On the 28-29 the of September 25th anniversary conference of the Association of Ukrainian Germanicists held at the Ivan Franko Lviv National University gathered together more than 18- participants from all regions of Ukraine and also guests from Germany, Poland, Austria, Brazil, Turkey, Bulgary, Kyrgyzstan.

President of Association, the Head of Department of Intercultural Communication and Translation Studies of Lviv National University, Profesor Alla Paslavska delivered a welcome speech, thanked the participants and guests of the conference for their active work in the development of Germanic studies in Ukraine.

The words of special gratitude were addressed to the founders of the Association, in particular, its first president, Tetiana Komarnytska, who was also present in the hall.

Rector of the University, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Professor Volodymyr Melnyk, in his address, pointed out the important role of the German language and culture in shaping the European civilizational space and the efforts of the Association of Ukrainian Germans aimed at ensuring high-quality teaching of the German language in Ukraine and the dissemination of the Ukrainian language and culture in German-speaking countries.

Congratulations to the participants of the conference were also announced by Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Pavlo Khobzei. He emphasized that the German language tirelessly strengthens its position as a second foreign language in school and great credit belongs primarily to teachers.

In addition, the participants of the conference were welcomed by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Austria to Ukraine Hermine Poppeller and deputy ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Ukraine Bindseil, who turned to the guests in Ukrainian. The head of the Austrian Co-operation Bureau in Lviv, the Austrian Embassy’s Culture and Education Attaché in Kyiv, Andreas Wenninger, the Head of the Information Exchange Center of the German Academic Exchange Service Gisela Zimmermann, the head of the Young Scholars Support Department at the the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Munich, Hans-Peter Niedermeier, representatives of the leadership of the International Association of Teachers of German, Geraldo de Carvalho and Monica Janicka, Vice-President of the Central European Union of Germanicists Joanna Shchek, Lenin’s unions of Germanic studies from Turkey and Bulgaria and Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages ​​of Lviv University Volodymyr Sulym joined the congratulations.

Musical gifts for the guests of the event were prepared by the People’s Chamber Orchestra of the University, students of the Lviv specialized secondary school with the in-depth study of the German language number 8 and Lyceum of Vasyl Symonenko, teachers of a comprehensive school with the in-depth study of the German language №28.

Humorous notes in the solemn academy on the occasion of the anniversary were introduced by well-known Ukrainian writer Yurii Andrukhovych, who read a fragment from his school memoirs “Усмішка ICH” about the thorny path to the study of Germanic phonetics.

After the plenary session, the conference continued its work in sections on German grammar, lexicology, literary studies, translation studies, didactics, and methodology. Also during the jubilee conference, there were panel discussions and numerous workshops.

Pictures: Олега Вівчарика More images