Tuesday, March 08, 2022

Chernivtsi, Czernowitz, Cernăuți: A city in Ukraine

The evening news in Germany had a reporter just now broadcasting from Chernivtsi, a city I know of by its German name Czernowitz as the birthplace and hometown of the Germanophone poet Paul Celan (1920-1970), as well as of another Germanophone poet, Rose Ausländer (1901-1988). When Ausländer was born (as Rosalie Scherzer), the city was part of Austria-Hungary; when Celan was born (as Paul Antschel, or in Romanian Ancel), Cernăuți was in Romania. Later, the future Hebrew-language novelist Aharon (born as Ervin) Appelfeld (1932-2018) was also born there. During and after the Second World War, it became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became the independent Ukraine in 1991. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 8 March 2022)


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