60 Uspenska St., Odesа
Phones: +380 48 777 06 96, +380 482 34 52 76
e-mail: info@bayernhaus.com.ua
The “Bavarian House, Odessa” was established as a German cultural center on July 11, 1993, initiated by the Bavarian State Ministry for Labor, Social Affairs, Family, Women, and Health, with the support of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bavaria. This was part of the intergovernmental agreement between Ukraine and Bavaria in 1990. The initial goals of the “Bavarian House, Odessa” were the revival and development of the culture and language of ethnic Germans in the Black Sea region of Ukraine, support for German families who fled to Ukraine from CIS countries, and strengthening mutual understanding, as well as cultural and business ties between the Ukrainian and German peoples.
All great things once started small. In 1993, the Bavarian House (Odesa) was primarily a meeting center for ethnic Germans from the Black Sea region. People gathered at a dacha. Even back then, the German-Ukrainian exchange was an important goal. Today, the Bavarian House, as it is called by the locals, serves as an educational, economic, cultural, linguistic, and social center. To date, nearly 11,000 Ukrainians have attended German language courses at the Bavarian House. A total of 4,600 teachers (5–8 representatives from each school in the region) have been trained as part of the HIV/AIDS prevention program. These teachers now hold awareness sessions about the dangers of infection for all students aged 13 to 17. The recently established coordination center, along with the mobile medical and psychological support unit at the Regional AIDS Center, is improving care for people living with HIV.
Since 2005, the Bavarian House has operated without subsidies, even as the scope of its tasks has expanded. The organization has long been offering consulting services in the field of economics. The subsidiary “Ukrainian-Bavarian Management Training Center” (UBMT GmbH) supports and provides consulting assistance to investors and entrepreneurs amidst the ongoing expansion of trade relations between Germany and the Odessa region. “But we will never forget that we are a source of support for many people in their daily lives,” says Maria Degtyarenko, the director of the Bavarian House.
→ Economic Center: market entry support for investors, seminars for management staff and Ukrainian entrepreneurs, business establishment, employee training, office services, translation bureau, and business management.
→ Cultural and Meeting Center: celebrations, exhibitions, and much more; concerts by the choir and orchestra across Ukraine and Western Europe.
→ Language Center: German language courses in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut.
→ Social Work Center: medical assistance at the Bavarian House social station in Novogradivka, major HIV/AIDS prevention projects, and support for “self-help” initiatives.