Verträumtes Czernowitz
Auf unserer Reise in die Südwest-Ukraine haben wir zum Abschluss auch noch Czernowitz (Чернівці) besucht.
Hauptstrasse mit unserem Hotel (ganz links)
Czernowitz hat eine komplett intakte Altstadt mit Häusern vorwiegend aus dem 19. Jahrhundert (Neuklassizismus), aber auch aus dem 18. (Barock) und 20. Jahrhundert (Wiener Secession, Jugendstil, Bauhaus). Die Stadt wirkt deshalb auch absolut europäisch und ist ausserdem durchwegs mit Kopfsteinen gepflastert, was mir aus der Schweiz ja bestens bekannt ist. Czernowitz war auch von 1774 bis 1918 österreichisch und ab 1849 Hauptstadt des österreichischen Kronlandes Herzogtum Bukowina. Diese österreichische Zeit widerspiegelt sich auch stark im Charakter der Altstadt, der stark an Wien erinnert.
Fussgängerzone in der Altstadt
Die Altstadt ist dabei vollständig renoviert worden, was mich ehrlich gesagt sehr überrascht hat. Man findet wirklich in der Altstadt kein einziges nicht renoviertes Haus. Ebenfalls sehr europäisch empfand ich die Fussgängezone an der Haupteinkaufsstrasse.
Eine weitere typische Strasse in der Altstadt
Jede einzelne Strasse ist dabei wunderschön und bildet ein spezielles Ensemble (deshalb auch die vielen Fotos...).
Noch noch eine Strasse in der Altstadt
Die Geschichte und die Bevölkerung von Czernowitz ist dabei vielfältig. Eine erste Festung wurde schon im 12. Jahrhundert während der Zeit des Kiewer Rus hier errichtet. Von 1359 bis 1774 gehörten die Stadt und ihre Umgebung zum Fürstentum Moldau (Vorläuferstaat des heutigen Moldawiens).
Strasse zur Universität
Anschliessend gehörte die Stadt wie schon erwähnt zu Österreich-Ungarn und aus dieser Zeit stammen fast alle heute noch existierenden Häuser der Altstadt. Vorerst gehörte Czernowitz zum Königreich Galizien und Lodomerien, aber 1849 wurde das Herzogtum Bukowina als eigenes Kronland mit der Landeshauptstadt Czernowitz konstituiert.
Rathaus von Czernowitz
1875 wurde vom österreichischen Kaiser Franz-Joseph I. anlässlich der 100-jährigen Zugehörigkeit zu Österreich eine Universität mit deutscher Unterrichtssprache gegründet, an der aber auch Ukrainer und Studenten aus anderen Nationen studieren konnten. Zu dieser Zeit hatte die Stadt ihre kulturelle Blüte und Ukrainer, Rumänen, Polen, Ruthenen, Juden, Roma und Deutsche lebten in Czernowitz. 1910 stellten die Juden sogar 33% der Bevölkerung.
Rathaus von Czernowitz bei Nacht
Nach dem ersten Weltkrieg wurde Czernowitz rumänisch (Cernăuţi). 1940 wurde die Stadt von der Sowjetunion besetzt. Von 1941 bis 1944 gehörte Czernowitz wieder zu Rumänien, von 1944 bis 1991 als Tschernowzi (Черновцы) zur Sowjetunion, und seit 1991 als Tscherniwzi (Чернівці) zur unabhängigen Ukraine. Heutige ist die Bevölkerung fast vollständig ukrainisch geprägt.
Orthodoxe Kathedrale von Czernowitz
Unser Aufenthalt in Czernowitz war leider an einem Feiertag wo fast alle Restaurants und Geschäfte geschlossen waren. Zudem war es wirklich recht kalt (-10 Grad). Als wir nach dem ausgiebigen Stadtrundgang recht durchgefroren waren, hatten wir echt Probleme, ein offenes Restaurant zu finden. Übernachtet haben wir in einem älteren Hotel an der Hauptstrasse kurz nach dem Rathaus. Die Preise waren nach den teuren Karpaten wieder absolut im normalen ukrainischen Rahmen (UAH 300 für ein Doppelzimmer ohne Frühstück).
Stadttheater von Czernowitz
Die bedeutendste Sehenswürdigkeit von Czernowitz ist die ehemalige Residenz des Metropoliten der Bukowina, ein imposanter Ziegelbau auf dem "Bischofsberg", in dem seit sowjetischer Zeit die Universität von Tscherniwzi untergebracht ist.
Zentrales Hautgebäude der Universität
Das Universitätsgebäude hat dabei drei grosse Flügel, wobei sich im südlichen Flügel auch eine grosse orthodoxe Kirche befindet.
Nördlicher Flügel der Universität
Das Gebäude wurde 1875 von Czwernowitzer Architekten Josef Hlawka im romanisch-bzzantinischen Stil mit vielen Motiven aus der ukrainischen Kultur erbaut.
Südlicher Flügel der Universität mit Kirche
Zum Schluss dieses Berichts über Czernowitz noch ein paar Fotos mit Detailansichten dieser absolut interessanten Stadt.
Ein Haus aus den 1930-er Jahren (mitte)
Detailansicht eines Altstadt Hauses
Blick von einem Hinterhof durch ein Tor auf eine Strasse
Blick durch ein Tor (mit Schriftzug Tscherniwzi) in einen Hinterhof
Detailansicht eines Eingans eines alten Hauses
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9 Kommentare:
Hallo!
Toller Blog mit Fotos, die einen Einblick in Land und Leben geben! Schön hier zu stöbern :-)
Im März habe ich die Gelegenheit in die Ukraine zu fliegen.
Viele Grüße aus Deutschland!
Wirklich ein toller Artikel mit schönen Bildern, vielen Dank dafür!
Es gibt in Deutschland einen Doku-Film über diese Stadt, er heißt „Dieses Jahr in Czernowitz“, ist aus dem Jahr 2003/2004, 134 Min. lang, Regie führte Volker Koepp.
Der US-Schauspieler Harvey Keitel stammt übrigens ursprünglich aus dieser Stadt.
Kurze Korrektur: Nicht Harvey Keitel selbst, aber seine Vorfahren stammen aus dieser Stadt, weswegen er im oben genannten Film mitwirkte.
Market Scan
Ukraine May Be Next To Default
Vidya Ram , 02.13.09, 3:00 PM ET
LONDON -
In December, Ecuador became the first country to buckle under the current financial crisis and default on its loans. Now with its outlook deteriorating rapidly, there's a good chance that Ukraine will become the second.
Ukraine took three significant blows within the space of the week. The International Monetary Fund said on Feb. 7 it was delaying the second $1.9 billion tranche of a $16.4 billion loan, which led to Thursday's resignation of Ukraine's finance minister Viktor Pynzenyk -- he said he was stepping down because of the government's refusal to cut its budget deficit according to the terms of the loan left him in an untenable position.
On top of that, ratings agency Fitch cut the country's long-term foreign and local currency credit rating to below investment grade -- to "B" from "B+" with a negative outlook -- meaning that a further downgrade is likely.
Together this spells big new troubles for Ukraine, according to Paul Biszko senior emerging market strategist at RBC Capital in Toronto. "Debts particularly on the private sector side and extreme liquidity stress could push Ukraine into default," Biszko told Forbes. "The odds are rising."
Ukraine had pledged to cut its budget deficit by $4.9%, to $10.0 billion -- 1.1% of gross domestic product -- but infighting between arch-rivals Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko and President Viktor Yushchenko has meant that it has not followed through so far. With elections coming up next year, and an economy suffering as a result of a plummeting currency and falling commodity prices, it is very unlikely to do so in the future.
Timoshenko has been appealing to Russia and the Group of Seven nations to step in with support with a $5.0 billion loan, but RBC's Biszko says there is "little chance of bilateral cash" coming through.
According to Tom Fallon, head of emerging markets at fund manager La Francaise des Placements, Ukraine may be able to struggle through the current year, because its external debt that must be repaid this year represent less than a project 10.0% of fiscal revenues.
Ukraine's final hope of a rescue may lie with the European Central Bank. A major exporter of steel to the rest of Europe, a transit route for Russian gas, and with many local banks belonging to major European ones such as Unicredito, ING and Raiffeisen, a default by Ukraine is a risk the central bank may be unwilling to take. Defaulting on loans can be devastating to an economy: Argentina's default in 2001 wiped out a quarter of that year's gross domestic product, and has taken a long and painful restructuring process to get it back on track. (Forbes)
Super Beitrag, hab schon lange nicht mehr auf diesem Blog vorbeigeschaut, wird Zeit, dass ich dies nachhole. Schöne Architektur. Im Gegensatz zu Almaty ist da doch vieles älter und vor allem noch erhalten!!!
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Feb 19th 2009 | MOSCOW
From The Economist print edition
Leaders bicker as the economy sinks
AP
THE D-word is stalking Ukraine. As its political leaders bicker, investors are having nightmares about its defaulting on its sovereign debt. Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister, has sought to calm rising investor panic, suggesting that nothing in the government’s finances warrants “pronouncing the word default”. For now, most experts agree. Even though the markets are charging exorbitant annual rates (32%) for Ukrainian dollar debt (see chart), the coffers seem sturdy enough. Sovereign debt accounts for only about one-fifth of total external borrowing of around $105 billion. The government can handle that, at least this year. But an inevitable series of corporate and banking defaults are likely to hasten the economy’s decline.
By now Ukraine should have received the second tranche of a loan from the IMF worth $1.8 billion. But the IMF says Ukraine is not sticking to the conditions of the loan—worth a chunky $16.4 billion in total—and wants greater fiscal discipline. Uncertainty about whether the rest of the loan will be disbursed is causing jitters. But as tension mounts, the president and prime minister are at one another’s throats. President Viktor Yushchenko recently, for the umpteenth time, accused Ms Tymoshenko of “betraying national interests”, by talking to the Kremlin about a $5 billion loan. Playing the anti-Russian card is one of his favourite ways of wooing public opinion in western Ukraine, where there is little love of Russia or its language.
Ms Tymoshenko is resisting IMF pressure to balance this year’s budget, forecast to show a deficit of 3% of GDP. Cutting the deficit would force her to scrap some of the social promises she had made to voters. Mr Yushchenko and Ms Tymoshenko are expected to contest a presidential election in the coming year, and both are playing politics while the sickly economy gets sicklier. Dependent on steel, fertiliser and chemical exports, Ukraine has been hit hard by the global slump in commodity prices. Officials say that industrial output crashed by a jaw-dropping 34% in January year-on-year. Valery Litvitsky, an adviser to Ukraine’s central bank, estimates the economy contracted by as much as 20% in January alone, as a dispute with Russia over gas prices reduced supply and forced the country’s heavy industry to go slow.
The number of Ukrainian banks going bust is meanwhile growing; many Ukrainian workers are on unpaid and indefinite leave; and the currency, the hryvnia, has shed over a third of its value since the autumn. That has made life tough for consumers, many of whom have borrowed in dollars to buy houses and cars.
To make matters worse, Ukraine is now without its experienced finance minister, Viktor Pynzenyk, who has resigned complaining he had become “a hostage to politics”. Opposing the deficit, he refused to approve the budget, and suggested that the government’s overall economic plan was unrealistic. The government is still forecasting that the economy will grow slightly this year, by 0.4%, compared with 2.1% last year. But economists say it will probably contract by around 5% or even 6%.
Ukraine Teeters as Citizens Blame Banks and Government
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
KIEV, Ukraine — Steel and chemical factories, once the muscle of Ukraine’s economy, are dismissing thousands of workers. Cities have had days without heat or water because they cannot pay their bills, and Kiev’s subway service is being threatened. Lines are sprouting at banks, the currency is wilting and even a government default seems possible.
Ukraine, once considered a worldwide symbol of an emerging, free-market democracy that had cast off authoritarianism, is teetering. And its predicament poses a real threat for other European economies and former Soviet republics.
The sudden, violent protests that have erupted elsewhere in Eastern Europe seem imminent here now, too. Across Kiev last week, people spoke of rising anger about the crisis and resentment toward a government that they said was more preoccupied with squabbling than with rallying the country.
The sign held by Vasily Kirilyuk, an unemployed plumber camped out with other antigovernment demonstrators here in the past week, summed up the pervasive frustration: “Get rid of them all,” it said.
Mr. Kirilyuk did not hesitate to take that further. “There will be a revolt,” he said. “And people will come because they are just fed up.”
Mr. Kirilyuk, 29, was standing in the same central square where throngs in 2004 carried out the Orange Revolution, a seminal event that brought to power a pro-Western government in Ukraine. He said he was a fervent supporter then of the protesters, but now he and a few dozen others who have set up tents here are demanding that the heroes of that revolution step down.
It is not hard to understand why world leaders are increasingly worried about the discontent and the financial crisis in Ukraine, which has 46 million people and a highly strategic location. A small country like Latvia or Iceland is one thing, but a collapse in Ukraine could wreck what little investor confidence is left in Eastern Europe, whose formerly robust economies are being badly strained.
It could also cause neighboring Russia, which has close ethnic and linguistic ties to eastern and southern Ukraine, to try to inject itself into the country’s affairs. What is more, the Kremlin would be able to hold up Ukraine as an example of what happens when former Soviet republics follow a Western model of free-market democracy.
“Ukraine is a linchpin for stability in Europe,” said Olexiy Haran, a professor of comparative politics at Kiev Mohyla University. “It is a key player between the expanding European Union and Russia. To use an alarmist scenario, you could imagine a situation in Ukraine that Russia tried to exploit in order to dominate Ukraine. That would make for a very explosive situation on the border of the European Union.”
That Ukraine can cause problems for Europe was highlighted in January when Ukraine engaged in a dispute with Russia over how much it would pay Russia for natural gas, as well as over gas transport to the rest of Europe. The Kremlin shut off the gas for several days, and some European countries went without heat. The Kremlin also shut off gas to Ukraine in 2006 in a pricing dispute.
While Ukraine’s economy is dependent on exports of steel and chemicals, which have plummeted, the crisis has cut deeply because people are disillusioned with the government.
President Viktor A. Yushchenko, a leader of the Orange Revolution, who garnered attention around the world in 2004 when his face was scarred in a poisoning episode, is so widely scorned that a recent poll found that 57 percent of people wanted him to resign.
His rivals have also lost popularity, as the public has become exasperated by years of political bickering. In February, the International Monetary Fund refused to release the next installment of a $16.4 billion rescue loan to Ukraine because the government would not adhere to an earlier agreement to pare its budget.
Around the same time, Ukraine’s finance minister resigned, saying that the job had been “hostage to politics.”
On Friday, the monetary fund projected that Ukraine’s economy would shrink by 6 percent this year, and said that it was continuing to work with the government to find a way to disburse the rest of the rescue loan.
A presidential election is coming, probably to be held next January, and this prospect is making politicians, especially Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko, reluctant to adopt an austerity program that might alienate voters.
Mr. Yushchenko and Ms. Tymoshenko were pro-Western allies during the Orange Revolution, but have bitterly feuded since then, and he fired her once. A third rival, Viktor F. Yanukovich, a former prime minister who heads an opposition party that favors closer ties with Russia, also wants to be president.
On Friday, Mr. Yushchenko and Ms. Tymoshenko held a public meeting in an effort to demonstrate that they were working together. Mr. Yushchenko said he wanted “to show the readiness of all sides to take political responsibility for decisions which today are not easy.”
Even so, the two did not announce further anticrisis measures.
All over Kiev have been signs that tensions are building.
On the city’s outskirts, more than 200 tractor-trailer rigs were parked Thursday, their drivers threatening to block roads if the government did not help them with their debts, which they said were caused in part by the drop in the value of Ukraine’s currency, the hryvnia.
The truckers dispersed Friday, only after the government said it would try to address their demands, but they said they would be back soon if they were ignored.
“The government is to blame for all this,” said a trucker, Viktor V. Zarichnyuk, 26, who had been at the protest for 12 days. “We want the government and the national bank to agree that the money allocated by the International Monetary Fund, at least part of it, should go to regular people.”
At a branch of the Rodovid Bank across town, a tense crowd gathered Friday morning. The bank, close to failing, was allowing withdrawals of only $35 a day. And so people, some of them pensioners fearful for their life savings, have been trooping each day, ever more aggravated, to try to get what they can.
“Every day we come here — it’s insulting — in the cold and line up,” said Alevtina A. Antonyuk, 58, an engineer. “They are nothing at this bank but a bunch of thieves.”
Who is to blame, she was asked. Before she could answer, Dmitri I. Havrilkiv, 78, a retired crane operator, interrupted.
“The government has to be replaced,” he shouted. “They just can’t handle it!”
Der Bericht über Cernowitz, welcher die Vergangenheit der Bukowina als durch eine von vielen ethnischen Gruppen bevölkerten Landstrich nicht erwähnt, wird der historischen Bedeutung der Stadt nicht gerecht. Gerade die heute noch auffindbare jüdische Geschichte der Stadt wird völlig ausgelassen. Czernowitz spielte eine bedeutende Rolle für das Kulturleben des osteuropäischen Judentums. Heute findet sich einer der größten jüdischen Friedhöfe hier mit ca. 70.000 unzerstörten Grabmählern und einer Totenhalle. Der Tempel in Zadagor war wichtigster Bezugspunkt für die chasisdischen Juden. Um nur einige Beispiele für die Bedeutung der Stadt zu nennen.
Die Vernichtung und Vertreibung der Czernowitzer Juden bleibt völlig unerwähnt.
Leider spiegelt der Bericht nicht mehr als die offizielle ukrainische Geschichtsschreibung wider.
Dies ist schade und spricht nicht für eine inhaltlich tiefe Beschäftigung mit dem Sujet.
Aufruf! Alle Schweizer im Ausland sind aufgerufen, sich unverzüglich bei der jeweiligen Schweizer Vertretung registrieren zu lassen.
Die Einberufung in die Armee erfolgt gleich nach der Registrierung, anschliessend wird die Zurückführung zum Heimatstaat durchgeführt.
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