Potsdam, Frankfurt on the Oder (epd). Brandenburg’s Minister of Culture Manja Schüle (SPD) has spoken out in favor of establishing a Ukraine research center in Frankfurt (Oder). Together with the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, and other personalities from research and politics, she published a “Frankfurt Declaration for a Ukraine Center” in Potsdam on Friday. The war in the country has shown how urgently society and the media depend on well-founded knowledge of their eastern neighbors, it says.
This requires a new center that researches and teaches on Ukraine, conducts knowledge transfer and is closely linked to Ukrainian partners. Such an institution must be a hub for Ukraine expertise in the middle of academia, politics, media, business, NGOs and culture, the statement said.
As a double city, Frankfurt (Oder) is an example of crossing borders and offers ideal points of contact with the European University Viadrina. The Viadrina is already one of the few German universities that has maintained close contacts with the Ukraine for years.
The initiators of the declaration include the presidents of the Viadrina, the German Society for East European Studies and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, Eva Kocher, Ruprecht Polenz and Christoph Markschies. The initiative is supported by the President of the Humboldt University in Berlin, Julia von Blumenthal, and the former President of the Viadrina, Gesine Schwan.