestant pastors sanctified the hour which became decisive, – recollected Georg Drozdowski. – They left to the mercy of fate the graves and the memory about those who worried about Bukovyna and made efforts to make this land become and remain Austrian».