THE ODESA GERMAN TEACHERS’ INSTITUTE: AN EDUCATIONAL PROJECT DESTROYED BY REPRESSION
During the interwar period, Ukraine was home to numerous educational institutions that reflected the Soviet policy of korenizatsiya (indigenization) – the promotion of national minorities through cultural and linguistic autonomy. One vivid example of this policy was the Odesa German Teachers’ Institute (Odessaer Deutsches Pädagogisches Institut), which operated from 1934 to 1938. Its foundation was part of a broader effort to build a multinational socialist society, in which ethnic groups were formally granted the right to develop their own educational and cultural institutions. However, only a few years after its opening, the Institute became a victim of Stalinist repressions. This article examines the history of the Institute's founding, the activities of its teachers, and the political situation that led to its closure and the arrest of its staff.
A Multinational Institution in the Soviet Educational System
The Odesa German Teachers’ Institute was officially opened on September 3, 1934, by a decree of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Council of People’s Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR [1]. Its main purpose was to train teachers for German-language schools throughout the republic. The Institute was based on the German Department (Deutsche Abteilung), which had been part of the Odesa Institute of Public Education since 1924. As a result of early 1930s educational reforms, this department became part of the Institute of Social Education, and later – the Odesa Pedagogical Institute, on the basis of which the German Teachers’ Institute was created.
The Institute had a clear structure, with four main faculties: history, language and literature, natural sciences and geography, and physics and mathematics. It also included a correspondence division and a preparatory department (rabfak), which allowed it to train teachers even for remote areas of German settlement. The curriculum followed standard Soviet educational programs, although some courses were taught in German. In the 1936–1937 academic year, the Institute had 254 students. [2]
The teaching staff was known for its high academic qualifications and ethnic diversity, although scholars of German descent played a key role in shaping the institution. These individuals not only contributed to education but also represented the cultural continuity of the Black Sea Germans, who had been active participants in Odesa’s social, economic, and intellectual life since the early 19th century. [3]
The first director of the Institute was Samuel Flachs, an ethnic German born in Beisen (Upper Saxony, Germany). He moved to the USSR in 1923 and worked in the education departments of Kherson and Melitopol, studied in the postgraduate program of the Kharkiv Pedagogical Institute, and taught in Kharkiv. From 1932 to 1938, he was an associate professor in the Department of Pedagogy at the Odesa Pedagogical Institute, and from 1934, he served as the first director of the Odesa German Teachers’ Institute. [4]
Among the faculty of German origin, Alfred Strehm deserves special mention. A well-known linguist and author of several scholarly works, he taught the German language first in the German department of the Odesa Institute of Public Education and later at the Teachers’ Institute. He was also actively involved in the German section of the Odesa Regional Studies Commission of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. His colleagues in the Department of German Language and Literature included literary historian Robert Mikwitz and philologist Herbert Steinwandt. All three were professors who taught at the Institute as well as at related institutions such as the Odesa Pedagogical Institute and the Odesa Scientific Library. [5]
These scholars belonged to a segment of the German intelligentsia that actively engaged in the Soviet policy of national cultural development. They served as intermediaries between tradition and modernity: on one hand, they were integrated into the Soviet higher education system, while on the other, they remained deeply committed to preserving the cultural identity of the German minority. For example, in the Bulletin of the Odesa Regional Studies Commission of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (1929, issue 4–5, German section), Mikwitz published a study on mapping German settlements in Ukraine, Strehm wrote about the evolution of German folk songs, and Steinwandt explored Russian and Ukrainian influences on the folklore of German colonists. [6]
Despite its German focus, the Institute employed representatives of various ethnic backgrounds. Notable lecturers included Matviy Farber (an economist and head of the Department of Political Economy, who served as acting rector of Odesa State University in 1933), Lev Gofman (a historian and head of the historical office), Dmytro Kryzhanivsky (a mathematician and professor at Odesa State University), and Hnat Trachevsky (a historian who led the Department of History and served as director of the Odesa Pedagogical Institute from 1933 to 1935, later becoming an associate professor at Odesa State University). Their work went beyond teaching – they also contributed to the academic and methodological training of teachers for German-language schools.
From Cultural Autonomy to Political Persecution
In the mid-1930s, the political situation in the USSR changed dramatically. The Soviet regime shifted from the formal promotion of minority rights to a policy of centralization, Russification, and repression. This turn was felt most acutely by the intelligentsia – those with intellectual and cultural influence on society. The campaign against so-called “hostile elements” intensified throughout the 1930s and reached its peak in 1937–1938. It targeted not only military personnel and party officials but also teachers, professors, librarians, and students. The repression of the German intelligentsia took place alongside the “Ukrainian case,” the “Polish operation,” and purges of Jewish organizations. During these fabricated investigations, thousands of intellectuals were arrested, deported, or executed.
As a German-language higher education institution, the Odesa German Teachers’ Institute was especially vulnerable. First, it brought together individuals with a clear national identity — already seen by the authorities as suspicious. Second, its faculty worked in the humanities — history, linguistics, and pedagogy — disciplines with the potential to shape ideological views. Third, many courses were taught in German, which contradicted the Communist Party’s new line of educational unification and Russification. The existence of a German-speaking environment at the Institute and its academic connections with German scholars gradually transformed its image — in the eyes of the authorities — from a center of interethnic dialogue into an object of ideological suspicion.
Official documents from that time regularly claimed that educational institutions were “polluted” by “class enemies” — people of “non-proletarian background,” foreigners, or “nationalists.” Any reference to national culture could be interpreted as separatism or nationalism. NKVD directives called for the “cleansing of schools and institutes of anti-Soviet elements” — a vague term that applied not only to Germans but also to Jews, Ukrainians, Poles, and others.
By the late 1930s, most university staff across the USSR had become victims of state terror — and the Odesa Institute was no exception. One of the most well-known cases occurred in 1934, when twelve individuals of German origin were arrested, including Odesa German Teachers’ Institute faculty members Herbert Steinwandt, Alfred Strehm, and Robert Mikwitz. [4; 5]
Strehm, a graduate of a university in Saint Petersburg with a classical philology background, taught the German language and literature and translated educational materials into German for school use. His classes were highly regarded by students. He advocated for the creation of a German-language library at the Institute. Steinwandt, head of the scientific library, was responsible for building and cataloging the German-language collection. He worked with rare editions and participated in interlibrary exchanges with other higher education institutions. Mikwitz was a prominent scholar in the history of German literature. His lectures were known for their depth and substance. He also led the German section of the Odesa Regional Studies Commission and actively promoted research on the history of the Black Sea Germans.
All three were accused of “counter-revolutionary activity” and membership in a secret pan-German organization that allegedly engaged in “sabotage in the teaching process.” According to the investigators, this included “excessive” attention to German literature presented in a “nationalist spirit,” translating texts from Russian into German, and assigning students “anti-revolutionary” materials to study. Of course, these accusations were entirely baseless. Nevertheless, a special NKVD tribunal sentenced all three to five years in labor camps. Mikwitz and Strehm never returned to Odesa; both died in exile. Steinwandt was released in 1939. [5]
During the years of the Great Terror, other lecturers at the Institute shared a similar fate. Samuel Flachs, the first director of the Institute, was arrested in January 1938. He was charged with anti-Soviet activity and using the Institute as a center of “German nationalism.” He was sentenced to ten years in a labor camp. [7]
Hnat Trachevsky, head of the Department of History, taught world history and Ukrainian history. He advocated for including European peoples in global historical processes. His critical approach to ideological dogma drew the attention of the NKVD. In 1937, he was arrested as a member of a counter-revolutionary nationalist group. On October 29, 1937, he was sentenced to death by an NKVD “troika” and executed on November 12, 1937. [8]
Lev Gofman, a specialist in ancient history, was known for his popular lectures for students and schoolchildren. His course on history teaching methods was one of the most attended at the Institute. He also taught in Odesa’s schools. In 1938, he was arrested as a member of a “Menshevik” organization. The state security service accused him of espionage and links to Zionist groups. During the investigation, Gofman denied all accusations and refused to plead guilty. He was executed the same year.[9]
Another prominent scholar, Dmytro Kryzhanivsky, was a mathematician and educator. He earned his PhD in Physics and Mathematics in 1935 and led the mathematical analysis section and the Ukrainian terminology commission of the Mathematical Research Department. In 1934–1935, he translated Felix Klein’s Elementary Mathematics from an Advanced Standpoint into Ukrainian. In 1937, Kryzhanivsky was arrested for alleged involvement in a “counter-revolutionary SR (Socialist Revolutionary) organization” and sentenced to five years. He died in prison in October 1939. [10]
These repressions were not only punitive but also symbolic. They served as a warning to other educators, aiming to destroy independent academic environments and suppress ethno-cultural identities. Particularly cynical was the fact that some of the charges were based on the very content of the curriculum and the teaching of German history and culture.
In 1937, the Bureau of the Odesa Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine raised the question of whether the Institute should continue to operate in Odesa, citing the presence of “hostile elements” and proposing to relocate it to the Volga region. Although the move was temporarily postponed, in July 1938, the Politburo of the Central Committee decided to liquidate the Odesa German Teachers’ Institute. Formally, this was explained as part of an education reform. In reality, it meant the destruction of the only German-language higher education institution in Ukraine.
The history of the Odesa German Teachers’ Institute is not only a story of repression, but also of long-term silence, erased memory, and the gradual return of forgotten names. After the Institute’s closure in 1938, its contributions to the cultural and educational life of the German community in Odesa disappeared from public discourse. Only in the 1956–1960s were most of its scholars officially rehabilitated, and their archival files became available to researchers.
Yet a deeper rethinking of the Institute’s legacy began only in independent Ukraine. In the context of today’s war and the ongoing struggle to preserve national identity, restoring the voices of repressed teachers and students takes on special significance. This is not only an act of historical justice – it is also a crucial step toward affirming a multinational narrative in which every community has the right to memory, language, and culture.
References
Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine. (1937, December 4). Resolution on the Odesa German Teachers’ Institute. In M. I. Panchuk (Ed.), Natsionalni vidnosyny v Ukraini u XX st.: zbirnyk dokumentiv i materialiv (pp. 227–236). Kyiv: Naukova dumka. [in Ukrainian]
Syniavska, O. (2022). Odeskyi nimetskyi pedahohichnyi instytut. Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine. The NASU Institute of Encyclopedic Research. https://esu.com.ua/article-75023 [in Ukrainian]
Kondratenko, N. (n.d.). German settlements in Odesa. Infopost. https://infopost.media/nimeczki-kolonisty-v-odesi/ [in Ukrainian]
Pleskaia, Ye. G. (2015). Repressions against the German population in 1920–1941. Visnyk Odeskoho Istoryko-Kraieznavchoho Muzeiu, (14). https://history.odessa.ua/publication14/stat01.htm [in Russian]
Malynova, H. L. (1997). The case of the anti-Soviet German organization of lecturers at the Odesa Pedagogical Institute (1934). In L. V. Kovalchuk & H. A. Razumov (Eds.), Odeskyi martyroloh: dany z represovanykh Odesy ta Odeskoi oblasti za roky radyanskoi vlady (Vol. 1, pp. 710–720). Odesa. [in Russian]
Odeska komisiia kraieznavstva pry UAN. (1929). Visnyk Odeskoi komisii kraieznavstva pry Ukrainskii Akademii Nauk (Nachrichten der Odessaer Kommission für Landeskunde) (Parts 4–5, German Section, Pt. 1). Odesa: Vyd-vo Odeskoi komisii kraieznavstva pry UAN. [in Ukrainian]
Smirnov, V. (2016). Case No. 3366-p of Samuil Flachs. In Rekviem XX veka (Vol. 3, pp. 278–322). Odesa. (Archive of the Security Service of Ukraine, fund of closed cases, case 3366-p). [in Russian]
State Archive of Odesa Region. (n.d.). Case of Ihnat Mitrofanovych Trachevskyi (fond 8065, opys 2, sprava 1321). [in Russian]
State Archive of Odesa Region. (n.d.). Case against L. Gofman, A. Gol’dmant, Khaskin and others (fond 8065, opys 2, sprava 1315). [in Russian]
State Archive of Odesa Region. (n.d.). Case of Dmytro Antonovych Kryzhanivskyi (fond 8065, opys 2, sprava 1091). [in Russian]