Konigsberg: History Our Family Lived Through From the 1200's

History That Our Family Lived Through I found the following articles of interest on the Internet. Most of them either deal with the Tomtschik ancestral home in Königsberg, or the life of the German settlers in Russia. John Tomtschik =========================================== Königsberg Through the Centuries 13th Century Bohemian King Ottokar II leads the Teutonic Order in a second crusade against the Prussians, conquering a settlement by the Pregel from 1253/57. A castle is built and the area is called Königsberg in the king's honor. In 1283 Teutonic knights finally suppress Prussian tribes and the German colonization of these lands begins. Gradually the indigenous Prussians mix with the new settlers and their language disappears, but the area still bears the name - Prussia.13th Century -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 14th Century the building of Königsberg's cathedral begins in 1333. The three towns around the castle join the Hanseatic League in 1339. By 1384, Teutonic knights conquer part of Lithuania. Lithuania and Poland are united by royal marriage and become a formidable superpower by 1385/87 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15th Century: At war with Poland during 1409/10, Teutonic knights are crushed by overwhelming Polish led forces at the battle of Tannenberg. By 1440 the Order is in crisis; towns and nobles form a breakaway alliance, which then pledges loyalty to the Polish crown. In 1454 a 13-years' war begins between this alliance and the Order. The financially exhausted Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order lose their capital in Marienburg and so take up residence in Königsberg. In 1466 the Order loses territory to Poland and the Grandmaster is forced to pledge loyalty to Poland. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 16th and 17th Centuries: In 1511 21-year-old Albrecht, Markgraf von Brandenburg, whose aim is to free Prussia from Poland, becomes head of the Order. The Order is dissolved in 1519/25 by Albrecht and his uncle King Sigismund I of Poland crowns him Duke of a secular Prussian state under Poland. Königsberg University is founded in 1544. Albrecht dies in 1618 and the Prussian Duchy is united by marriage to the German State of Brandenburg. In 1626 Prussia is attacked and plundered by Swedish forces. For the next 100 years the Baltic countries battle for supremacy on the waves. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 18th and 19th Centuries: Friedrich III of Brandenburg is crowned Friedrich I of Prussia in Königsberg castle in 1701. From 1709 to 1711 the Plague claims 250,000 lives in Königsberg. In 1724 the three towns around the castle unite to form Königsberg and Immanuel Kant is born there. In 1756 the Seven Years' War between Prussia, Austria and Russia begins. The Prussian army is eventually defeated and Russia occupies Prussia. In 1807 Napoleon's armies march into East Prussia. King Friedrich Wilhelm III asks Russian Tsar Alexander I for military assistance. The joint forces are defeated and France occupies Prussian territory. Friedrich and Queen Louise flee to Memel. Prussia and Russia make a pact against Napoleon in 1812. East Prussia becomes part of the German Reich in 1871. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20th Century: The 1919 Treaty of Versailles turns East Prussia into an enclave, separated from the rest of Germany by the "Polish corridor". During four days of August 1944 the old town and northern parts of Königsberg are destroyed by British bombers. During January and February 1945 East Prussia is surrounded by Russian forces. Evacuation of German civilians begins but comes too late. Thousands are killed trying to flee either by boat or on foot across the frozen waters of the Curonian Lagoon. The Red Army captures Königsberg in April 1945. About 90% of the old town lies in ruins. By July 1945 Northern East Prussia becomes part of the USSR and in the autumn the first Soviet settlers arrive. In July 1946 Königsberg is renamed Kaliningrad. From 1946 to 1948 the city is rebuilt and the remaining German inhabitants deported. The 1960s/70s mark the replacement of historical buildings with plain utilitarian structures. Further destruction comes in 1967/69 when the 800-year-old castle is dynamited to make way for the House of Soviets. In the late 1980s ethnic Germans arrive from other parts of the USSR. By 1991 5,000 ethnic Germans inhabit the city and 13,000 - the region. Closed off to foreigners since WWII, the Kaliningrad region is reopened on January 1, 1991 when the first direct train since 1945 runs from Kaliningrad to Berlin. The Kaliningrad Region is declared a 'free economic zone' (FEZ) in 1992 in an attempt to revive the economy. It doesn't work. Former sailor and economist Yuri Matutchkin is appointed governor of the Kaliningrad Region by Russian president, Boris Yeltsin in 1993. The governor rules over the local assembly, but still answers to Moscow. In March 1995 a Presidential Decree signed in Moscow 'accidentally' abolishes all the economic privileges set up under the 1992 FEZ. Communists win the local elections in December 1995. On January 22, 1996 President Boris Yeltsin signs a Federal Statute declaring the Kaliningrad Region a 'special economic zone', exempting various companies from customs duties and thereby achieving what the 1992 FEZ agreement failed to do. Yeltsin is reelected in June 16, 1996 for another four-year term. On October 20, 1996, in the first election in the region Kaliningraders vote for Leonid Gorbienko, former director of the fishing port over the incumbent Matutchkin. The Duma passes law on Free Economic Zones on July 2, 1997. The first needle exchange in Russia opens in the city of Kaliningrad on July 27, 1998. Free AIDS test and medical services are also available. With some 1,700 known HIV-positive people, Kaliningrad region leads Russia in AIDS cases. Economic crisis rocks the Russian economy on August 17, 1998. Banks go bankrupt, investors lose their savings, prices increase by 30% and the ruebel devalues. By September 1998 a state of emergency is declared as most of the population is starving. Kaliningrad receives humanitarian aid from neighboring countries. In March 23, 1999 Governor Gorbienko opposes the longtime proposition that Kaliningrad become 'fourth Baltic Republic'. ===================================================== Kolingrad Exclave Russia's smallest oblast (region) is an exclave located 200 miles away from the border of Russia proper. Kaliningrad was a spoil of World War II, ceded from Germany to the Soviet Union at the Potsdam Conference that divided Europe between the allied powers in 1945. The oblast is a wedge-shaped piece of land along the Baltic Sea between Poland and Lithuania, approximately one-half the size of Belgium, 5,830 mi2 (15,100 km2). Its primary and port city is also known as Kaliningrad. Known as Königsberg prior to Soviet occupation, the city was founded in 1255 near the mouth of the Pregolya River. The philosopher Immanuel Kant was born in Königsberg in 1724. The capital of German East Prussia, Königsberg was the home to a grand Prussian Royal Castle, destroyed along with much of the city in World War II. Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946 after Mikhail Kalinin, formal "leader" of the Soviet Union from 1919 until 1946. Germans living in the oblast were forced out, to be replaced with Soviet citizens. The ice-free port of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea was home to the Soviet Baltic fleet; during the Cold War 200,000 to 500,000 soldiers were stationed in the region. Today only 25,000 soldiers occupy Kaliningrad, an indicator of the reduction of perceived threat from Baltic neighbors. The USSR attempted to build a 22-story House of Soviets, "the ugliest building on Russian soil," in Kaliningrad but the structure had been built on the property of the castle. Unfortunately, the castle contained many underground tunnels and the building began to slowly collapse though it still stands, unoccupied. After the fall of the USSR, neighboring Lithuania and former Soviet republics gained their independence, cutting Kaliningrad off from Russia. While there were early proposals to change the name of Kaliningrad back to Königsberg, none were successful. Kaliningrad was supposed to develop in the post-Soviet era into a "Hong Kong of the Baltic" but corruption keeps most investment away. In 1996, South Korean-based Kia Motors proposed a factory in Kaliningrad but bureaucratic problems ended the project. Although railroads connect Kaliningrad to Russia though Lithuania and Belarus, high tariffs in Lithuania make importing food and supplies from Russia prohibitively expensive. Approximately 400,000 people live in metropolitan Kaliningrad and a total of one million are in the oblast, which is approximately one-fifth forested. ========================================== Kaliningrad Kaliningrad, formerly Königsberg, is a city in western Russia, on the Pregolya River. The capital of the Kaliningrad Oblast, it is a major industrial and commercial center, connected by channel with Baltiysk, an ice-free port on the Baltic Sea. Among its principal manufactures are ships, machinery, chemicals, paper, and lumber. Historic landmarks in Kaliningrad include the Schloss, or Castle (1255), and a cathedral (14th century). The German philosopher Immanuel Kant, a native of the city, taught at its university. The university was established in 1544 and is now known as Kaliningrad State University. The city, founded in 1255 as a fortress by the Teutonic Knights, became a member of the Hanseatic League in 1340. From 1457 to 1525 it was the official seat of the grand master of the Teutonic Knights, and from 1525 to (1618) it was the residence of the dukes of Prussia. Frederick I was crowned as the first King of Prussia in the chapel of the Schloss in 1701. During World War I (1914-18) the city was the scene of heavy fighting between the Germans and the Russians. Following the war it was made the capital of the German province of East Prussia. The city was severely damaged in World War II (1945-45), and in 1945, after a two-month siege, it was occupied by Soviet troops. By agreement among the Allies at the Potsdam Conference (1945) the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) annexed the city and surrounding territory. In 1946 the city's name was changed from Königsberg to Kaliningrad, in honor of the Soviet leader M. I. Kalinin. Population (1995) 512,508. =========================================== German minorities in the former Soviet Union: Germans in Eastern Europe Germans first established in Russia at the 18th century, called by Ekaterina the Tsarina to populate regions in "southern Russia" (present day Ukraine) and the Volga. Another area of present-day Russia were Germans lived is the Kaliningrad region, which was till 1945 part of Eastern Prussia, integral part of the German state. In World War II, the Germans were displaced towards Siberia and Central Asia, and were not allowed to return. Between 1950 and 1994 1.4 million Germans from the Soviet Union emigrated to Germany. However, there are thousands left in Russia. Check the pages from other German minorities, and the index for the former Soviet Union. Volga Germans In the Volga region around Samara, were established more than 100 colonies in the 18th century. Germans prospered there, and by 1914, they were 1.6 million people. In the Soviet era, from 1924 to 1941, an autonomous Republic of the Volga Germans existed within the Russian Federation. When war erupted with Nazi Germany, the Republic was abolished, and all Germans were deported. It is possible that ethnic Germans of Russian citizenship may be living in this territory nowadays, but there is not any "living" community. _______________________________________________________ Kaliningrad The region of Kaliningrad is a separate piece of the Russian Federation, lying in the Baltic shore between Poland and Lithuania. Before WW II, this was part of Eastern Prussia, Germany. But after German frontiers were redrawn, Eastern Prussia was divided between Poland and Russia. Almost all Germans living there were relocated, but in the late 1980s, ethnic Germans from other parts of the USSR arrived. Today, some 10,000 Germans may live there, half of them in Kaliningrad the capital. Before being German, this land was inhabited by Baltic peoples, the Prussians, whose language was extinct long ago, and Lithuanians. Today, Lithuanians are still 4% of the population of Kaliningrad region (in all, 1 million people); and might be considered an original minority of the area, so we list names in Lithuanian as well. Germans in Ukraine: There are several areas of Ukraine where German settlements were established. In southern Ukraine, along Bessarabia, Odessa and Crimea, there were the "southern Russian" colonies, as when they were founded, that was the south of the Russian empire. There were also colonies in Volhynia region, in northwestern Ukraine. In Trans-Carpathia and northern Bukovina, in Western Ukraine, there was also German presence, dating back to the Middle Ages. In this area, there is still a residual German population of some 2,000 people. Check the notes on spellings below. . Russian Ukrainian German Arciz Arcyz Arzis Bel'ajevka Biljajivka Friedenheim Berezino Berezyne Beresina Borodino Borodino Borodino Kucurgan Kucurhan Strassburg Limanskoe Lymans'ke Selz Mardarovka Mardarivka Helenendorf Serpnevoe Serpneve Leipzig Tarutino Tarutyno Tarutino Regarding spellings, we use some conventions as shown in this table below. Check the Glossary of Diacritics to identify distinct accent signs. hizkuntzak / languages gure tauletan / in our tables jatorrian / originally Lithuanian S C Z / Ë / Û S C & Z with Caron; E with dot above; U with macron Names in Russian and Lithuanian appear transliterated from their ciryllic scripts here, following international standards, with some additional conventions used in GeoNative, as it is shown below: ============== This page covers most of the vast region of the former Soviet Union. It specifically excludes the Baltic States (Eastonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). Everything to the east of Poland and the Baltic States is included. One small region of Romania (BESSARABIA) is also included. Specific regions included in this scope are: - Bessarabia - Black Sea Colonies - Caucasus - Crimea - Kazakhstan - Siberia - Ukraine - Volga Region - Volhynia You may see references to Polish Volhynia, Russian Volhynia, or Ukrainian Volhynia. Such references only apply to the time period between World Wars I and II. Description of the research area: Hundreds of thousands of Germans have lived in the vast Russian regions for hundreds of years. The largest concentrations were in the Volga River Region, the Black Sea region, Bessarabia, and Volhynia. Smaller settlements existed in the Baltic area near St. Petersburg and the Caucaus. Later, many of these same Germans were exiled to the east and thus have connections to Kazakhstan and Siberia. Most of these Germans were LUTHERAN and MENNONITE. Other religions represented included JEWS, ROMAN CATHOLICS, BAPTISTS, REFORMED, and MORAVIAN. They had origins in many different German states. Some came from other east European countries like Poland and Hungary. History: Because of the extensive size of the Russian nation, the history of the Germans within it is varied and complex. Germans had lived in various parts of the Russian empire for centuries so perhaps the best way to describe their history is through a description of the migration waves that occurred. In 1763, Catherine II (Catherine the Great, German born empress of Russia) sent agents into the German states for the purpose of recruiting settlers. These colonists were to develop the fertile, uncultivated agricultural lands southeast of Moscow, specifically along the VOLGA River. There were several promises that made this offer attractive to the Germans: freedom from various forms of taxes and customs duties, self government for the towns, freedom of religion, and freedom from military service, to name a few. It is easy to see how attractive this would be to Germans who were suffering from widespread poverty, malnutrition, and unemployment brought on by feudal infighting, wars, religious persecution, and the general politics of the day. The extent of this migration was so great (4000 families in 1767 alone) that further migration was forbidden by the German Emperor Joseph II. Migration to the VOLGA effectively ended at this time. During these 4 years it is estimated that over 25,000 Germans migrated primarily from Hesse and the southwest states but nominally from other areas as well. In the next few years, Catherine the Great expanded Russian territory dramatically by conquering Turkish controlled land to the south and Polish land to the west. Catherine again wanted Germans to help in developing her new territories, especially around the north side of the BLACK SEA. This time she turned to the Mennonites of West Prussia. Mennonites are a pacifist denomination. Frederick William II was demanding payment of heavy fines in lieu of military service and forced the Mennonites to pay tithes to the established Lutheran Church on earlier land purchases from Lutherans. They were particularly attracted to Russia by the offer of freedom from military service. In 1789, 228 Mennonite families arrived at Chortitza on the Dnieper River. They had been preceded to the general region by a smaller group of Lutherans. The Mennonite migration continued into the area for another 80 years with thousands more families answering the call. Thousands of other Germans followed the Mennonites. Lutherans and Catholics began flooding into the area, starting particular after the Napoleonic wars (1803 through 1810). They not only came from the southwest German states but also from West Prussia, Hungary, and Poland. Hundreds of German colonies sprang up in a semi circle around Odessa, now in the UKRAINE. Another war with Turkey brought Russia more territory, the region of BESSARABIA on the west side of the Black Sea. By 1816, over 1500 German families moved into this area, most of them from Poland. Migration continued with population increases coming from Baden, Wuerttemberg, Hesse, and Alsace. Further colonization took place north of the Sea of Azov, in the CRIMEA, and the CAUCASUS. In VOLHYNIA, early German settlement was sporadic. One of the first colonies was at Koretz in 1783. A few Mennonite agricultural villages were established prior to 1793 but most of them moved on to the Black Sea region within a few decades. The first permanent settlement came in 1816 but significant migration into Volhynia did not occur until the 1830s. The migration to Volhynia occurred under vastly different circumstances than that to other parts of the Russian empire. Polish landlords who had retained land after the Russian occupation were looking for qualified farmers to develop and farm their land. No special privileges were extended to these immigrants except for that which could be provided by the local nobility. It was the shortage of land in their old homes that drove most of the Germans into this region. By 1860, there were only about 5000 in 35 small villages. Then, with the abolition of serfdom in 1861 and the failed Polish Insurrection of 1863, Germans began to flood into this area. By 1871, there were over 28,000 and by the turn of the century, over 200,000 lived in Volhynia. Most of them had come from Poland with a minority from Wuerttemberg, Pomerania, East Prussia, Silesia, and Galicia. Russian politics changed dramatically over these 100 years and it wasn't long before the Germans starting loosing the freedoms and privileges extended to them. The Mennonites were first to leave in large numbers. They were being forced to provide military service to the Russians so in the 1870s, thousands of them moved on to both North and South America. Persecution continued with Germans losing their right to language and property ownership so many more soon followed them. Animosity towards the Germans peaked during World War I with most being expelled eastward to KAZAKHSTAN and SIBERIA. Some made it back to their homelands after the war. Others stayed in these new areas, hoping to establish a new life. Still others escaped eastward through China and on to Australia and the Americas. After World War II, the Germans were no longer allowed back to their homelands. They were forced to stay in the east or in some cases were expelled back to Germany. [Primary historical source: From Catherine to Kruschev, The Story of Russia's Germans; by Adam Giesinger; Published by the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia] ============================= Kaliningrad Pronounced As: klynyin-grät , formerly Königsberg, city (1989 pop. 401,000), capital of Kaliningrad region, W European Russia, on the Pregolya River near its mouth on the Vislinski Zalev, which empties into the Gulf of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea. A major ice-free Baltic seaport and naval base, and an important industrial, fishing, and commercial center, Kaliningrad has industries that produce ships and machinery and process food, fish, and wood. The city has an institute of oceanography and botanical and zoological gardens. It is the home of the Russian Baltic fleet. The city was founded (1255) as a fortress of the Teutonic Knights by King Ottocar II of Bohemia, for whom it is supposedly named. It joined (1340) the Hanseatic League and became (1457) the seat of the grand master of the Teutonic Order after the knights lost Marienburg to Poland. It was the residence of the dukes of Prussia from 1525 until the union (1618) of Prussia and Brandenburg and became (1701) the coronation city of the kings of Prussia. The Univ. of Königsberg (founded 1544) reached its greatest fame when Kant (who was born and lived his entire life at Königsberg) taught there. The university building, the 14th-century cathedral, and most of the old city were severely damaged by Soviet troops in World War II. The old castle was demolished after the war, and the German population was deported to Siberia. As part of the northern section of East Prussia, the city was transferred to the USSR in 1945. The new Soviet city (named Kaliningrad for Mikhail Kalinin in 1946) was laid out after 1945 in the former residential suburbs of Königsberg; its population is almost entirely Russian. In the 1990s, ethnic Germans from other parts of the former Soviet Union began moving to the city. ====================================================== What happened to the Germans living in the Soviet Union prior to and during World War II? On August 12, 1939, Stalin and Hitler signed a non-aggression pact. As a result of this, Germans living in Bessarabia, Bukovina, Dobruja, Galicia and Polish Volhynia were repatriated to Germany. They were first settled in the western part of Poland, but as the German Army retreated, they moved farther westward into western Germany. Because of the earlier agreement and the fact that they had German citizenship, they were not forced back to the Soviet Union at the end of the war. Beginning with the Crimean Germans on August 20, 1941, Germans living in areas not overrun by the German Army were deported to Siberia and the Asiatic Republics. There they were sent to labor camps and kept under close supervision until 1956. These deported Germans were from the area east of the Dnieper River, the Volga Region (September 1941), the South Caucasus (October 1941), and Leningrad (now Petersburg, March 1942). Germans living in the cities were also deported to labor camps. The Germans living in the area of the southern Soviet Union, which was overrun by the German Army, retreated with the German Army as they were losing the war. At the end of the war, approximately 300,000 of these people were in Germany; 200,000 of them were forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union, where they joined the other Soviet Germans in labor camps. A Light in the Darkness is a video presentation depicting the plight of these Germans at this time. (Note: I have ordered this video and will let you know if it is any good.) ==================================================== Black Sea Germans from the Ukraine The history of the Black Sea Germans is more than 200 years old. At the end of the 18th century Russia conquered in the war against the Turks vast areas of the steppe by the Black Sea; the cultivation of which was to be implemented immediately. As serfdom limited the Russian peasants in their freedom of movement and thus made an immediate settlement of the new area impossible, foreign settlers were recruited. Already in July 1763, Czarina Catherine II issued in a manifesto the permit to all foreigners coming to Russia to settle in governments of their choice and granted them special rights. The Czarina's manifesto guaranteed foreign settlers also the right of free religion and self-government aside from various economic and political privileges. The call of Catherine II was most welcome in the German small states where economic hardship, denominational differences and wars wore down the population. Alexander I. was determined to continue the colonization politics in South Russia begun by Czarina Catherine II. Based on the colonization program drawn up by Secretary of the Interior, Count W. Kotschebej, the governments of Cherson, Jekaterinoslav and Taurien were settled and as of 1812 also Bessarabia. In 1803 the first settlers from the town of Ulm arrived via the Danube at the quarantine ward of Dubossar. Thus the massive colonization of the Black Sea region began. The settlers having arrived at the mouth of the Danube had a long and difficult journey behind them and in many cases had lost relatives during their travel. After a two-week stay at the quarantine ward they could continue to travel to Odessa where they spent the winter. In the spring of 1804 the distribution of land got started. The decree for the colonization by foreigners provided for the distribution of large connected tracts of land at good sites. German Colonies in the Odessa Region "The colonists founded well organized colonies in the inhospitable areas settled by them; they turned barren steppes into healthy fields, reforested, put in orchards and vegetable gardens and introduced many useful innovations in the area of agriculture." South Russian Department of State Property, 1854. Many historians dealt with the works of the colonists and acknowledged it. In the beginning the strange geographic and climatic conditions created great difficulties for the German farmers. They were forced to develop new methods of land cultivation. They worked mainly raising cattle in the first phase of their adaptation to these new circumstances. In 1805, sheep with fine wool were brought to the cities of Odessa and Dnepropetrowsk and the breeding of these animals began in New Russia. This wool was soon the most important product of the colonists. The Germans also managed to adapt East Frisian cattle to the adverse conditions of the steppes. The new breed was soon known as 'German-Red Cattle' or 'Colonists'-Cattle'. Later the colonists began to extensively grow grain, sunflowers, wine, vegetables, fruits, tobacco and silk. They worked as beekeepers and in forestry. There were brickyards, wineries, breweries, cheese factories and oil mills in many colonies. Soon water-, wind- and steam powered mills, stud farms and cloth factories emerged. The German colonists soon obtained, for these conditions, an unusual amount of wealth. It was not only the decree of land distribution and the structure of the community that contributed to it. The community which had received land for settlement functioned as the landowner. Part of the land was made available for the common use of pasture for cattle. Beyond that all families were left equally with land for their yard, fields and meadows for their own use. As a rule it was approximately 60 hectares. A "farm" or "family piece" of that property formed together with other farm buildings a "farm" or "farmstead" which was not allowed to be split, sold or mortgaged; the inheritance laws took this into account. One of the direct descendants of the owner took over the yard which could not be divided but on the condition that the community proclaimed him able to manage the "farm". Young people who could not remain on the parental farmstead pursued a career in trade or industry, founded new colonies on retained pieces of land or acquired or leased land themselves. Social life in the colonies was based on self-government. The highest organization of power was the city council, which involved one representative from each farmstead. The local council selected a mayor and two representatives to appoint a secretary. She coordinated the payment of taxes and other obligations, discussed questions of general interest and complaints, employed clergy, and decided the exclusion of colonists from the colonist status. Every question was settled with a so-called 'dictum.' The mayor was elected every three years. His tasks were to look after the condition of the colony, agricultural implements and cattle, to ensure the timely start of working in the fields and to supervise the cleanliness of the farmsteads. The administration of grain supply, of the school system, the responsibility for public buildings and roads was the responsibility of the communities. The local Russian administration was called on exclusively in questions which were beyond the competence of the colonies. Observers were sent to the colonies; they supervised on the spot the activity of the German administration and gave reports to the office of social services which was responsible for the colonies. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Colonies of Großliebental Overall, more than 500 colonies were founded in present day region of Odessa east of the Dnjepr River and approximately 40 in the area of Nikolajew and approximately 150 in Bessarabia. The colonists often named the villages after their hometowns. Thus, the villages of Baden, Rastadt, Kassel, München, Straßburg and others originated in South Russia. As the growing colonies needed more land, daughter colonies, which carried the name of the mother colony with the prefix 'new', emerged. Later the colonies had to be partially renamed. In 1819, under Alexander I, the German villages got names in memory of Napoleon's victory such as Tarutino or Borodino. The colonies of Großliebental were in close proximity to the city of Odessa. Großliebental (today Welikodolinskoje) was the center of the region densely populated by Germans; it included the colonies of Lustdorf (Tschernomorka), Kleinliebental (Malodolinskoje), Alexanderhilf (Dobroalexandrowka), Franzfeld, Neuburg (Nowogradowka), Mariental (Marjanowka), Josefstal (Jossipowka) and Peterstal (Petrodolina). The colonies maintained close ties to the city of Odessa. As of 1907, a streetcar line connected the town with Lustdorf, the charming resort town by the Black Sea, which attracted many people seeking rest and relaxation. The former streetcar depot in Lustdorf now serves -- as does the villa where the Russian poet, Anna Achmatowa, was to have lived -- as an apartment building. The residents of the colonies belonged, as a rule, without exception to one and the same denomination. "Catholic," "Lutheran" or "Mennonite" meant far more than a tradition or customs, a certain way of life and a specific German dialect. The churches built by believers of various denominations were expropriated in the '30s. During the Soviet regime they were unoccupied, destined for ruin or were used for other not intended worldly purposes. Some German church buildings survived in the area of the former Großliebental colonies. The buildings serve as cultural centers and youth clubs with exception of the church in Großliebental itself; it is being remodeled to an orthodox church -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- . The Kutschurgan Colonies The significant colonies of the Kutschurgan area were Straßburg (today Kutschurgan), Baden, Selz, Kandel (today Limanskoje), Mannheim (today Kamenka) and Elsaß (by Stepnoje). The Kutschurgan River is a small tributary of the Dneister River. At the same latitude as the colony of Baden it flows into the Liman with the same name, which now forms the border between the Ukraine and Moldova. In 1808, almost 400 families from southern Germany founded the Kutschurgan colonies on its banks; supposedly the governor of the Odessa region, Duke Arman de Richelieu, backed them himself. Grain and vegetables, melons, sunflowers, flax and wine were grown in the colonies. Cattle were bred and mills, blacksmith shops and other trade shops were operated. The city of Odessa was vitally important for the economic development of the colonies. The trading of grain and wine was handled at the docks; furthermore, the colonists regularly sold vegetables at the "Priwos" and the "New Bazaar" in Odessa. They met in the tavern "Maibach" where they exchanged information, discussed prices and did business. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Beresan Colonies The Beresan district was one of the largest districts in the Black Sea region. Today it is located partially in the district of Odessa, partially in the district of Nikolajew. The colonies of Karlsruhe (Stepowoje), Rohrbach (Nowoswetlowka), Worms (Winogradnoje), Rastadt (Poretschje), München (Gradowka) and others belonged to this district. In the Beresan colonies were remarkable facilities, which, after all, shed light on the material wealth and cultural prosperity of the German settlers. Alluded to is the school for the deaf and dumb in Worms, which was founded due to the initiative of the Evangelical pastor Daniel Steinwand (1857-1919). Besides general and parochial schools, an agricultural technical college was located in Landau, the center of the district. In addition, a theater with orchestral accompaniment existed in Landau. It is remarkable that theaters remained reserved for cities, even during the heyday of the colonies. The colonies of Rastadt and München were located northwest of the district of Landau. Many silent witnesses of the past are preserved in these locations. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The History of the Black Sea Germans Since the Middle of the 19th Century The emergence of 'Panslavism,' the changed national identity and because of the founding the German Reich the increased need for polarization led increasingly to criticism of the concentration of real estate in the hands of nonslavic immigrants. One warned of a "peaceful conquest" and of the "Germanization" of Russia. In 1887, a law for foreigners was enacted which very much restricted foreigners' rights to lease and acquire property especially in areas near the borders. As of 1871, the privileges for colonists were abolished and Russian i.e. Ukrainian as the official language was introduced to the German colonies. By the end of the 19th century, lack of land and increasing political pressure had a great effect on the livelihood of Germans. Many of them decided therefore to leave the Black Sea region. As the German Empire was willing to take in only a small number of Black Sea Germans, many settlers participated with Russian and Ukrainian farmers in colonizing Siberia within the framework of the agrarian reform and founded new colonies there. Thousands emigrated to America at the beginning of the 20th century and settled in the states of North and South Dakota among other places. A second wave of emigration reached this area at the end of WWII. The colonists evacuated from the Black Sea region to Germany by the German army tried by escaping to the USA to avoid extradition to the Red Army by the allies. Whoever travels today from the Black Sea region to North and South Dakota will be surprised of the huge number of parallels, which exist between the "Ukrainian" and the "American" Black Sea Germans. The emigrants, like their ancestors in the Black Sea region one century earlier, set up their lives on the prairies of North America. Their new hometowns have the same names as the German settlements by the Black Sea, the tough living conditions on the prairie resemble the adverse conditions under which the steppe of Southern Russia had to be cultivated. However, above all, the Black Sea Germans brought with them to America their distinctive way of life. Today in Europe and in the USA they attempt successfully to enter again into relations with their scattered relatives and to weave torn threads once again. The collapse of the Soviet Union has made it possible that they meet by the Black Sea or elsewhere. At the beginning of the 20th century, the political and economic living conditions of the German settlers by the Black Sea continued to deteriorate. As WWI was approaching, drastic measures were adopted against German settlers in order to prevent from the beginning any potential confrontation with the adversary. Even before the armed struggle in which approximately 300,000 Black Sea Germans participated at the Russian front lines, the so-called settlement laws were enacted. They provided for dispossession and deportation of all citizens with Austrian, Hungarian and German heritage living within a 150 Km wide strip of land along the Western border. The dispossession and deprivation of rights of the Germans in the Black Sea region reached its first peak with the settlement laws and then, until 1917, lasting measures were to implement them. In 1917, a large part of the colonies fell to the just founded Ukrainian Peoples' Republic. Even during WWI, German and Austrian-Hungarian troops occupied the Peoples’ Republic. The German colonies were under their protection, and at first this brought in a sense of ease to the situation for the German population. Coercive sanctions by the state to get food and a drastic drop in agricultural production followed the October Revolution. Further dispossession and deportation were the consequences of collectivization and robbed large parts of the rural population of their existence. As the German population represented a large percentage of prosperous farmers with relatively much real estate, it was affected more than the average by the measures against the kulaks. There were famines even though Lenin's "new economic politics" introduced in 1921 brought temporarily ease to agriculture. The grain supplies stored by German communities before the Revolutions were forcefully removed. At the same time the ethnicity politics of the Soviet Union brought about an expansion of cultural freedom for the Black Sea Germans. In the `20s the Soviet government favored the formation of national administrative districts where the particular mother tongues of people could be used as the official language. Seven German national districts, where Germans represented more than 70% of the population, emerged in the `20s in the Ukraine. The break up of national councils and districts as well as the deportation of people began in the course of Stalin's "purge" increasingly operated from 1936; the Germans were affected by this purge as much as the rest of the population. German national districts in the Ukraine (1936) During WWII the fate of the Black Sea Germans was determined by the swift occupation of the Black Sea region by Romanian and German troops. While the Germans living east of the Dnjepr River were deported to Siberia, the Germans living west of the Dnjepr were initially under the protection of the German Reich. They were registered in the so-called "List of German people" which later on served as the basis for handing out German certificates of naturalization. By the end of 1943 the resettlement of Black Sea Germans from the occupied areas to the so-called Warthegau began with the advance of the Red Army. As far as they survived the difficulties of the flight, the Germans were settled on farmsteads of expelled Polish people with the goal to "germanize" the region. The events of the war soon forced the settlers to continue fleeing westward. After the war, part of the Germans from the Black Sea region who stayed in the western occupied zones of Germany managed to go into hiding in order to escape the extradition to Soviet occupational forces and repatriation into the Soviet Union. Others could travel to America. However, a large number of Black Sea Germans were handed over to Soviet commando units and with huge losses deported to Siberian special camps and labor camps. Translation from German to English by Brigitte von Budde, German translator for the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, NDSU Libraries, Fargo. ====================================================== A Brief History of the Germans from Russia Updated: 2.8.2001 (The following history is taken from the book, Researching the Germans from Russia compiled by Michael M. Miller, published by the Institute for Regional Studies, North Dakota State University, Fargo, 1987, pages xvii-xix.) The story of the Germans from Russia had its beginning in 1763 while Catherine II, a former German princess of the principality of Anhalt-Zerbst, was Empress of Russia. The Czarina found herself in possession of large tracts of virgin land along the lower course of the Volga River in Russia. Catherine was determined to turn this region into productive agricultural land as well as to populate the area as a protective barrier against the nomadic Asiatic tribes who inhabited the region. Then on July 22, 1763, Catherine issued a manifesto inviting foreigners to settle in Russia in the vast uncultivated lands of her domain. As an inducement to encourage emigration to Russia, the manifesto offered the following rights and privileges to incoming foreign settlers: 1. Free transportation to Russia. 2. The right to settle in segregated colonies. 3. Free land and the necessary tax-free loans to establish themselves. 4. Religious freedom and the right to build their own churches. (Implied in this was the right to establish their own schools). 5. Local self-government. 6. Exemption from military or civil service. 7. The right to leave Russia at any time. 8. Therefore mentioned rights and privileges were guaranteed not only to incoming settlers but also to their descendants forever. These rights and privileges offered a chance for a better life and many thousands of people immigrated to Russia from the Germanic states and principalities of Central Europe. The reasons that so many Germanic people took up this Russian offer were many. The Seven Years' War had just ended in 1763. Whole regions in Germany lay devastated and poverty was widespread. Many Germans immigrated at this time to other lands, including the New World, in order to make a new start in life. The first German-speaking colonists who responded to Catherine's manifesto were directed to lands along the Volga River in the years 1764 to 1767. Later, as Russia acquired the Ukrainian lands north of the Black Sea from Turkey, colonists were invited to settle in those areas. Similarly, when the Crimean Peninsula and Bessarabia were added to the Russian Empire at Turkey's expense, colonists settled there. These later emigrations occurred 40 to 50 years after the great Volga emigration. The Black Sea Germans responded to an invitation that was issued in 1803 by Alexander I, the grandson of Catherine. Since so many responded to the Czar's invitation, the Russian Crown feared that unsuitable immigrants might enter Russia. Accordingly, in 1804, a restrictive decree was issued that embodied the generous terms of Catherine II, but required that all future immigrants must possess cash or goods worth at least 300 guilders, be skilled in farming or handicrafts and be people with families. No single fortune hunters were desired. The colonists of 1804-1818 had either a long and difficult overland journey or had to travel by river barge down the Danube. (Those in 1804 to 1812 could not use the Danube River because of the 1806-1812 Russo-Turkish War.) Those who traveled to Russia in 1817 went by boat down the Danube and, due to inexperience, many thousands died of disease and exposure. Approximately 300 mother colonies were founded throughout Russia during the settlement years and as the population grew, more acreage had to be acquired for the landless. Thus, numerous daughter colonies were founded. Eventually there were more than 3,000 ethnic settlements in Russia. Their schools and churches provided instruction in their native language, German. Life was generally good for the colonists and they maintained the distinct customs, dress, musical tastes, and dialects of their ancestral homelands. Many adjustments to Russian ways, however, were inevitable. In 1871, Czar Alexander II revoked the preferential rights and privileges given to the colonist settlers by the manifestoes of Catherine II and Alexander I. The colonists, as a result, were reduced to the level of the Russian peasants and under the same laws and obligations to which they were subject. In 1874, the colonists' sons were drafted into the Czar's army for the first time. The natural result was that the colonists were dismayed and angry, feeling that the Russian Crown was guilty of a breach of contract. As there was nothing they could do, their thoughts turned toward leaving Russia. But where could they go? To return to Germany did not enter their minds, for when their ancestors had left Germany years before, they had no intention ever to return to their native country. During the summer of 1872, Ludwig Bette, a former colonist, who had led a party of 83 friends from the Black Sea to the United States in 1849, decided to visit relatives and friends in the Black Sea colonies. Noting the unrest and dissatisfaction among the colonists for having lost their privileged status, he extolled the virtue of the United States, urging emigration there. Shortly after his return to the United States, an emigration movement to the United States, Canada, and South America was set in motion, which continued more or less unabatedly until the outbreak of World War I halted further emigration. Alexander III came to the throne of Russia in 1881 after his father, Alexander II, had been assassinated. Russification became the official policy and greatly affected the former colonists. Classes later had to be taught in the Russian language and business was required to be transacted in Russian. Also, it became increasingly difficult for the German-speaking colonists in Russia to purchase the land necessary for their expanding numbers. The colonists under the changed conditions lost all of the rights of self-government in their villages. Hesitating to make the long journey over the ocean, many colonists decided to stay in Russia in spite of the Russification policy. In actual number, perhaps more of the German colonists remained in Russia than emigrated to the countries of North America and South America. Because of the requirements of the U.S. Homestead Act of 1862, the German-Russians who took up homesteads in the United States were required to live on their 160-acre farms. They could not live in villages or colonies as they had in Russia. Many Volga Germans settled in cities in the Middle West of the United States, while the Black Sea Germans acquired land and homesteaded in Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas. Others settled in western Canada by purchase and homesteading. The Volga Germans became closely associated with the sugar beet industry in Colorado and western Nebraska, while most Black Sea Germans became wheat growers in the Dakotas and in Canada; some later became orchard and grape growers in California. Today descendants of those early Germans from Russia are now living in Colorado, California, Kansas, Nebraska, Michigan, Illinois, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Washington, as well as Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan in western Canada. Some also emigrated from Russia to South America. A large number of German-Russians, descendants of those who elected to remain in Russia, still live in the Soviet Union. The census of 1959 counted over 1,600,000 Germans living in the Soviet Union and that number grew to 2,300,000 by 1983. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 caused great difficulty for the ethnic Germans in Russia. Although they fought and died in Russian military campaigns, they, as a class, were accused of being spies and saboteurs. The German language was forbidden in their schools and churches, and German-language newspapers were prohibited. Innumerable German-Russians were deported to Siberia for "crimes against the state." With the Russian Revolution of 1917, a period of lawlessness prevailed throughout Russia for several years. Robber bands raided the German villages, ruthlessly murdering many of the Germans. Germans living on estates were driven from their homes with only an hour's notice. Russian regiments revolted, killing their officers, and the Russian soldiers added to the period of lawlessness. The Russian Revolution brought much misery to the German-Russians with many displaced to Siberia and Middle Asia. Those in Bessarabia were spared the hardships and chaos of the Russian Revolution. When the revolt of the army's soldiers took place, Bessarabia appealed to Romania to restore law and order. This was done and later Bessarabia voted to be annexed by Romania. Russia never acknowledged the legality of this annexation and in 1940 (since Stalin and Hitler were allied) Hitler agreed that Stalin could have the return of Bessarabia providing he would agree to the resettlement of all ethnic Germans to Germany. This was agreed upon and the Germans packed their suitcases, abandoning all else, and returned to Germany. As there was no place for most of them in Germany, those who were unskilled were settled in the Warthegau, an area along the Warthe River in western Poland. When the war broke out between Germany and the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the already planned displacement of all Germans was executed without any exception. Thus the presidency of the Soviet Union released the decree (August 2, 1941) "The Resettlement of the Germans of the Volga Region." The chairman of the Landsmannschaft der Russlanddeutschen in Germany described these true facts in the journal Volk auf dem Weg, August/September, 1985. He writes: "The forced displacement spread however not only to the Volga Germans. The German settlement areas on the Crimean peninsula, the Caucasus and in the Ukraine were as equally affected as the Germans living in the cities. In connection with the forced resettlement, family and home communities which existed up to then were systematically split. Generally men between the 16th and the 60th birthdays were separated from their families and held in the so-called Trudarmija (a special kind of prison camp) where they were treated as enemies of the state. Women and children received poor residences among Russians, Kazachs and other nationalities. All Germans were told with threat of punishment not to return to their former settlements. They had to give up any claims to their possessions, which were confiscated at their former settlements. They lived separated among other ethnic groups in areas of Siberia and central Asia, cut off from contact with the German culture, robbed of the chance as a group to preserve their own cultural heritage, to educate their children in German schools and to confess their faith." When the Red Army advanced toward Berlin in World War II, there began for the displaced Russian Germans in the Warthe region a hasty flight in the wintry cold and snow. Vehicles and train cars as well as personnel for organizing proper transportation were missing. One could not stop at protective shelters so that many died along the way from exposure, exhaustion, and starvation. The rapidly advancing Red Army caught up with thousands, captured them, put them in cattle cars and took them on a long journey without supplies to the northern regions of Russia or to Siberia. Fortunately, some 70,000 were able to make their way to Germany where they and their descendants are living today. Most of the German-Russians who lived on the Volga and in areas not coming under Hitler's reach were evacuated to the far away Asiatic portions of the USSR. According to the census of 1979 in the Soviet Union 1,936,000 people claimed to be Germans and thus ranked fourteenth among the more than one hundred nationalities in the USSR. The very first settlement of the German-Russians in the Middle West, specifically Dakota Territory, occurred in the spring of 1873. This settlement was a direct result of Ludwig Bette's visit to the colony Johannestal in 1872 when he influenced four groups from the Black Sea area to immigrate to the United States. The four groups, numbering 175 men, women, and children, were united at Sandusky, Ohio, where they spent the winter. In the spring, scouts were sent out in search of land who determined that Dakota Territory was the place for them to settle. They loaded their belongings on a special freight train, possibly one or two passenger cars and a few boxcars, and took off for Yankton, Dakota Territory. They arrived there in one of the worst blizzards on record, and many thought the country was worse than Siberia. This is known as the Easter Sunday Blizzard, occurring in April of 1873. After the weather cleared, they searched for suitable land on which to homestead, finding land where Lesterville, South Dakota, is now located, about eighteen miles northwest of Yankton. Following the settlement near Lesterville, thousands of Germans from the Black Sea areas of Russia poured into Dakota Territory in the years following. Their homesteads spread westward and northward until most of the arable land was homesteaded in what later became South Dakota in 1889. As more and more immigrant Black Sea Germans continued to arrive in Dakota Territory in search of land, their homesteads spread in 1884 into what is now North Dakota. Eventually, their homesteads were located in all arable parts of North Dakota. As a result, North Dakota numbers twice as many Germans from Russia than does any other state in the United States. By 1920 it was estimated that 116,539 German-Russians were in the United States. The largest concentration was in North Dakota, where some 70,000 lived in 1920, coming from the Black Sea region. Other large settlements were in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska who came primarily from the Volga region. Today the families of Germans from Russia are spread throughout the United States and Canada concentrating in the Great Plains states, California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington as well as the prairie provinces of Western Canada. Finally, with the major political changes in the former Soviet Union beginning in 1991, a significant immigration trend began of ethnic German receiving permission to immigrate to Germany. Since 1991, an estimated more than two million Germans have immigrated to Germany from the former Soviet Union. Immigration to Germany has become more difficult but continues. ====================================================== During World War II the Germans in the old Black Sea colonies and in Bessarabia searched their old family Bibles and records, looking for names of relatives who had moved to America. War was on between Germany and Russia and correspondence was desperately renewed as the Germans who had stayed behind looked for help. One of these, Emil Bendewald, told his story in 1962 in Germany. His horrifying story is just one of scores of thousands: After the beginning of World War II, the Germans living in Bessarabia when Russians took over in June 1940 were invited to leave. No one wanted to go, but after the Russians started explaining communism, the German farmers began to realize they had to leave, though they hated to leave their homes. The women left Oct. 5, 1940, the men followed on Oct. 18 -- 92,000 Germans left Bessarabia headed for Germany, only to be routed to Poland to farm the lands that Germany had taken away from the Polish people. All the men were drafted into the Army or the Wehrmacht (German air force). The women and children farmed the lands, in constant fear of the partisans trying to reclaim the land the Poles rightfully owned. On Jan. 12, 1945, the Russians began their big offensive (westward toward Germany). On Jan. 18, 1945, the mass movement of the Germans fleeing Poland began. The (westward-moving Russian) front caught up with many of the women and children on foot. The Russians shot many and put the rest of them in cattle cars and shipped them to Siberia. Bendewald spent two years searching for his family, finally finding them in Hannover. In "The Central Dakota Germans," Shirley Fischer Arends writes: "The old German colonies are gone forever. Their inhabitants are in Germany and in Siberia. They had tamed the steppes, cultivated the fields, drained the swamps, planted orchards and vineyards. They left as beggars and undesirables. After World War II, there were still two million Germans left in Russia, citizens who had sacrificed their property, their lives, for the country of their birth and had wanted to stay. "They were disowned as aliens, jailed as revolutionists and sent to concentration camps in Siberia as traitors." ===================================================== Please feel free to contact me at the following address:
E-mail:w.tomtschik@worldnet.att.net
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