About us
We, the members of the association ‘Galician Germans – History and Culture of Remembrance e.V.'”
Descendants of the Galician Germans and all those interested in Galicia, its history, and the fate of the Galician Germans.
With the revision of the website originally published in 2011, we must acknowledge in 2025 that only a very small number of association members remain who were born in Galicia or spent their early childhood after the resettlement in 1940 in the so-called Reichsgau Wartheland (Poland).
How it began:
The Aid Committee of the Galician Germans (Hilfskomitee der Galiziendeutschen e.V.) was founded in 1946 as an association to help refugees from Galicia who were scattered throughout Germany. These people had come to Germany as refugees and expellees after the outbreak of war – following Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland in the winter of 1939/40, many had been resettled in the Warthegau and then again in 1945/46. Today, their descendants live all over Germany, with many also abroad.
Reunion with the Old Homeland
The newly possible journeys to the old homeland were a wonderful experience for many Galician Germans in the 1990s and 2000s.
Preserving the Galician heritage – after the 2000s and after Russia’s attack on 24 February. 2022 in Ukraine:
Since Ukraine’s independence in 1991, there had been a real travel boom to Eastern Galicia, but also to Western Galicia (southeastern Poland).
Many eyewitnesses were able to visit the places of their birth and thus see their homeland again after so many years. In many cases, there were even personal contacts with village residents.
These journeys to the region of origin could be undertaken either as bus tours or as flights with the destination Lviv (Lemberg).
The last trip organized by the association took place in 2019; during that journey, the final memorial stone in Rozhniv (Szczyrzec) was unveiled in remembrance of the former residents. However, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have since made these meaningful group trips no longer possible.
Historical Overview of Former Galicia
“The Myth of Galicia”?
In the period after 1990, Galicia experienced something of a rediscovery—not only for the small group of Galician Germans, whether born in Galicia or descended from those who were, but especially within the fields of historical research and literature. By the 2000s, this revival had become so pronounced that people even spoke of the “Myth of Galicia.”
In keeping with this cultural zeitgeist, an exhibition titled “Myth of Galicia” was held in the cities of Kraków and Vienna. The cover of the exhibition catalog read: Myth of Galicia – A cooperation between the Vienna Museum (Wien Museum) and the International Culture Centre Kraków (2014–2015).
