He was one of the leading Ukrainian geoscientists of the early 20th century – a pioneer. Joseph Tanatar was among the first graduates of the Mining College in Dnipro (now Dnipro Technical University), he was the first director of the Institute of Geology in Dnipro (a post he held for 44 years), and he published extensive standard works in his field. Tanatar undertook further training at the Freiberg Mining Academy in 1904 and 1905. Surprisingly little is known about this period, however. A group of students has set out to trace Tanatar’s footsteps and presents, on terra mineralia , their fascinating journey through the archives in Freiberg and Dnipro.
Free exhibition at the entrance to terra mineralia in Schloss Freudenstein Freiberg.
Open Tuesday to Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.,; Saturday, Sunday and public holidays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The exhibition was created as part of a unique, interdisciplinary teaching format known as COIL, which stands for Collaborative Online International Learning. In this seminar, students from the TU Bergakademie Freiberg and DniproTech collaborate digitally across national borders. The initial aim is to improve the English language skills of both groups: not through textbooks, but through intensive work on a shared topic – in this case, the story of Joseph Tanatar. Daria Yarosh, a student at DniproTech, explains: “I didn’t just learn English; it was about communicating with others and understanding their perspectives.”
More than 120 years ago, the Ukrainian Joseph Tanatar arrived at the Bergakademie and was enrolled there with student number 5050. This number gave the project its name. But it also reflects the methodological approach of this project, in which lecturers and students from Freiberg and Dnipro are working together. “It’s a case of give and take,” explains Dr Mark Jacob, one of the project leaders at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. “We’ve now put the exhibition together with marketing students. Over the summer, we also worked with Geology/Mineralogy students. Without our collaboration, we wouldn’t have been able to put this exhibition together ourselves.” Marketing student Anastasiia Bidniak from Dnipro adds: “We created this exhibition for German and Ukrainian students. By raising awareness of what Tanatar has achieved, our collaboration may become even more effective in the future.”
Professor Gerhard Heide from the Institute of Mineralogy at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg adds: “The project has evolved from an interdisciplinary approach to transdisciplinary work. Both groups of students have jointly developed and tested a historical technique – the soldering-tube assay method. Interest in it is so great, due to its illustrative nature, that I have been asked to incorporate it into the regular practical sessions on mineral identification.”
Project 5050 is one of a series of collaborations that the TU Bergakademie Freiberg maintains with partner universities in Ukraine and Moldova. And it will not be the last collaboration, according to Lena Bussmann Fuentes of TUBAFdigital, which supports innovative digital teaching projects as a project office: “New ideas are constantly emerging from our joint work on these projects. Technical developments are opening up many new doors, particularly at the moment. We definitely plan to continue these successful teaching collaborations, try out new formats and involve even more disciplines and students.”
But it is not only students who take part in the exchange. The programme could also be continued through existing DFG funding schemes, according to Professor Heide.
