After finishing school, our paths diverged: I went to study at a university, and he moved with his family to the North. We occasionally wrote to each other and met. And then life completely spun around and whirled. I was on a salary, and he was the director of his own tiny private enterprise. We would meet, drink vodka, complain to each other about life, and make plans. Even then he confessed to me that he was seriously set on moving permanently to Germany. The thing is, his mother is of German descent, from those Volga-Kazakhstan Germans. And all his relatives have long been in Germany. So he decided to try his luck. He seriously took up the language, joined a German society. He promised to come for me in a Mercedes and show me Germany.
...Six years have passed since then. I live in Kiev, he lives in Lviv. He hasn't left yet, he's waiting. But we started meeting more often. After all, the German embassy and consulate are here in the capital...
It was from my friend that I first heard stories about the problems one encounters when processing documents, what tricks one has to resort to to get this or that certificate. My friend had almost given up, but as they say, hope springs eternal. On his last visit, he asked me to find out about the Landsmannschaft of Germans. He said that the German society is of little use – all talk. And the rumor about the Landsmannschaft is that it's like a "good father tsar." "Okay," I replied, "I'll find out."
Today in Ukraine there are several public organizations somehow connected with ethnic Germans. The Landsmannschaft of Germans in Kiev is noted among them as the most active in providing real assistance to this category of people. The meeting with the chairman of the board of the Landsmannschaft, Heinrich Adler, took place in his office, not far from the German consulate. The conversation was quite interesting, so I decided not only to recount it to my friend, but also to share it with a wider audience.
By profession, Heinrich Ernstovich is a lawyer. At one time, working on a voluntary basis as head of the legal department of the People's Council of Germans of Ukraine, he distributed a special questionnaire among members of the German society "Vozrozhdenie" (Revival). The survey revealed that in fact the society as such does not exist. It is not there. That is, on paper, formally it operates, but in reality...
A deeper analysis of the activities of this organization revealed such negative aspects as the banal embezzlement of funds sent by the German government to address the issues of ethnic Germans in Ukraine. All this prompted Heinrich Adler to create an alternative organization called "Landsmannschaft of Germans in Kiev." The scope of tasks of the Landsmannschaft is clearly outlined and quite broad. They include assistance in the official recognition of German nationality for those who have it; assistance in studying and promoting the German language, cultural values, and developing national traditions among members of the Landsmannschaft; assistance in developing national self-awareness among youth; assistance in training for professions competitive in Europe; establishing contacts with youth in Germany; maintaining ties with Germans who have moved to Germany for permanent residence. This is far from a complete list of issues that this organization sets for itself.
Heinrich Adler made the foundation of the Landsmannschaft's activities not declarative statements and promises, but real practical steps aimed at helping specific people. Over the relatively short period of the organization's existence, hundreds of people have received real help and support. Thousands of questions, ways to resolve them, legal pitfalls and ways to legally circumvent them have become invaluable material for those who are now dealing with the issue of emigration to Germany. An excellent aid for those who cannot come to Kiev for a consultation has become the website of the Landsmannschaft of Germans in Kiev – www.germany.com.ua. Here you can get free advice on almost any question of interest. I will give just a few examples.
Where should I apply if I decide to leave for Germany?
– First of all, you need to prove your German origin, as well as knowledge of the German language. And the main thing here is the entry of nationality in your passport. If this entry was made from the very beginning, i.e., already in the first passport you received, and in your birth certificate the nationality of your parents or one of them is indicated as German, then in principle you can leave for Germany. To do this, you need to fill out an Antrag, which is obtained at the German consulate. Here you can take no more than two application forms – for yourself and your family.
One nuance should be considered: if the applicant is German by passport, but the passport was obtained not within the legally prescribed time (upon reaching 16 years of age or, for women, upon changing surname due to marriage), then there is no chance of obtaining permission to be accepted in Germany.
My grandfather was repressed during the war. Do I belong to the number of repressed Germans?
– A grandson is considered a descendant of a repressed person.
Is higher pedagogical education recognized in Germany?
– The main criterion for evaluating pedagogical education is knowledge of the German language. This, in particular, will determine your prospects for employment as a teacher.
In addition, visitors to the site can find a lot of interesting and useful information – about the activities of the German society "Vozrozhdenie", about the life of emigrants in Germany. A separate section is devoted to issues of Jewish emigration to Germany. By the way, many might be interested to know that it is now much easier for Jews to get into the Federal Republic. "It's no secret," said Heinrich Adler, "that there are many cases where, taking advantage of the similarity of Jewish and German surnames, our Germans pass themselves off as Jews and successfully relocate without language tests to permanent residence in Germany."
But perhaps the most useful information for anyone concerned with emigration issues is the fact that a legal department has been established in the Association of Germans of Kyiv, whose purpose is to provide legal support to ethnic Germans living in Ukraine. Consultations are provided both for members of the society and for anyone interested – however, only with documents confirming German nationality and a prior phone appointment.
...Another wave of German emigration (judging by our readers' letters) will not subside anytime soon. And due to the current circumstances, according to Heinrich Adler, Germany has become an evil stepmother for ethnic Germans in Ukraine. Take, for example, the humiliating tests for Eastern migrants on knowledge of the language, culture, and traditions of their historical homeland. They can barely reproduce their 'Volga surzhik,' and over the Soviet decades they have developed their 'own' culture...
As a result, in Kyiv alone today there are more than a hundred so-called 'refuseniks' whom the German authorities have rejected on the grounds that they are 'not German enough.' So why, one might ask, did they bother? And there wouldn't be so many more broken lives, tears, and disappointments. Yet only in Ukraine there are about 100,000 ethnic Germans who, as Heinrich Adler said, 'found themselves in a gap between two democracies – the already established German one and the still-forming Ukrainian one.'