SALON LUITPOLD | Schuld und Chance: Die Geschichte der deutsch-ukrainischen Beziehungen | Mit Martin Schulze Wessel

In the organizer's words:

An evening with Martin Martin Schulze Wessel, moderator to be announced

"The fact that Germany has a historical responsibility towards Russia because of the crimes committed during the Second World War is rarely questioned. The fact that the same applies even more to Ukraine, on the other hand, is much less anchored in the public consciousness. Martin Schulze Wessel presents the first history of German-Ukrainian relations and recalls how closely German and Ukrainian history were intertwined in the 20th century. In his impressively written book, he shows how historical experiences and perceptions continue to have an impact today and asks what this means for our relationship with Ukraine today.

During the First World War, the Germans' colonial plans for Eastern Europe were combined with the aspirations of the Ukrainian national movement. The founding of a Ukrainian nation state in 1918 was made possible by the German occupation of the country. This was one of the reasons why Stepan Bandera sought an alliance with Nazi Germany during the Second World War, but Hitler's colonial project differed fundamentally from that of Imperial Germany. Ukraine became the center of the German war of extermination. After 1945, Ukraine disappeared back into the Soviet Union in the German consciousness, and even after 1991 it remained a nation that was often overlooked - with fatal consequences for the German reaction to the Russian war of aggression since 2014. Anyone who visualizes German-Ukrainian history, as Martin Schulze Wessel does, will find it harder to be indifferent to the fate of the country.

Martin Schulze Wessel is Professor of the History of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. From 2012 to 2016, he was chairman of the Association of German Historians. His book "Der Fluch des Imperiums" (4th ed. 2023) was published by C.H.Beck.