Literary scholar, translator, public figure, participant in the Ukrainian human rights movement in Germany.
In the educated home of Mariia and Nikolai Lutsiak, Ukrainian was spoken, while Anna-Halia attended a Romanian school, and later a Romanian girls’ gymnasium in Chernivtsi. Political instability prompted the family to recall its Austrian roots, and in 1939, before the arrival of the Red Army, they left for Germany as part of the “Heim ins Reich” (Home to the Reich) program. The young woman was called up for military service in the anti-aircraft defense. They lived first in a displaced persons camp, then in Berlin, and later in Paderborn (Westphalia), where she graduated from gymnasium in 1943. She entered university to study medicine, but the university was closed in 1944. After the war, she studied at the University of Göttingen, where she majored in Slavic studies, Romanian studies, and Eastern European history, as well as German studies and English philology.
At the University of Göttingen, she taught Romanian and began translating stories by M. Kotsiubynsky and Yu. Kosach. She won a contest sponsored by the newspaper “Ukrainska trybuna” (Ukrainian Tribune). In 1948, she married Olexa Horbach, a former officer in the Ukrainian Division and a student of Slavic and Romance studies at the Ukrainian Free University. She moved to Munich. In 1950, she graduated from Ludwig Maximilian University there, defending her doctoral dissertation in philosophy on the topic “Epic Stylistic Devices of the Cossack Dumas.”
The birth of two daughters and a son (Kateryna, Marko, and Maryna) and frequent moves were not conducive to systematic teaching. From 1956, the family lived in Marburg, and from 1959, in Frankfurt am Main. There, Horbach completed the anthology of Ukrainian prose of the first half of the 20th century, “Blue November” (1959). She published studies on the history of Ukrainian-Romanian and Ukrainian-German literary relations (“Olha Kobylianska and German Culture,” 1967) and wrote dozens of articles for the “Kindlers Neues Literatur Lexikon.” She translated M. Kotsiubynsky’s “Fata morgana” (1962) and “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” (1966), H. Khotkevych’s “The Stone Soul” (1968), and V. Stefanyk’s short stories “The Thief” and “The Heralds” into German, as well as “Forest Tales” (1965) and works by V. Vynnychenko, M. Khvylovy, H. Kosynka, O. Dovzhenko, V. Drozd, Ye. Hutsalo, and others.
From 1960 to 1973, Horbach organized and ran a Saturday school in the Ukrainian community, teaching the children of emigrants to read and write in Ukrainian. She promoted Ukrainian literature in Germany by giving presentations at academic congresses and writing articles for the press and scholarly publications. She was a corresponding member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh, 1966).
In the late 1960s, Horbach prepared a second anthology, which included works by the Sixtiers (V. SYMONENKO, I. DRACH, Lina KOSTENKO, Hryhir Tiutiunnyk, and others). In connection with this publication, she traveled to Kyiv to seek the support of the Writers’ Union of Ukraine. The Writers’ Union demanded that the works of some authors be removed. It was then that Horbach met I. SVITLYCHNY, I. KALYNETS, V. CHORNOVIL, M. LUKASH, and H. KOCHUR. The anthology “A Well for the Thirsty” was published in 1970 in Tübingen and received favorable reviews in the West, while in Ukraine it was accused of having an anti-Soviet orientation.
When a wave of arrests swept through Ukraine in 1972, Horbach joined the German section of Amnesty International, becoming the group’s chief adviser on Eastern Europe and the main supplier of information about the human rights movement in Ukraine and the repression of human rights activists and cultural figures. Horbach published, among other things, materials and literary works by M. RUDENKO, Y. SVERSTIUK, V. STUS, I. SVITLYCHNY, V. MOROZ, V. HOLOBORODKO, M. HORBAL, V. MARCHENKO, I. KALYNETS, S. SAPELIAK, V. CHORNOVIL, L. LUKIANENKO, and Y. BADZIO, as well as the accounts of D. SHUMUK and Y. HRYTSIAK about the 1953 Norilsk uprising. She also published materials about the activities of the repressed Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. She informed the world community about political repressions in Ukraine and repeatedly gave informational presentations in Germany, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, and other countries. She organized protest campaigns in defense of prisoners of conscience. It was thanks to Horbach that the series Literia Ukraina Samwydaw was launched as a subseries of the Kuratorium Geistige Freiheit, for which she translated over one hundred documents and samvydav literary texts into German. Horbach wrote hundreds of letters and postcards to political prisoners, knowing that most would not be delivered to their addressees. She personally sent parcels of clothing and food to exiles in Siberia.
In 1977, the Horbach family settled in the village of Bärfurt, in Hesse, where they finally established a clear but intense work rhythm. Horbach published dozens of books of Ukrainian literary translations, including 15 anthologies, and authored dozens of literary articles, particularly about the Sixtiers and writers of a later period. She lectured on Ukrainian literary studies and translation at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich. She organized informational exhibitions about Ukraine for Germans.
In late 1977, Horbach joined the German-Ukrainian Society “Rhine-Neckar,” through which she organized assistance for young Ukrainians wishing to obtain higher education. Later, she organized aid for the children of Chornobyl, housing them in her home for weeks and arranging for them to stay with German families.
During the era of glasnost and with the proclamation of independence, she organized appearances by many Ukrainian writers in Germany, including Y. Andrukhovych and V. Kordun, and published their works in German. In her final years, two editions of the book “Die Ukraine im Spiegel ihrer Literatur” (“Ukraine in the Mirror of Its Literature”) were published, featuring a substantive chapter on “Goethe in the Life and Work of Vasyl Stus,” as well as reflections on the treatment of Ukrainian themes by German-language authors such as Leopold von Sacher-Masoch and Karl Emil Franzos.
Together with her husband, she founded the publishing house “Brodina Verlag” in 1995 (named after her native village), where she published translations of Ukrainian literature and related studies, hard-to-find monuments of Ukrainian writing, and research on language and literature. In 1997, she organized and transferred a significant part of the Ukrainica collection from the library of her husband, linguist Olexa Horbach (who died in 1997), to the newly opened Department of Ukrainian Philology at the University of Greifswald.
Their son, Marko Horbach, is a professor at York University and vice-president of the NTSh in Canada. Her younger daughter, Maryna, continues her mother’s work in the field of translation.
Horbach was buried on June 17, 2011, in the cemetery of Reichelsheim-Bärfurt in a shared grave with her husband.
Horbach was a corresponding member of the NTSh in Europe (from 1966), a member of the National Writers’ Union of Ukraine (1993), and a recipient of the V. Stus Prize of the Ukrainian Association of Independent Creative Intelligentsia (1993), the Ivan Franko Prize (1994), the “Triumph” Prize (2001), and the Olena Teliha International Literary and Arts Prize (2009). She was awarded the “Cross of Merit on a Ribbon” by the President of Germany (2006), the Ukrainian Order of Princess Olga (2006), and the medal of the rector of the Ukrainian Free University, “Pro Universitate Libera Ucrainensis” (2007).
Bibliography:
Publications: Tymish Khmelnytsky in Romanian Historiography and Literature / Scientific Notes of the UTHI. — Munich: UTHI, 1969. — Vol. 19;
Poet from Exile: A Few Words on the Works of S. Sapeliak // Suchasnist. — 1979. — No. 4. pp. 31-33;
Ukrainian Samvydav in German-Language Publications // Suchasnist. — 1980. — No. 1. — pp. 128-137;
German Criticism on Ukrainian Samvydav // Suchasnist. 1985. — No. 7-8;
Founding Conference of the Ukrainian Language Society (in Kyiv) // Suchasnist. — 1989. — No. 11. — pp. 116-121;
The Ukrainian Theme in German Literature (1993);
Our Official and Unofficial Encounters with Ukraine // Suchasnist. — 2002. — No. 6. — pp. 122-129;
Olexa Horbach. The Path from East to West. Memoirs. / Compiled by Anna-Halia Horbach, Yaroslava Zakrevska. – Lviv: I. Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 1998. – 373 pp.
Translations into German:
Bluer November: Ukrainische Erzähler unseres Jahrhunderts / Translated into German are works of writers of the 1920s, foreword by V. Pote. — Heidelberg: W. Rothe Verlag, 1959. — 375 pp.;
Ein Brunnen für Durstige / Foreword by M. Perca (M. Rehs), translation of works by Ukrainian writers of the 20th century, as well as the Sixtiers — L. Kostenko, V. Symonenko, V. Shevchuk, Ye. Hutsalo, I. Drach, V. Drozd, Hryhir Tiutiunyk, R. Ivanychuk. — Horst Erdmann Verlag, 1970. — 412 pp.;
Kalynets Ihor. Bilanz Des Schweigens / Poems by Ihor Kalynets, translated jointly with K. Horbach. — Darmstadt: J. G. Blaschke Verlag, 1975. — 80 pp.;
Pensen В., Tschornowil W. Wie Lange noch? / Diary from a Mordovian concentration camp, translated jointly with K. Horbach. — Bern: Kuratorium Geistige Freiheit, 1976.— 34 pp.;
Lukjanenko L. Ein Jahr Freiheit / Memoir of L. Lukianenko. — Zürich: Schweiz Aktion für das Selbstbestimmungsrecht Aller Völker, 1977. — 42 pp.;
Stimmen aus dem “Anderen Russland” / Poems, letters, and memoirs of V. Stus, D. Shumuk, Ye. Hrytsiak. — Bern: Kuratorium Geistige Freiheit, 1981. — 120 pp.;
Stus, Petkus, Rudenko, Lukjanenko, Niklus, Jakunin: Biographies. — Bern: Kuratorium Geistige Freiheit, 1981. — 12 pp.;
Angst — Ich bin dich Losgeworren / Poems by I. Svitlychny, Ye. Sverstiuk, V. Stus, translated jointly with M. Horbach, foreword by L. Kopelev. — Hamburg: Gerold & Appel, 1983. — 127 pp.;
Heifelz М. Vasyl Stus — Ein Dichter hinter Stachel Draht / Memoirs about V. Stus, translated jointly with M. Horbach. — Bern: Kuratorium Geistige Freiheit, 1983. — 42 pp.;
Rudenko M. Hinter Gittern / Poems by M. Rudenko, translated jointly with Maryna Horbach. — Bern: Kuratorium Geistige Fteiheit, 1983. — 10 pp.;
Sapelak S. Tag des Jungen Laubens / Poems by S. Sapeliak. — Bern: Kuratorium Geistige Freiheit, 1983.— 14 pp.;
Ein Dichter im Winderstand / Excerpts from the diary of V. Stus, translated jointly with M. Horbach, foreword by L. Kopelev. — Hamburg: Gerold & Appel Verlag, 1984. — 47 pp.;
Hejfetz M. Sorokas Rosenstrauch / Story about Ukrainian political prisoners in a Mordovian concentration camp, translated jointly with M. Horbach. — Hamburg: Gerold & Appel Verlag, 1984. — 210 pp.;
Horbal M. Details einer Sanduhr. Beten wir um Kraft, den Glauben nicht zu Verlieren / Poems by M. Horbal. — Bern: Kuratorium Geistige Freiheit, 1984. — 16 pp.;
Martschenko V. Ich habe kein Haus und keine Strasse / Articles and letters by V. Marchenko, translated jointly with M. Horbach. — Hamburg: Gerold & Appel Verlag, 1985.— 54 pp.;
Horbal M. “Hier wartet Man auf das Ende” / Memoirs and poems by M. Horbal. — Hamburg: Gerold & Appel Verlag, 1986. — 53 pp.;
Literature: Zhulynsky M. A Well for the Thirsty // Lit. Ukraina. — 1971. — May 11;
Zakrevska Ya. The Life and Creative Silhouette of Anna-Halia Horbach // Horbach A.-H: Bibliographic Index. — Lviv, 1999;
Anna-Halia Horbach. Ukrainians in the World: http://www.ukrainians-world.org.ua/peoples/0c66f897fa59e437;
Wikipedia: http://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Горбач_Анна-Галя;
Kratochvil Alexander. Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Translator / Krytyka, no. 7/8. – 2011: http://krytyka.com/cms/front_content.php?idart=1119;
Myroslav Marynovych. Anna-Halia Horbach, Ukraine’s Informal Cultural Attaché in Germany, Has Passed Away – UCU News. – June 15, 2011, http://ucu.edu.ua/news/4896/;
Kachaniuk-Spiekh I. In Memory of Anna-Halia Horbach // Svoboda. — 2011. — July 1;
Kachaniuk-Spiekh I. The Heavenly Bird Has Flown Back to the Heavens: In Memory of Anna-Halia Horbach // Ameryka. — 2011. — July 9;
Horbach Kateryna. In Bright Memory of Anna-Halia Horbach // Ukr. lit. gaz. — 2011. — July 15;
There, in the Land of the Nibelungs...: Her Son, Prof. Marko Horbach of York University, Speaks About Anna-Halia Horbach / Interview conducted by O. Kobets // Ukr. lit. gaz. – 2011. – July 26.
Resistance Movement in Ukraine: 1960 – 1990. Encyclopedic Directory / Foreword by Osyp Zinkevych, Oles Obertas. – K.: Smoloskyp, 2010. – pp. 154-156; 2nd ed., 2012. – pp. 170-171;
Ukrainian Diaspora: Literary Figures, Works, Bibliographical Information / Compiled by V. A. Prosalova. – Donetsk: Skhidnyi vydavnychyi dim, 2012. – 516 pp.
HORBACH ANNA-HALIA