About the project:
Public organizations "The Council of Germans of Ukraine" and "Society of Germans of Volyn" implement the unique project "Virtual Museum of Volyn Germans" supported by the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. "Virtual Museum of the Volyn Germans" is a project to digitize monuments of the material and spiritual cultural heritage of the Volyn Germans, which tell the public about the ethnic history of the Volyn territory. Its main goal is to draw attention to the material and cultural heritage and history of national minorities through digitalization. The project is an attempt to show briefly the history, culture and contribution of the German national minority in the historical Volyn region to the development of Ukraine.
Volyn Germans group is one of the ethnic-regional groups of Ukrainian Germans, which differed from others in their ethnic-group consciousness and regional self-identification. It was formed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries because of active and massive colonization that took place on the territory of historical Volyn during the 19th century.
Volyn Germans left an interesting and original history and made a significant contribution to the socio-economic and cultural development of Volyn. After the Second World War, the Soviet authorities radically changed their attitude towards the Germans, trying to erase from memory the history of their stay and minimize their contribution to the socio-economic and cultural development of Ukraine. During this period, a significant part of the objects of the material and spiritual culture of Volyn Germans was lost.
With the declaration of Ukraine's independence in 1991, intensive research into the history of the German national minority in Volyn began. Descendants of Volyn Germans began to show interest in the history and homeland of their ancestors, who individually, in families and in organized groups began to visit areas where there were once German colonies. Those who for various reasons cannot come to Volyn try to find at least some reliable information about Volyn Germans. The project "Virtual Museum of Volyn Germans" was implemented precisely to satisfy such interest.
Project website:
Information in PDF format (in Ukrainian):
https://lntu.edu.ua/sites/default/files/users/349/ukf.pdf
