Journal of the American Historical Society of From Russia

Vol. 14, No. 1 Spring 1991

COVER PHOTO: Catholic Church in Karlsruhe (Heimatkalender der Deutschen aus Bessarabien). CONTENTS

THE SOVIET CATHOLIC CHURCH DURING THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY AND THE STALINIST TERROR: SELECTED TEXTS DEALING WITH THE SOVIET GERMANS ...... The Rev. Christopher Zugger EARLY VOLGA GERMAN SETTLEMENT LIST FROM THE WIESENSEITE...... David F. Schmidt PIECING THE PAST TOGETHER: THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF FOLKLORE IN FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH...... Timothy J. Kloberdanz DOWN "DIE LIME," CAUCASIAN FRONTIER. William Seibel

Published by American Historical Society of Germans From Russia 631 D Street • Lincoln, Nebraska 68502-1199 • Phone 402-474-3363 Edited by Richard R. Rye ® Copyright 1991 by the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia. All rights reserved.

German settlements in Odessa and Black Sea area. (Cartographer Dr. K. Stumpp) THE SOVIET CATHOLIC CHURCH DURING THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY AND THE STALINIST TERROR- SELECTED TEXTS DEALING WITH THE SOVIET GERMANS The Rev. Christopher L Zugger these times. Others would try to escape abroad or head to or the European quarters of the cities After 1921 and the consolidation of Soviet power of Central Asia. A priest wrote from Astrakhan, "Our in the West, religion was seen as the principal people die out." obstacle to the spread of communism. Physical per- In spite of the population losses, there were still secution had been violent during the Civil War, as Polish, Lithuanian, and German Catholic workers seen, and administrative persecution continued after among the urban proletariat who were unable to leave the fighting ended. "A war of unparalleled ferocity" or thought that Bolshevism would pass. They made took place in the press, in meetings at work and great sacrifices to keep their churches open, paying neighborhoods, and on a national level. The Cieplak the enormous rents, taxes, and high utility bills arrest, trial, and expulsion of the Latin bishops and assigned to all religious centers. Many times they imprisonment of the Russian Exarch were but one failed and the churches would then be closed. phase of this war. Churches of all faiths continued to At the same time, the Church experienced the new be shut down, and clergy and lay leaders such as phenomenon of apostasy. Some who left the faith religious teachers and committee heads were arrested. simply ceased worship, turning indifferent to religion, The Bezbozhniki, or League of the Godless, was and were not heard from again by the priests. Others founded in 1925 under the direction of Emilyan became activists, betraying priests or subjecting them Yaroslavsky. The Godless put on blasphemous pro- to slander and abuse, cessions, participated in the desecration of the sacred, In the rural areas, the Autonomous Republic of and had sole access to the media and propaganda 1 Germans on the Volga was founded (1924) and a concerning religious beliefs. number of German national districts were established in the , Russia, Georgia, and Azer-baidjan. CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS LIFE IN THE Polish districts existed in the Ukraine and EUROPEAN U.S.S.R. DURING NEP Byelorussia. In all these areas, parishes continued to Soviet Catholicism remained concentrated in the exist, though with diminished staff and fewer cities and among the rural Byelorussian, Polish, and churches. German populations. These populations were weak- Byelorussian territory was formed into the Byelo- ened by the effects of the 1921-1922 famine, emi- russian Soviet Socialist Republic (B.S.S.R.), one of gration, and—especially in the Ukraine and southern the sovereign republics. Originally very small in Russia—recurring episodes of malaria, cholera, 1920, its government took advantage of Leninist typhus, bubonic plague, and shortages of medicine. nationality policy to try to embrace all of the Byelo- Outbreaks took place in both cities and countryside. russian-speaking areas. From a core region around Drought in 1923-1924 meant small crop yields and Minsk, the B.S.S.R. was expanded in 1924 and 1926, food shortages. Episodes like these created panic. embracing significant Catholic populations in and Entire families would flee a rural district struck by around Polotsk, Vitebsk, Orsha, and Moghilev in the these disasters. Kiev, Kharkov, , Astrakhan, and first expansion and around Gomel in the second. other cities were swamped with refugees at However, many Byelorussians and Catholics were left in the Russian Federation. In 1926, the B.S.S.R.

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 1 had nearly 5 million inhabitants, with many of the status, Notre Dame in Petrograd, and St. Louis in archdiocese's remaining faithful.2 Moscow. Both belonged to the French government, Catholic Administrative Centers Attempts to place St. Andrew's in Makievka under A number of priests in the Moghilev archdiocese French protection due to the presence of the Franco- struggled valiantly to keep a curia going in Petro- Belgian colony of engineers and miners failed. Even grad, trying to stay in touch with parish curates and in Moscow, French protection was no guarantee of even process marriage cases. Interference from safety. St. Louis' church eventually lost its rectory and Bishop von der Ropp in his Polish exile made life another building to—of all things—the use of the complicated on two counts. First, the bishop and his secret police. staff were increasingly out of touch with Soviet real- In addition, churches had been lost. By the ity. Second, their presence in Warsaw left the Soviets summer of 1923, many religious centers had been shut continually suspicious due to the perennial tensions down. Some of these were able to reopen once the between Poland and the Soviet Union. contracts were signed by committees. Some were In the Ukraine and southern Russia, Monsignor never restored to religious use. Many Catholic houses Skalski in Kiev, and Bishop Zerr at Selz and of worship met the fate of the Orthodox Church's Franzfeld began to emerge as significant figures for Kremlin Cathedrals of Moscow, which were the Poles and Germans, respectively. In addition, confiscated in 1918 and remain secularized. However, Monsignor Kruschinsky, who would be the "star" in a the Orthodox Divine Liturgy was celebrated in Stalinist show trial in 1930, tried to keep the Tiraspol Assumption Cathedral in October 1989, for the 400th diocese functioning from its base in Odessa and the anniversary of the founding of the Russian Black Sea districts. Tbilisi remained the Catholic Patriarchate. That was the first religious service in the heart of the Caucasus and residence of administrators. Kremlin since 1918, Another service was held in the autumn of 1990. However, not all Kremlin churches Parishes have survived. Where parishes remained, sacramental life con- Chapels and churches in nationalized public tinued, but with great differences. Sacraments were buildings or in public complexes, such as the Catholic taxed by the State. Priests were denied rations and chapels in the Imperial Pages Building in Petrograd depended solely on the charity of the people for and the former Theological Academy are permanently survival. Parish organizations were banned, save for lost to Catholic worship. Throughout the NEP era, choirs. Children were pressured by teachers and churches were closed, exorbitant rents and taxes were Komsomol (Communist Youth League) activists to assessed, and churches were lost. No church, no legal stop serving at the altar, singing in church, or attend- services. A closing meant the loss of statues, ing mass. Activities of the godless in the cities vestments, and all the remaining Mass vessels. All that included pressure at work to stop going to mass. A could be legally removed by the priest or council was parish needed competent adults to be able to function: the Blessed Sacrament itself: the, Hosts had to be these adults were now known to the police and carried out in a cloth or container belonging to the activists. Their collaboration with the priests would priest personally. place them in danger in later years. Finally, a closing left the building where a com- The physical structure of the parishes was sharply munity's baptisms, weddings, funerals, and ordinary reduced by 1924. Of course, there were no schools divine consolation had taken place transformed into a left to the Catholics and all property had been lost. theater, warehouse, garage, or barn. It might be left to Only churches, cemeteries, and rectories remained. decay behind locked doors or even be totally The churches had been nationalized and the priests in demolished. Whatever the fate of the parish church, their rectories or in tiny apartments and rooms had to the situation caused pain to the remaining believers. pay high rents and taxes. Congregations had to pay 3 high rent to use the churches built by their ancestors. Priesthood Only two parishes escaped this Catholicism is dependent upon the ordained

Page 2 AHSGR Journal / Spring 1991 priesthood for the essential celebrations of the faith; and Adam Zimmerman. Their pastoral life was brief: only the sacraments of baptism and matrimony could Father Nold celebrated their tenth anniversary alone, be kept up. Without priests, there was no Mass, no as his classmates were already in prison. Holy Communion, no Confession, no Anointing for Even with the ordinations, the diocese was not the sick and dying. Baptism can be administered by a keeping pace. In the same time period nine priests layperson using water and the proper formula died, and there were a number of vacant parishes invoking the Trinity. Latin Catholics could contract because of the losses suffered through flight, deaths in marriage by pronouncing their vows before two the war, arrests, and evictions of priests. Catholic witnesses. Germans did this, but apparently not Poles. TABLE II The closure of the Theological Academy was Natural Attrition of Tiraspol Diocesan Clergy: devastating. While the successful evacuation of pro- Deaths, 1920-1926 fessors, students, and books resulted in the foundation of the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland (the 1920 1921 1922 1923 1925 1926 only Catholic university to survive communist rule in 4 1 2 2 1 3 all Eastern Europe), the graduates of this academy served basically outside the U.S.S.R. The training of Arrests were common. Many priests were seized in new priests was absolutely forbidden to Catholics, but the spring of 1924, and in August, Father Dmowsky courses were taught illegally in Moscow, Odessa, and of St. Catherine's in Leningrad (formerly Petrograd) Selz. Ordination reports in "free" society are very was shot. The priests who remained at liberty used few, and mostly come from prison camps. every opportunity to preach, and the faithful listened. The lack of bishops elsewhere meant that all Church anniversaries, blessing services of fields or "free" ordinations in NEP took place in the south, vehicles, funerals, weddings, baptisms, any occasion under Bishop Zerr (information in tables I and II are was used so basic teachings could be passed on. from Schnurr): Still there was trouble from apostates and the Komsomol. For example, one Catholic wrote, "They TABLE I [priests] are persecuted by the government and also Ordinations in Tiraspol Diocese after 1917 have to fear the slander of some of their own German 4 1918- Others people." Some of the young local Catholics were partly responsible for the death of Father Jakob 1918 1919 1921 1922 1924 before 1925 Kayser in 1921 in Marienberg.5 The assumptions of 1 1 1 2 5 6 safety and protection among their own people no longer held true for priests in the 1920s. These were At least one priest was ordained in 1920- bitter years for many. 1921, Father George Oborowsky, who Religious Education would minister only until his arrest in 1932. In April 1924, a German teacher wrote that he was Two priests were ordained at Strassburg in denounced as being a leader of the "capitalistic- May 1922: Father Ludwig Erk, who became religious movement . . . working against the a heroic missionary to Siberia (see Siberian proletarian antireligious forces. I was warned that if I Catholicism below), and Father Michael didn't change, I will be removed from my position. I Kohler, destined to be the last survivor of learned that I am under constant observation." Under the Tiraspol Diocese in the U.S.S.R. Father these pressures believers left the profession, while Emmanuel Bader was ordained sometime in others conformed. The same teacher laments, "Sooner 1924. In that year, the last ordinations for or later I'm going to be discharged, too. The majority the Tiraspol diocese took place on May 13, 'dances to their tune'—not out of conviction, but out at Blumenfeld, where Bishop Zen-ordained of fear of losing their jobs," three young men who had been privately prepared: Fathers Johannes Nold, Christian Siske,

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 3 The removal of religious education from the choirs were well-organized. The discipline of praying schools and the ban on organized teaching for youths together, reflecting on the faith, and family par- under 18 years of age meant that parents had to ticipation in such activities took on new importance. prepare their children for confession and first Rehearsals and the teaching of hymns and responses communion. Parents were unprepared. This had to the mass provided education in the faith.8 These always been done either by the priest or the local sodalities and fraternities were all banned, but some teachers. They had no catechisms, no new Bibles, not continued in secret and the practices were kept up for even new medals and rosaries. They could not import many years. any from abroad. As priests and teachers disappeared, Catholic leaders in the community had been the the parents had fewer and fewer resources to draw school teachers and sacristans. Teachers who tried to upon. No new religious books had been printed since keep religious beliefs alive among their students were the war years. The books which had survived war and expelled, deprived of their income. Some tried to atheist pillaging "are handed down from person to teach religion outside the schools, an enterprise that person until they become torn and unreadable."6 This was illegal after the 1924 Constitution. Also, parents was in 1924. Imagine the conditions by 1940! Thus lacked the necessary funds to support such activity. religious knowledge depended upon memory and the Widows and orphans of teachers who had died in the activities of believers from the sodalities. Inevitably past or had been killed recently were rendered errors began to creep in, but a strong orthodox faith destitute.9 did remain intact. In the German colonies, the ban on religious Local priests continued illegally to prepare worship in schools affected the scores of prayer- younger children for first confession and first com- houses in which school and chapel shared a building. munion in the rectories.7 Instruction could be pro- Believers had to find other quarters in the home of vided for young adults for confirmation, but this sac- someone willing to take the risk. Among Catholic and rament required a bishop or his delegate. Bishop Zerr Protestant alike, lay people took on the leadership was too frail to undertake a confirmation tour in role at worship. Thus a letter from a colony in the Tiraspol diocese and there were no bishops or Crimea told of ". . . services every Sunday in the front appointed apostolic administrators with episcopal room of George Feisst, presided over by Richard powers anywhere else in the west. Apparently some Feisst and Hieronymus Hermann."10 priests were given the authority to confirm. The last In the Tiraspol diocese many Catholics belonged known administration of confirmation in the southern to parishes where mass had been offered only once a region was undertaken by Monsignor Jakob Feser month. In the Siberian parishes, mass had been even (+1926) in the region of Vollmer in 1925. Despite the less frequent. On priestless Sundays and feasts, the appointment of bishops and apostolic administrators laity held services of prayer and hymns. In Byelorus- in 1926-1930, the sacrament was never again sia, recitation of the rosary began to take the place of available. mass because of the lack of priests. Education of the faithful depended upon the All the traditions became more important. Police sermons of the priests who remained, Bibles and restricted priests' movements and the new borders cut books printed before 1917, good memories, and off new sources of clergy. Priests could no longer be perseverance. After the great closings and deporta- assigned from Polish and Lithuanian seminaries, tions which would take place in 1929-1937, there There was no organized training of new priests nor were practically no priests left and very few books. any kind of legal religious education in the U.S.S.R. Discrimination against believers, atheistic propa- Lay Leaderships ganda in schools, the press, and at work all meant that Before 1918, many Catholics had belonged to such religious belief now had to be held out of conviction. lay associations as the Third Order of St. Francis, The vast majority of Catholics remained faithful. societies of the Sacred Heart, Immaculate Conception, Designated leaders of prayer, at great personal risk, and the Holy Rosary. In German villages, assembled people in priestless churches.

Page 4 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 In the northern area of Catholic German settlement, CATHOLIC LIFE IN THE the Holy Cross pilgrimage on May 3 at Kohler con- CAUCASUS REPUBLICS tinued to attract thousands of people.11 Very few Germans joined the communist party and very few The Bolshevik conquest of Georgia was accomp- subscribed to communist literature. Of six German lished by 1921, after the Georgian government fled by national districts totalling 140,000 people, only 324 steamship from Batumi just ahead of the Red Army. subscribed to atheist newspapers.12 Armenian Independent Georgia surrendered on March 18, 1921. Catholics were able to keep their parishes open longer The country was rapidly and brutally "Sovietized" by than any group other than the French churches. Of Ordzhonikidze, despite Lenin's fears of Georgian 500,000 Poles in the Ukraine in 1926, only 3,000 nationalist feelings and the possibility of a revolt. Georgia remains to this day a strongly nationalistic joined the communist party and 8,200 joined the 17 Komsomol13 But the Communist Revolution did not republic. Repressions also took place in Armenia. bring Utopia, and neither did NEP. Both republics did experience nationalist uprisings against the and both revolts failed. The Continuing Exodus In spite of improving economic conditions, com- The Church in Georgia munism still held sway. Refugees continued to try to Sovietization in Georgia meant martyrdom for the escape to the West, especially to Poland and the Churches. Catholicism had been firmly established Baltic States. Large numbers of Germans attempted to and well organized before the Revolution. As stated emigrate. Along the western border, where Catholic above, the Latin administration served churches in the Poles and Byelorussians were concentrated, the capital, as well as at Gori, Batumi, and Kutaisai, and atmosphere degenerated to that of a "wild west in a number of villages for the Georgian, Polish, and frontier." The Red army pursued refugees across the German faithful. Georgian Latin Catholics consisted frontier and the Polish army responded. Villagers in of those who had converted in the previous years the area were caught in the crossfire. Poland when the Byzantine Catholic Church was banned. eventually formed a special frontier defense force, Georgian Byzantine Catholicism was established and peace eventually came to the region only after during the Menshevik Georgian Republic. The 1924.14 Georgian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, In 1922, tens of thousands of founded in Constantinople by the emigre father Peter converged on Moscow, seeking to emigrate. Only a Krischiaranti in 1861, had come to their homeland to few were successful, the rest forcibly returned to the establish the Georgian Byzantine Catholic Church.18 Volga Republic or deported elsewhere. Other Ger- This church is said to have reached a membership of mans tried to cross into Poland through central some 5,000 people.19 The annexation of Georgia Byelorussia. One such band contacted the German doomed this community. Red Cross when it was leaving the country and All religion in Georgia was repressed bitterly. The begged to leave with them. Some were allowed to Georgian Orthodox Patriarch and four of his council board the train but the rest were consigned to try to were imprisoned in 1922 as a part of the so-called cross the chaotic frontier on their own.15 famine relief, and one archbishop was shot. As in the Internal migration also took place. The oblasts in other republics, if the majority Orthodox were the Far East retained considerable autonomy until suffering so, the minority religious could not expect 1929 and encouraged new immigration and coloni- better treatment. Catholic priests were humiliated in zation. As a result, many German Catholics and the streets by being stripped and tortured. Foreign Protestants left Siberia and Russia from 1926 on and clergy, including the Italian Administrator of Tbilisi established new colonies in the region above diocese, were expelled.20 He was replaced by . These colonies had more freedom.16 When Monsignor Stefan Demurof, and so the the Stalinist repressions began, tens of thousands crossed into .

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 5 Catholics continued to have a central figure to turn to religious. Sovietization collided head-on with these for guidance. A German priest was later designated as people's deeply entrenched religious traditions,24 an administrator at Pyatigorsk (see below). SIBERIAN CATHOLICISM The Church in Azerbaijan is predominantly Muslim. There were, As in the rest of the U.S.S.R., the foreign bishops however, areas and towns with pockets of Christians were expelled. Bishop Sliwowski was reported to such as the Armenian Apostolic enclave at Nagorno- have endured for some time, but with no visible effect Karabakh (which became famous in 1988), and a beyond the Pacific coast. The deanery structure set up German national district. The Roman Catholics had in 1917-1918 had enabled the Siberian Catholics to opened a new church in Baku, the capital, just before survive the Civil War and the establishment of World War I. This stood on the second street in from Bolshevik rule. But with the closure of the the sea, north of the harbor.21 Eventually the parish Theological Academy and the withering of ties with was closed. The German Catholic parishioners and Petrograd, the parishes that lost priests received no those of the nearby Lutheran church were all deported replacements. The large church in Novosibirsk was in 1941 to Kazakhstan. destroyed and presumably the church in Nikolaevsk met the same fate when that town was leveled during Armenian Catholicism the campaigns against the . A The Armenian Catholics had two distinctions few churches continued to exist. among Soviet Catholics: they had the longest con- As mentioned above, the Far East kept consider- tinuous link with foreign Catholic clergy, and had the able autonomy until Stalinism moved in. The oblast last non-French protected parishes to survive. Like the authorities encouraged the settlement of new immi- Georgian Byzantine Rite faithful, the Armenians had grants from the western U.S.S.R. in the area of the received clergy from abroad. However, Armenian former Far Eastern Republic and the Maritime Prov- Catholic priests from the Catholic Patriarchate entered inces. In fact, the River is often called the the country regularly not only during independence, "Green Ukraine" because of the large colonies of free but also well after Soviet annexation. Despite local along its banks. The Catholic population ordinations apparently being impossible to undertake, was augmented by the immigration of Germans and missionaries are reported coming from Rome as late Poles. as 1927.22 By that time the population of Catholics A number of German colonies made up of small was reported at 60,000, one-sixth of whom lived in villages and private farms had long been established Akhaltsikhe and Akhalkeiek regions of southern across Siberia. The influx of more Germans into these Georgia. The majority of Armenian Catholic parishes colonies and the Maritimes created the setting for a continued to thrive along the Georgian coast, in the dangerous experiment by a brave young priest, Father northwest districts of Armenia proper at Alexandropol Ludwig Erk. After the restoration of the hierarchy in (now Leninakan), and in the Stepanovan region.23 1926, he volunteered to leave his parish in Suiz for Catholic Armenians were to be the last to have Siberia. He had studied medicine and theology in organized sacramental life in freedom in the U.S.S.R., Vienna, and used this knowledge to serve as a keeping a reduced system functioning until 1940. physician. Siberian parish life was hard enough before Chaldean Catholicism the Revolution. Now he spent all of his time This region had the Chaldean Rite parish to serve travelling, covering a territory of 11,000 kilometers Catholic Assyrians, a minority among the 50,000 who ministering to the scattered Catholics. Arrested when had fled into Russia. They were escaping persecution collectivization began, this missionary died in prison by the Turks both before and during World War I. in SIavgorod. He was memorialized as not only a good priest anxious for the welfare of souls, but also Many Assyrians were Nestorian Christians, and all 25 Assyrians were considered to be deeply as a good doctor. Another priest, Father Josef Schindler, secretly ministered in the Slavgorod

Page 6 AHSGR Journal t Spring 1991 area after the closing of his church in Marienfeld and can's first "secret agent" in the twentieth century. On the closing of all the churches in the Slavgorod D'Herbigny's trips to the U.S.S.R., he was empowered oblast.26 to reorganize the diocesan boundaries and set up a The hardships of Father Erk's life indicate the clandestine hierarchy that was to keep Catholic life decline of the Siberian deaneries. Fewer and fewer going. A new Latin Metropolitan was named, the priests were available to serve the free communities, French missionary Pie Neveu, who was designated Under Stalin, the concentration of clergy in labor Bishop of Moscow with residence at St. Louis camps and jails in Siberia and the north gave the Church. Bishop Neveu was empowered to install region the highest number of religious services—all future administrators for the new jurisdictions, to unavailable to the residents of the free communities. negotiate with the Government, and to administer the In 1925-1926 the Catholic Church was still alive. Byzantine-Russian Catholic Church. New apostolic Its structures were sorely weakened but the faith was administrations were set up by Rome to replace the intact and worship was continuing. Its position was existing dioceses; only the little diocese of Kamenets tentative because Russia feared a new capitalist retained its original form. New heads of these alliance as a result of the reconciliation between jurisdictions were named, though there could only be Germany and the Allied powers and the new Poland. three full bishops in the country at any one time. Moscow was not comfortable with the position of the On May 10, 1926, the first new ethnic German Holy See in its connection with the Allied powers, Bishop was consecrated, Alexander Prison, along with Poland, and the future of the Soviet State. a Latvian priest, Boleslas Sloskans. Both were The Vatican and Poland established diplomatic destined for lives of heroic suffering. As a result of a relations in early 1925, and the Church reestablished terror campaign against the Polish clergy in the a diocese on the Polish-Soviet border at Pinsk, Polish Ukraine in 1926-1928, Bishop Prison split up the Byelorussia. Once again Moscow perceived a Tiraspol diocese into four sections: Central (Odessa), Catholic threat while also seeing the possibility of North/Volga (Saratov), South (Pyatigorsk), and Catholic assistance to Russia's enemies. The Neo- Caucasus (Tbilisi). In 1927 Bishop Neveu confirmed Uniate missionary work of various religious orders in Bishop Prison as Ordinary for the territory of Tiraspol Poland (in reestablishing the Greek Catholic Church, diocese, with residence in Odessa. Monsignor the continued persecution of ethnic Orthodox Kruschinsky from Karlsruhe became the vicar general. Byelorussians, Ukrainians, and ), and the During Bishop Prison's frequent imprisonments, he gradual moves toward Polinization and suppression of thus became the guiding force for the Tiraspol church. the Byelorussian and Ukrainian minorities also In 1928 Father Augustin Baumtrog (Volga) and antagonized the Soviets, who feared a resurgent Johann Roth (South) were named administrators. Both Polish state, were subsequently arrested in 1930. Bishop Prison It was at this point that the leader of the Renova- began a series of imprisonments that ultimately led to tionist Church which had split from mainstream his house arrest and subsequent inability to contribute Russian Orthodoxy, Metropolitan Vvedensky (who to the direction of the Church. had betrayed his Ordinary, the martyred Metropolitan NEP ended in 1928, and that year marks the last Benjamin of Petrograd), invited Father Michel known date of the whereabouts of many Catholic D'Herbigny of the Papal Oriental Institute, to visit priests. The drive for collectivization, which included Soviet Russia. The negotiations in Berlin were going extreme antireligious activity, was marked by the nowhere, there were no contacts left with the arrest and deportation of many leading figures from U.S.S.R.'s Catholic faithful. Bishop Zerr was rapidly the villages. Priests were inevitably part of the approaching the point of complete senility, and the convoys of accused kulaks and "anti-Soviet activists" chance seemed heaven-sent. Pope Pius XI granted that made their way to Siberia and the north permission for D'Herbigny to make the journey. This 45 year old Jesuit was to become the Vati-

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 7 from 1929 into the early 1930s. Known victims ties—were swept up in the tragedy. On January 1, included Father Rauh, arrested in 1928 at Rotham- 1935, a 100-kilometer wide security zone was mel and jailed locally; apostolic administrator declared along the western border. This affected all Baumtrog, arrested in 1930 on charges of receiving the western-oriented national minorities from foreign money to aid the clergy in the Volga Region, Romania to Finland. The deportation of Poles and dying in prison in 1945; Father Neugum of St. Germans was joined by that of the Finns of Inger" Clement's Church in Odessa, who was deported to mannland in 1936.27 The entire German population of Siberia where he eventually was able to settle near the Zhitomir was deported with their belongings to old German colonies during World War II; Murmansk, in the far north.28 By this time the Zhi- Father Glassner, arrested in Denier in March 1931; tomir diocese had lost all its churches and priests. Father Rollhauser, taken in 1933-1934 from Fel- Then all mail ended between the minorities and senburg; and Father Back in Neu-Kandel in 1934. their relatives who had emigrated or were on the other side of the border after the Civil War. There was total TABLE III isolation of the people of the U.S.S.R. Those people The Fate of 175 Diocesan Clergy in who had received lifesaving money, food parcels, and the Diocese of Tiraspol* letters from abroad were now in danger by those same contacts. All faced the real risk of arrest.29

According to Bishop Neveu's 1935 report of the Serving in 1914; unknown after 1918 ….40 former Tiraspol diocese, the number of priests had Serving in 1914; unknown after 1920 …8 plunged from the 181 he reported serving at the Ordained after Revolution, fate unknown...3 beginning of the Revolution. In the north only four Died at home in U.S.S.Ra ...…...... ………18 b priests were left at liberty, and in the south 57 priests Disappeared from parishes 1928-1940 …..8 served 68 working churches. Only 20 years pre- Killed by anarchists ...... ……………...... 1 c viously there had been 233 churches. Catholics suf- Executed 1920-1937 ...... …………...... 8 fered a cruel blow in 1935 when most of the priests Died outside U.S.S.R...…………...... 14 were arrested and forced to work for the Torgsin d Disappeared after 1928 ....………...... 50 ["international trade organization"] In the Volga Known to have been arrested after 1928e..24 Basin, the drive against the peasants took "an incal- culable number of Germans" off to forced labor. Shot by Red Army in World War II...... 1 On the feast of the Assumption (August 15), 1935, *Based on Schnurr, "Verzeichnis der Priester, die aufdem Bishop Prison was arrested for the last time, never Boden der Tiraspoler Diozese wirkten" in Die Kirchen, again to be released. A host of priests was arrested for a. Some died of old age, others died of starvation or illness. the Kruschinsky trial (see below) and for the Tambov b. Their fate is unknown. Trial. Also arrested were: Albert, at Kan-del; c. Two were sentenced to 10 years without right of cor- Thauber, after the closing of the church in Karlsruhe; respondence, according to Schnurr. It is now known that Laurenz Wolf at Elsass; Josef Wolf from Selz. this was a euphemism for execution. In the Odessa districts, lay committees were no d. These are priests who were removed when collectivi- longer able to keep their churches open. Except for zation was underway. Their fate is unknown. Saint Peter's in the city, every single church was e. Died in Soviet Prisons ...... …………………...... 14 closed and converted to use as a dance hall, social Died in internal exile ...... ……………………..... 7 club, or storehouse. Steeples were ripped down and Died in Siberia/East after exile ended .....……………... 3 the bells melted down. In Landau, the church was converted into a parachute jumping platform. Rec- The Great Terror and the Tiraspol Catholics tories, outbuildings, and parish lands were given to The "Great Terror" began with the assassination the collectives or the party for secular use. Even of Kirov in December 1934. Immediately a large- scale campaign of arrests, torture, executions, and forced labor camps engulfed the entire nation. Tra- ditional targets—the churches and national minori-

Page 8 AHSGR Journal 1 Spring 1991 TABLE IV THE DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH*

.Jurisdiction 1917 1926 1932 1935 1940 Moghilev-Minsk Churches 331 296 30 2 Priests 473 85a 16b 2 Tiraspol Churches 233 North: 49 0 Priests 181 4 2? South: 68 0 57 1 Lutsk-Zhitomir Churches 582 ? 0 Priests 200 Lutsk: 26 0c 0 Zhitomir: 1 0 Omsk Vicarate (West Siberia) Churches 35 Priests 12 2 0 Siberian Territory combined 1 priest 0 Vladivostock Diocese (East Siberia) Churches 36 6 0 Priests 26 5 0 Eastern Catholics Armenian Churches 60 47 Priests 47 6? Chaldean Church 1 1 1 0

Priest 1 0 1d 0 Russian Priests 6 2? 1 0 Bishops 1 2 1 0 Based on report of Bishop Neveu to Mgr. Pizzardo, 1935 in Wenger, pp. 495-97; Lorenz, Karl, ed. Die romish- katholische Kirche in der Sowjetunion; Kolarz, Religion in the Soviet Union; Gaiter, Red Book of the Persecuted Church; Ledit, Joseph. Archbishop John Baptist Cieplak. *There are not entries for all years because information is not available. (a) 151 priests had been forced to emigrate: 18 had been doing study abroad; 11 priests were jailed and the balance had been shot. (b) 69 were working at forced labor; several had been exchanged for Soviet spies caught abroad. One priest was working in Siberia. (c) as noted, the remaining priests had been deprived of passports and were living as vagabonds: there was no information as to how many were still alive in the region. (d) This was the same priest, provisionally freed.

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 9

cemeteries were desecrated; the walls pulled down for Voronezh for three priests and three Russian Catholic use in buildings. Cattle were sent in to graze among nuns from Tambov. They were accused of espionage the tombstones and crosses that survived.30 on behalf of foreign powers. The priests were Father Autumn of 1935 saw the show trial ofMonsignor Garrets of the German Catholic parish in Voronezh, Joseph Kruschinsky (Karlsruhe) and eleven co- and Fathers Beihman and Staube, The nuns were defendants of the south on charges of anti-Soviet Sisters Antonia, Stephanie, and Rose of Lima. The activity. It was held in the Karl Liebknecht rayon of latter was a Polish Roman Catholic who had the Ukraine. The priests were Fathers Michael Kohler transferred to the Byzantine-Russian Rite when she (Speyer), Anton Hoffmann (Landau), Valentin joined the order in the early 1920s. She had already Greiner (Katharinental), Raphael Loran (Suiz), been imprisoned at Irkutsk, Tobolsk, Tyumen, and Michael Merklinger (Rastadt), Anton Frohlich had refused to be repatriated to Poland in 1933. She (Munchen), and Peter Eisenkrein (Blumenfeld). It was wanted to remain with the other Dominican nuns in in Kruschinsky's rectory at Karlsruhe that Bishop the U.S.S.R. D'Herbigny designated Fathers Baumtrog and Roth as Catholics in the area were both locals and those future leaders of the Catholic Church in Russia. deported to the Tambov area. They had received Kruschinsky had been serving as apostolic money from Bishop Neveu to help them survive the administrator in the southern Ukraine since 1924. He food shortages. The priests were subjected to had also been secretly instructing young men for the "conveyor belt" interrogations. They were forced to priesthood. The priests ordained in 1924 by the aged confess to receiving money and instructions from Bishop Zerr, Fathers Landgraf, Nold, Warth, and Bishop Neveu in Moscow, and to implicate the nuns. Zimmerman, were most likely products of his little Father Beihman had previously been in trouble with seminary. the GPU (Central Police Control), and as a result of This show trial is an example of the type of "jus- his sufferings implicated others. However, he tice" that was meted out, and in poignant surround- recanted his testimony in a letter to the Central ings. The trial was held in the new theater in Landau, Committee in Moscow. He had then been sentenced built on the site of the Russian Orthodox church and to Butyrka, then was sent to Tambov. As the Terror its cemetery, both of which had been destroyed. began, he was once again brought to the attention of Monsignor Kruschinsky gave an eloquent defense in the police. Russian, but the verdict was preordained. The Father Staube had already been investigated devastated Catholics heard their priests declared because he had received Mass stipends, but had pro- guilty. visional freedom. Rather than tell the police the Of the twelve, only Father Greiner was spared stipends had come from Bishop Neveu, he said the because of his great age and infirmity. He was then 73 money was from local Catholics. This became the years old and had gone blind in 1932-1933. All the pretext for an investigation of the believers for proof other priests were deported to Siberia and of a conspiracy which focused on the German colon- Kazakhstan. Only Father Kohler was destined to ists and the above-named priests and Father Garreis. survive to work again as a priest.31 Father Garreis suffered emotional distress severe The trial effectively eliminated sacramental min- enough to require his hospitalization in the GPU istry in a vast region, affecting twelve parishes with (Central Police Control) hospital. The police preyed filial churches that relied on these priests. As for upon his fear of execution and coerced him into Father Greiner, he eventually took up residence in a betraying the colonists, other priests, and Bishop single room in Landau, where he secretly performed Neveu's aid. baptisms and marriages until World War II. In spite The aid from Moscow was now construed as of continual harassment by German communists, anti-Soviet agitation and providing information to the people still risked going to him for these two Bishop as espionage for foreigners. Fathers Garreis sacraments.32 and Beihman both signed affidavits against their In November 1935, a show trial was held in fellow Catholics, following "conveyor belt"

Page 10 AHSGR Journal / Spring 1991 interrogations. In classic Stalinist form, they were were abolished as pressures on non-Russians forced to denounce the Catholics as holding anti- increased.34 One priest still worked in Saratov in the Soviet ideas and engaging in illegal transport and Volga German Republic, caring for four parishes. In receipt of currency. Stalinist paranoia of foreign Kiev a single priest was able to say Mass, though the contacts came into play as well, since Bishop Neveu two churches were closed. By this time, there were had been abroad to France and the Vatican. So these only five Orthodox churches left in the entire city. In trips were transformed into espionage expeditions and Odessa, Saint Peter's was still open as a "French the extension of charity through the bishop and church," though not under French protection. How- Moscow Catholics who acted as his representatives to ever, there was no priest, only a lay committee.35 other Soviet Catholics as further excursions into Several priests were still at liberty in the Lutsk- espionage, Zhitomir diocese and in the Volga valley, but they The nuns were thrust into cells that were over- lived as vagabonds. Deprived of internal passports, crowded and filled with criminals, prostitutes, not to they were illegal in their own country and wandered mention countless vermin. At one point, in order to from place to place in great secrecy.36 resume community life, the nuns agreed to move into Bishop Neveu was refused permission to return to cells designated for women with contagious venereal the U.S.S.R. after he went to France for medical diseases. However, on the Nativity of Mary treatment. Saint Louis came under the pastorate of (September 8), they were again dispersed into dif- Father Leopold Braun, an American. The only ferent cells and isolation. bishops left were Frison in Odessa (he was chroni- The depositions against the clergy, religious, and cally in and out of prison), and Amoudrou in Lenin- laity stunned the nuns. "It was horrible to think the grad, another French citizen. priests to whom we gave the name of 'Father' had In 1937 Nicholas Timasheff estimated that 240 of betrayed us and sold their bishop." Equally stunning the surviving Catholic churches were closed in this were the priests* public recantations at the trial. The single year of national trauma.37 The last surviving miserable and weakened appearance of the priests priests were rounded up and charged with economic brought great sympathy from the sisters. A secret trial sabotage and espionage on behalf of Poland or was held during mid-November, when a priest, Japan.38 At this time, the work of Father Erk in Verbitsky, was added to the case. Sister Stephanie Siberia ended with his arrest. Father Josef Schindler gave a stirring testimony of faith at the trial and in a had been working in the area of Slavgorod, celebrat- letter to Bishop Neveu. She noted that while there ing masses and sacraments among the German-Rus- were apostates and traitors, there were still many sian families since the closing of all the churches in Catholics who were proud of their faith. The priests that oblast. Presumably his work ended then also. were convicted and sentenced. However, military Canon Joseph Nold, once pastor of Karamin, Crimea, tribunal acquitted the nuns. The acquittal was credited died in prison in Odessa. Bishop Frison was subjected as a miracle attributable to the intercession of the to a show trial in Odessa and was shot on March 17, Carmelite nuns of Lisieu, France, home of Saint 1937, having been charged with espionage. Therese. The Soviet State appealed the verdict.33 The priests were all condemned. Father Staub survived his In September 1938, in spite of treaties which imprisonment to end his days in the German suburb of guaranteed Polish and Italian diplomats access to Maikutok, in Karaganda, where he died in 1961. mass and sacraments, the church in Kharkov, on the In 1936, the first Moscow show trial took place, ulitsa Gogolya [Gogol Street] and home parish of the resulting in the execution of Zinoviev, Kamenev, and confessor Monsignor Ilgin, was finally closed. The 14 co-defendants. In the rural Ukraine and president of the church committee and the organist Byelorussia, 18,000 Poles and Germans were were both arrested and shot. At the same time the deported. Even more went in 1937-1938. At the same Armenian church was closed and its priest and time, the national minority districts and courts council members all arrested. Kharkov, one of the largest cities in the U.S.S.R, now had only one syna- AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 11 gogue and two Orthodox churches left working.39 parish was Hildmann in 1919 and was a co- In 1940, in Astrakhan and Zhitomir, the remnants worker of the martyred historian Father of the Polish and German Catholic faithful were Gottlieb Beratz, emigrated to Germany after meeting in the cemeteries for prayers led by laity. In World War II. His whereabouts between 1919 the old diocesan center of Kamenets, the cathedral and 1941 are unknown, but he was in the was converted into a movie-house.40 western part of the country that was occupied In the Tiraspol diocese. Father Greiner was still during the war.42 living in his room in Landau. Three other priests were Father Jolmnes Schneider III, who had alive in the region in 1941: been serving in Rosental and Strassburg, was killed during the German retreat by Russian Father Nikodemus Ihly, ordained in 1910, soldiers in Strassburg. It is possible that he was miraculously able to serve in Heidelberg in was ministering secretly in the area when the the Dnepropetrovsk deanery from 1928 until the Germans arrived, or that he was freed from a beginning of the year. He is listed as missing local prison.43 Another priest. Father Franz from the parish as of then, and his fate is 41 Rauh, was freed from prison shortly before the unknown. His is the longest known legal war began and was put to work in an office. ministry in both the south and among all Latin He either retreated with the German army, or Catholic Soviet clergy, managed to be part of the repatriation of Poles Father Johannes Schonberger, possibly in 1948-1954, and ended his days in Poland.44 ordained around 1911, whose last known

NOTES 1. Fleischhauer, Ingeborg, and Pinkus, Benjamin, The Soviet 15. Lober, Henry. First-Hand Account of the Flight from Germans: Past and Present. (London: C. Hurst and Co., 1986) Russia by a Group of Volga Germans in 1922. Unpublished 51-52. manuscript, 1948. 2. Lubachko, Ivan. Byelorussia Under Soviet Rule; 1917- 16. Toews, John. "Flight Across the Amur into China" 1957. (Lexington, Kentucky: U of Kentucky Press, 1972) 64-67. AHSGR Journal, 2.1 (1979) 7. 3. Information on ordinations is taken from Schnurr, "Ver- 17. Heller, Mikhail, and Nekrich, Aleksandr. Phyllis B. zeichnis der Priester, die aufdem Boden der Tiraspoler Diozese Carlos, trans. Utopia in Power. (New York: Summit Books, Wirkten," in Schnurr, op. cit. Cited as Schnurr, "Verzeichnis." 1986) 112-114. 4. Feisst, Sebastian. "Die Lage der katolische Kirche in 18. Attwater, Donald. The Catholic Eastern Churches. Rutland," Clemens-Blatt, (May 1924) 72. (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1935) 131. 5. Schnurr, Die Priester, 205. 19. Roberson, Ronald G. The Eastern Christian Churches: A 6. Feisst, 73. Brief Survey. (Rome: Pontifical Institute of Oriental Studies, 7. Schnurr. "Streiflichte as der Geschichte der Tiraspol 1988) 37. Diozese," op. cit., 18, cited as "Streiflichte." 20. Teodorovich. "The Roman Catholics," in Genocide in the 8. Schnurr, "Streiflichte," 13-16. U.S.S.R., 211. 9. Feisst, 72-73. 21. Baedeker, Karl. Russw: A Handbook for Travelers. 10. Letter of February 24, 1924, from Volga German Republic Reprint of 1914 edition. (New York: Arno Press and Random to Catholic newspaper in exile, demons Blatt, (April 1924) 61. House, 1971)45 6. 11. Letter, 14. 22. Kolarz, 165. 12. Fteischhauer and Pinkus, 52. 23. Wenger, Antoine. Rome et Moscou, 1888-J950, (Paris: 13. Kolarz, Walter. Religion in the Soviet Union. (New York: Desclee de Brouwere, 1987) 304-306. St. Martin's Press, 1961)201. 24. Kolarz, 479. 14. Librach, Jan. The Rise of the Soviet Empire: A Study of 25. Schnurr, Verzeichnis, 207. Soviet Foreign Policy, rev. ed. (New York: Frederick Praeger 26. Schnurr, 201. Publications, 1965) 44. 27. Ammende, Ewald. Human Life in Russia. (London: George Alien & Unwin, Ltd., 1936) 147-148. 28.Fleischhauer.71.

Page 12 AHSGR Journal f Spring 1991 29. Fleischhauer, 63. 35. Wenger, 535. 30. Phillips, John. The Tragedy of the Soviet Germans: A 36. Wenger, 495-497. Story of Survival. (Privately published 1983) 99-100. 37. A review of Timasheffs "Religion in Soviet Russia, 1917- 31. The account of the trial is from an eyewitness in Phillips, 1942;' in China Mission, (March 1949) 258. p. 98; additional information on Monsignor Krushchinsky is from 38. Dunn, Dennis J. The Catholic Church and the Soviet Schnurr, Verzeichnis, pp. 183-184, on Fr. Greiner ibid., p. 181. Government 1939-1949. (New York: Columbia University Press, Phillips puts the trial in 1934, but Greiner places all the 1977) 42-43. defendants as having been tried in 1935, as the Terror began to 39. Wenger, 552-553. take root, the exception being that Father Kohler is listed as being 40. Wenger, 557-558. arrested in 1934. It is probable that he was put on trial with the 41. Schnurr, Verzeichnis, 203. others at Landau. 42. Schnurr, 203-204. 32. Phillips, 98. 43. Schnurr, 195. 33.Wenger,481+. 44. Schnurr. 204. 34. Wenger, 64.

Consecration of Catholic Cathedral in Saratov by Bishop Zottmann in 1881. (Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland)

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 13

German settlements on the Volga. (Cartographer Dr. K. Stumpp

Page 14 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 AN EARLY VOLGA GERMAN SETTLEMENT LIST FROM THE WIESENSEITE David F. Schmidt Vorsteher (village head). The Russian name Zvonarev Kut means "Zvonarev's Corner." INTRODUCTION Interestingly, there were two mother colonies My grandparents, Salomon Schmidt and Amana with the name Stahl located on the east side of the Schneider, were born in the Volga-German village of Volga. To avoid confusion, one kept the two villages Stahl am Karaman (Russian name Zvonarev Kut) in straight by referring to the river on which they were the 1890s. In 1913 they came to the United States as located. Thus, the latter part of Stahl's name ("am newlyweds, settling in Maywood, Illinois. There they Karaman") referred to its location on the bank of the remained for the rest of their lives. Great Karaman River. The other Stahl was called In November 1984 I was appointed the AHSGR "Stahl am Tarlyk" to reflect its location on the Tar- Village Research Coordinator for Stahl. Thus began lyk River, my quest to gather as much information as possible As was typical of the Volga colonies, Stahl's about Stahl and the families who lived there. population steadily increased after its founding. The Ever since starting my project, I have had the following figures show this increase; dream of someday obtaining a list of the original colonists who settled in Stahl in the eighteenth cen- tury. About two years ago, I began to pursue this dream in earnest, with help from James W. Long, Date Census Total Households Males Females professor of, history at Colorado State University and 1769 152 76 76 author of From Privileged to Dispossessed, The 1773 171 43 91 80 Volga Germans, 1860-1917. Recently, my dream 1788 5th 203 44 95 108 became reality, when I received a settlement list for Stahl dating from the 1760s. 1798 6th 256 42 124 132 The settlement list, which appears below, is typed 1816 7th 360 53 183 177 entirely in Russian and was evidently transcribed 1834 8th 703 80 346 357 from a handwritten list prepared in the 1760s. Before 1850 9th 1,036 113 501 535 sharing the list in translated and transliterated form, I 1857 10th 1,341 120 686 697 provide some brief background information about the 1865 1,305 village of Stahl and emigration from Stahl to the New 1867 2,027 World. This will help in understanding the list and 1890 2,431 305 deriving information from it. 1897 3,743 1904 3,538 BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON STAHL 1908 3,767 350 The colony of Stahl am Karaman was founded on 1910 3,704 320 July 9, 1766. Located about 25 miles (37 verst) 1911- northeast of Saratov, Stahl was one of eight crown 1915 3,923 colonies established by the Russian government on 1912 3,940 the east or steppe side (Wiesenseite) of the Volga 1926 2,063 River. Like many Volga colonies, Stahl evidently took its German name from the surname of its first EMIGRATION FROM STAHL Over the years Stahl has sent a stream of emi- grants to various places in the world. These places include North and South America as well as other

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 15 areas of the . Those who have left From church records, naturalization records, pas- Stahl to settle elsewhere seem to have done so for two senger lists, and other sources, I have compiled the main reasons—to pursue economic opportunities and following list of family names from Stahl, Stahl emi- to avoid military service. Wherever they have gone, grants with these names settled both in the United Stahl emigrants have tended to travel and settle States and Brazil: together. The earliest emigration abroad was to Brazil in Bossert Krieger Prager 1877-1878. These early emigrants settled in Guar- Glockner Krutsch Rose auna and other towns in the State of Parana. The Henneberg Loresch Schmidt emigration from Stahl to Brazil occurred shortly after Hilgenberg Martin Schnarr the Russian government had abrogated the guarantees Jost Miiller Schneider made to the original colonists, which suggests that the Justus Niesen Urbach main motive may have been avoidance of military Kampf Ott Weitz service. Indeed, a good number of these emigrants Knoll Pflaum Wolf were young men, married and single, in their late Kraus teens and early twenties. Another wave of emigration occurred in the late Stahl emigrants with the above surnames settled in 1890s and early 1900s. The destination of these the United States and Brazil. As will be seen below, emigrants was the area around Omsk, Siberia. In 1896 many of these surnames date back to the original or 1897 emigrants from Stahl founded a settlement in Stahl colonists. this area, naming it after their mother colony (Zvonarev Kut). The population of this settlement was 299 in 1910 and 809 in 1926. LIST OF ORIGINAL STAHL COLONISTS Between 1906 and 1914, many Stahl emigrants To date, very few of the settlement lists for the came to the United States. Most of these emigrants Volga Germans have been available to researchers in came to the Chicago area, settling in one of three the West. Karl Stumpp's book, The Emigration from suburbs—Maywood, Bellwood, or Jefferson Park. A Germany to Russia in the Years 1763 to 1862, few others settled in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minne- contains four such lists. All of these are from the west sota, Colorado, and California. Compared to other or hill side (Bergseite) of the Volga River. Apart from Volga colonies, emigration from Stahl to the United these few lists, researchers and genealogists have had States started rather late. The earliest arrival I have only general information about the places of origin of found was in 1903. Most arrivals occurred between the early Volga-German settlers. This lack of specific 1909 and 1913. A few even managed to come in the information has prevented most Volga Germans from early 1920s. While employment opportunities un- finding out their places of origin in Germany. doubtedly attracted many Stahl emigrants to the The following is the first settlement list to be United States, avoidance of military service seems available from the east side (Wiesenseite) of the also to have been a factor. In the period following the Volga. In general, this list gives more detailed Russo-Japanese War, a number of older married men information than the Volga settlement lists that have with families left Stahl for the United States after previously been published. As such, the list provides a being discharged from military service. Similarly, fascinating look at Volga-German colonization. single and married men in their late teens and early twenties (i.e., of draft age) were well represented In this colony, there are 78 males and 76 females, among Stabler who came to the United States. for a total of 154 persons. For upcoming year 1768, For some reason, virtually no Stahl emigrants 11 + quadrants have been planted in rye. Virgin land settled in Canada. In fact, I have heard of only one cultivated is 59 dessiatines. Stabler by the name of Friedrich Krutsch who settled somewhere in Canada.

Page 16 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 COLONY OF ZVONAREV KUT, LUTHERAN, FOUNDED JULY 9, 1766. NOTES 1. The surnames in boldface type have been confirmed and are listed in their German spellings. The rest of the surnames have been transliterated into English exactly as they appear in Russian. 2. The Russian letter "g" represents both the "h" sound and the "g" sound. One should keep this in mind for surnames or placenames that contain a "g." 3. Those names that have not been positively identified are indicated with a question mark. 4. Material in brackets does not appear in the original list. 5. In referring to Germany, the list actually refers to "German lands," which reflects the status of Germany prior to unification. 6. The Russian words for "county" and "duchy" seem to be derived from "Grafschaft" and "Herzogtum." 7. The place-name "Gening" or "Dening" evidently refers to the Thungen area of northwest Bavaria (Unterfranken). This area takes its name from the town of Thiingen (see discussion below).

No. of Date transported Amount of loan Family Surname and first name Age Jurisdiction and place of former residence to settlement received (rub./kop)

1. TREGER, Friedrich (Vorsteher) 34 Lutheran from Stuttgart, Duchy of July 9, 1766 150 rub. Wife-Maria Katharina 36 Wiirtemberg, grain farmer Sons-Johann Friedrich 13 Johann Michael 2 Daughters-Eva Katherina 7 Eva Maria 4 2. RESH, Wenzel (Beisetzer) 51 Luth. From Karlsruhe, Principality of “ “ “ At Oranienbaum-35r. Wife-Eva 48 Baden-Tuchan{Durlach?}, wife from At Saratov------150r. Children of H’s 1st mrge-- Stuttgart, Suchy of Wiirtemberg, grain Total-----185r. Sons—Matthias 18 farmer Johann Jakob 15 Daughters—Anna Maria 14 Anna Barbara 13 Regina 9 Children of H’s 2nd mrge Son—Johann Christoph 3 Daughter-Eva Katherina 5 Children of W’s 1st mrge. Daigjter—Elisabeth MIRIN 13 3. BOSSERT Ber{n}hard (Beisetzer) 33 Luth. From Karlsruhe, Principality of “ “ “ 150r. Wife-Anna Maria 36 Baden-Tuchan{Durlach?}, wife from Son—Heinrich 2 Stuttgart, Duchy of Wiirtemberg, Grain farmer 4. STAHL Jakob 39 Luth. From Stuttgart, grain farmer “ “ “ At Oranienbaum---11r. Wife-Agda{Agatha?} 48 At Saratov------150r. 5. LENZ, Jakob 22 Luth. From Stockholm, Sweden, wife from 4 rub. Wife-Barbara 18 Stuttgart, grain farmer 6, GLIKLER, Michael 50 Luth. From Galburg?, Holy Roman Empire July 9, 1766 150 rub. Wife-Sophia 52 grain farmer Sons-Philipp Anton 18 Johann 16 Kaspar 15 Daughter-Philippina Katherina 17 7. VALTER Johann 47 Luth. From Schwerin, County of Neiberg “ “ “ 150 rub. Left wife in Germany {Neumark?}, craftsman 8. EGER Johann 30 Luth. From Friedberg, Holy Roman Empire. July 15, 1767 At Oranienbaum- 22 r. Wife-Anna Dorothea 33 wife from Gessen?, grain farmer At Saratov------150 r. Son-Thomas 10 9, GAURSHTEIN Michael 45 Luth. From Ansbach{Anspach?}. Wife from “ “ “ At Oranienbaum- 24 r. Karlsruhe, grain farmer At Saratov------207 r.

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 17

No. of Date transported Amount of loan Family Surname and first name Age Jurisdiction and place of former residence to settlement received (rub. kop.)

10. STAHL, Friedrich 32 Luth. From Stuttgart, grain farmer July 9, 1767 At Oranienbaum-14r. Wife---Willina 33 At Saratov--- 150r. Son—Friedrich 4 11. PETS, Johann 28 Same Same Same Wife—Katherina 36 Daughter—Katherina 1 12. GUTMAN, Christoph 44 Same Same At Saratov--- 150r. Wife—Christina (GEYER) 49 13. BAUMGART, Johann 57 Luth. From Lipany (Lippehne?), Prussia Same At Saratov--- 150r. Wife—Maria 27 grain farmer Son—Johann 8 Daughter—Katherina Elisabeth 1 14. SHRAIDER, Loretz (Lorenz?) 30 Luth. From Freystadt, Prussia, grain Same At Oranienbaum-14r. Wife—Anna Katherina 48 farmer At Saratov--- 150r. 15. SHTRAUR Johann Christian 43 Luth. From Quedlinburg, Saxony, grain July 9, 1767 At Saratov--- 150r. Wife---Anna Katherina 35 farmer 16. FRANS, Martin Christoph 65 Luth. From Free City Lübeck, craftsman “ At Oranienbaum- 8r. Wife---Dorothea Elisabeth 26 At Saratov--- 150r. 17. GUT, Henrich 48 Luth. From Rosenberg, Empire of Prussia, June 10, 1767 Same Wife---Susanna 25 craftsman Daughter---Regina 2 18. VITSEL, Johann Gottfried 26 Luth. From Saxony Same 2 horses, 1 cow Widower 25r. 19. PEK, Henrich 32 Luth. From Etienburg?, Principality of Same Same Wife---Katherina 28 Gessen (Hessen?), craftsman Daughter---Eva 10 20. MÜLLER, Johann Wilhelm 25 Luth. From Friburg?, County of Rissen-- Same Same Wife---Dorothea 29 burg (Isenburg?/Neu-Isenburg?), hunter Son---Jakob 2 wks. 21. REIN, Jakob 35 Luth. From Mainz, craftsman, wife from Same Same Wife---Luisa 27 Hamburg (Homburg?), grain farmer Daughter---Anna 3 22. VEBER, Johann Henrich 29 Luth., wife Reformed, from Darmstadt Same Same Wife---Anna Katherina 18 23. MIGNE, Johann Adam 38 Luth. From Weimar, Empire of Saxony, Same Same Wife---Anna Magdalena 40 craftsman Daughter of W’s first mrge (husband deceased in Germany)--- VEL’GEL’MIN, Anna Elisabeth 13 24. ROSE, Christian 31 Luth. From Gern(a)?, Empire of Same Same Wife---Katharina 29 Schlesien, craftsman 25. RIZON, Elias 25 Luth. From Kriburg?, Dormstadt June 10, 1767 2 horses, 1 cow Wife---Anna Elisabeth 28 (Darmstadt?) area, craftsman 25r. Son of deceased colonist SHEEBURG--- Johannes 12 Lauterbach 26. GAUZEN, Konrad 24 Same Same Same Wife---Elisabeth 25 Son of deceased colonist SHEEBERG--- Konrad 8

Page 18 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 No. of Surname and first name Age Jurisdiction and place of former residence Date transport Amount of loan received family to settlement (rub. kop.) 27. RIPSA Johannes 25 Same Same Same

Wife—Anna Maria 24 28. KLAUS Michel 49 Luth. from Budingen, Principality of Same Same Wife—Anna Margaretha 46 Idenburg [Isenburg1?], craftsman Daughter—Katharina Luisa 12 29. RAUSH Daniel 24 Luth. from Pateno?, County of Same Same Wife-Elisabeth 30 Hanaustadt Daughter—Katherina 10 30. OTT Johann 22 Luth. from Schwechat, Holy Roman Empire July 22, 1767 Same Wife-Elisabeth 21 (Austria), craftsman [June?] H's natural mother (supported by him)— Susanna OTT 54 H's brothers—Michel 16 Friedrich 12 31. SH1FLER Beiln]hard 28 Luth. from Elabs?, Dormstadt [Darmstadt?] June 22,1767 Same Wife—Anna Regina 20 area, wife from Dawtenburg, Württemberg area, grain farmer 32. HENNEBERG Kaspar 20 Luth. from Genig? (Denig?) [Thüngen? Same Same Brother (supported by him area], grain farmer after father's death)— Philipp 18 33. HENNEBERG Adam 28 Same Same Same Wife—Eva Katherina 30 34. LORESCH Johannes 21 Luth, from Gening? (Dening?) [Thiingen? June 22,1767 2 horses, I cow Wife-Elisabeth 20 area] 25 r. 35, SCHNEIDER Johannes 59 Same Same Same Wife—Margaretha 54 36. SCHNEIDER Johann Adam 27 Same Same Same Wife—Anna Katherina 22 Daughter—Katherina 1 37. KRAUS Adam 25 Same Same Same Wife—Margaretha 22 H's brothers—Ber[n]hard 21 Johann Kaspar 16 Johannes 13 38. KRAUS Michel 25 Same Same Same Wife—Katherina 40 Children ofW's 1st mrge to deceased colonist PFEIPFER- Son—Kaspar 13 Daughter-Katherina PFEIFFER 17 H's brothers—Johann KRAUS 18 Daniel KRAUS 13 39. LORESCH Johann 32 Same Same Same Wife—Susanna 24 40. SHIPER Michel 33 Same Same Same Wife-Elisabeth 37 Daughters ofW's 1st mrge to colonist Peter KEVELIA- Christina 17 Katherina 11 Margaretha 8 Dorothea 3

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 19 No. of Date tramsported Family Surname and first name Age Jurisdiction and place of former residence to settlement Amount of loan received 41. ROT, Anna Barbara 27 Same Same Same Widow 42. SCHMIDT, Michael 24 Luth. From Gening? (Dening?), [Thüngen?] June 22, 1767 2 horeses, 1 cow Wife---Anna Barbara 21 area, grain farmer 25 rub. Son---Johann 1 43. KRAUS, Johann 28 Same Same Same Wife---Anna [SCHNARR] 21 W’s brother (supported by Her after death of colonist Johann SCHNARR)--- Michel SCHNARR 8

44. LORESCH , Johannes 30 Same Same Same Wife---Anna Rosina [SCHÄD] 23 Child of deceased colonist SCHNARR (supported by H)--- Johann SCHNARR 13 45. ZEIFEL, Johannes 45 Same Same Same Wife---Elisabeth 45 Children of H’s 1st mrge--- Son---Ledlich? 9 Daughter---Margaretha 6 Children of W’s mrge to Deceased colonist Valentin MARTIN---(adopted by H)--- Magdalena MARTIN 14 Anna Katherina MARTIN 12 Margaretha MARTIN 9 Anna MARTIN 5 Supported by H and W--- Kaspar Henrich MARTIN 20 46. MARTIN, Johann 22 Same Same Same Wife---Anna Margaretha 22 47. MARTIN, Wilhelm 21 Luth. From Gening? (Dening?) [Thüngen June 22, 1767 2 horses, 1 cow Wife---Anna Margaretha 24 area], grain farmer 25 rub. 48. APPEL, Kaspar 23 Same Same Same Wife---Katherina 22 49. KRAU, Jakob 32 Same Same Same Wife---Dorothea 28

ACCURACY OF SETTLEMENT LIST These problems seem to reflect errors in transcription, transliteration, or typing. As noted earlier in this article, the above settle- ment list was transcribed and transliterated from the Having noted some inaccuracies in the list, it is original handwritten list. Under these circumstances, fortunate that we have available a couple of ways to one may wonder how accurate the list is. No doubt, verify the general reliability of the list. First, one can there are some inaccuracies. For example, the list see that a good number of the Stahl family names refers to a total of 154 colonists, while only 151 are known in the United States and Brazil are also found actually listed. As another example, some of the on the Stahl settlement list. This is a good indication place-names are misspelled (e.g., Idenburg = Isen- of the list's reliability. Second, and more importantly, burg, Dormstadt = Darmstadt, Tuchan = Durlach). six of the names on the Stahl settlement list

Page 20 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 also appear on the marriage list of the Evangelical Büdingen marriage records, it appears that this Parish ofBudingen published in 1927 (see ASHGR probably refers to the area of origin ("aus dem Thün- Bibliography, 1981 ed., p. 37, GR-369). This cross- gischen" or Thüngen area) rather than to the villages reference enables us to directly verify the accuracy of of origin (Rosbach and Heiligencreutz). From the information given in the list: research of old German maps, it appears that Thün- gischen refers to the fief of the Baron of Thüngen 7.4.1766 Johannes Larösch, der Jungere (Freiherr von Thüngen), whose territory included the von Rosbach, aus dem Thüngischen mit Rosina area around the town of Thüngen, as well as a Schädin ebendaher. separate area farther north around Burgsinn, Ross- [Apr. 7,1766 Johannes Larösch, junior, from bach, and Heilig Kreutz. Rosbach in the Thüngen area, and Rosina Schäd In the case of Gutman (family no. 12 on the Stahl from the same place.] list), the Büdingen marriage records indicate that he 8.4.1766 Christoph Gutman weyl. Jo. and his family are from Büdingen, while the Stahl Gutmann's Allhier Ehl Sohn mit Christinen settlement list indicates Stuttgart as the place of Elisabethen weyl. Wilhelm Ludwig Geyers hsg. residence. According to the Stumpp book. Gutman's Rothgerbers Tochter. place of origin is Pferdsbach, Büdingen. Without [Apr. 8, 1766 Christoph Gutman, legitimate son further research, it cannot be determined whether of deceased Johann Gutmann of this place, and Gutman was actually living in Stuttgart. Christina Elisabeth, daughter of deceased Before finding the above names in the Büdingen Wilhelm Ludwig Geyer, a local tanner.] marriage records, I was having a terrible time locating 14.4.1766 Joh. Caspar Appel v. Heiligen- "Gening*' or "Dening." Without help from the creutz a. d. Thüngischen m. Cath. Elisabth. Weyl. Büdingen marriage records or some other source, it is Pfeiffer Keilen tcht. dah. questionable whether I ever would have been able to figure out the place of origin, especially since [Apr. 14, 1766 Johann Caspar Appel from "Dening" is not really that similar to "Thüngen." This Heiligen-creutz in the Thüngen area and Catharina example shows that some place-names on the Stahl Elisabeth, ? daughter of deceased Pfeiffer from the list may only approximate the actual place-names. same place,] This could reflect dialectal pronunciation or Russian officials' lack of familiarity with German language The six names from the Büdingen marriage and place-names. When using the Volga-German records closely match Loresch (family no. 44), settlement lists, one should definitely consider that the Gutman (family no. 12) and Appel (family no. 48) place-names may be somewhat garbled. Dr. Stumpp from the Stahl settlement list. Of course, there are discusses this problem on page 14 of his book, some minor variations. For example, more given remarking about the difficulty of properly identifying names may appear on one list than on the other (e.g., place-names and pointing out that one must Anna Rosina = Rosina, Johann Caspar = Kaspar). sometimes seek help from experts on local German This is not surprising, as Volga Germans with two geography. From my own personal experience, I given names sometimes alternated between using would recommend the Büdingen marriage list as a both given names and using just one. source to be consulted for help in deciphering place- The Biidingen marriage records show us some- names. The Büdingen marriage list includes many thing interesting about the accuracy of the place- different place-names, all worded in the same names on the Stahl settlement list. On the Stahl eighteenth century style that the Volga colonists settlement list, both Loresch (family no. 44) and would have used. Appel (family no. 48) list the city of "Gening" or Considering all of these factors, I conclude that "Dening" as the place of former residence. From the the overall accuracy of the Stahl settlement list is very good. There may be some minor errors or discrepan-

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 21 cies, but these do not appear to detract from the list's value and reliability for research purposes. Of course, Area of Origin No. of Percentage when using the list, one should be aware of the Persons potential for minor errors and proceed accordingly. Austria 5 3.5% Baden 10 7.0% Bavaria 55 38.5% ORIGINS OF STAHL COLONISTS Hesse 23 16.1% Holy Roman Empire 9 6.3% One of the most interesting things that can be learned from the Stahl settlement list is the geo- Palatinate (Mainz) 2 1.4% Prussia 8 5.6% graphical origins of the colonists. As noted above, this is the first settlement list available for the Wiesenseite Saxony 6 4.2% colonies. Thus, it gives us a first look at the Schleswig-Holstein (Lübeck) 2 1.4% geographical origins of the colonists who settled on Silesia 2 14% the east side of the Volga, Sweden 1 .7% Before considering the geographical origins of the Württemberg 18 12.6% Stahl colonists, it should be noted that the list gives Uncertain 2 1.4% each colonist's place of former residence. In some Tot. 143* 100.1% cases, this may not be the same as the colonist's *This total excludes children two years and under, which are birthplace or hometown. For example, Christoph presumed to have been born in Russia, not Germany. Gutman reportedly came from Pferdsbach, Büdingen, yet Stuttgart is listed as his place of former residence. While the colonists in some Volga-German vil- Further research involving German parish records or lages may have come mainly from Hesse or the Russian census records would be required to pinpoint Rhineland, this was not true for Stahl. Only 16 percent a colonist's birthplace or hometown. While one should of the Stahl colonists came from Hesse. Almost 40 keep this point in mind, the places of former residence percent came from one place—the Thüngen area ("aus on the Stahl list are probably close enough to give a dem Thüngischen") located east of Frankfurt in the reliable indication of the areas of origin of the Stahl northwest part of Bavaria (Unterfranken). Twenty colonists. percent of the Stahl colonists came from the Baden- Traditionally, it has been thought that the Volga Württemberg area. This area is not traditionally Germans came mainly from the Hesse (Hessen) area associated with Volga-German colonization, but it of Germany (i.e., the area surrounding Frankfurt), seems in fact to have supplied its share of colonists to According to Stumpp: the Volga. Around 6 percent of the Stahl colonists Most of the emigrants came into the Volga came from Prussia, an area not previously mentioned region from Hesse and the Rhineland, but also in as a source of Volga colonists. lesser numbers from Württemberg, Alsace, According to Emma S. Haynes's excellent article, Lorraine, Tyrol, Bavaria, the Palatinate [Pfalz or "The Volga Germans," which was published in Work Kurpfalz], Westphalia, Hannover, Holstein, Paper No. 7 (Dec. 1971), dialect research has shown Mecklenburg, Saxony, Silesia, and Bohemia. A that, in general, the people of the Wiesenseite were of few also came along from Denmark, Sweden, more mixed origin than were those of the Bergseite. and France. This point seems to be borne out by the Stahl settlement list. The geographical origins of the Stahl Just by glancing at the list, one can see that the colonists differ considerably from those reported for Stahl colonists came from a number of the areas the Bergseite villages. In general, the Bergseite mentioned by Dr. Stumpp. Analyzed more carefully, colonists appear to have come principally from Hesse the list shows the following geographical origins: and the Palatinate. For example, colonists from Hesse represent about 70 percent of those who settled in Balzer and Semenovka, and 100 per-

Page 22 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 cent of those who settled in Yagodnaya Polyana. The Palatinate contributed roughly 40 percent of the Profession Number Percentage colonists to Dietel and more than 20 percent of the Grain farmers 32 12 1 71.1% colonists to Balzer. Of the Bergseite lists, Dietel is the Craftsmen 26.7% only one that approaches the diverse origins of the Hunters 2.2% Stahl colonists. Total Of course, one cannot be certain from a single 45 100.0% settlement list that the geographical origins of the Stahl colonists are typical of the Wiesenseite colonies. The Russian word used to describe the farmers Nevertheless, the Haynes article suggests that the (khiebopashtsy) on the list specifically refers to grain diversity of the Stahl colonists probably is typical of farmer, as opposed to other kinds of farmers. Judging the Wiesenseite colonies. As for crown colonies, the from the comments at the end of the list, the emphasis diverse origins of the Stahl colonists may not be so in the first years of colonization was on planting rye. typical. Yagodnaya Polyana, which was also a crown The Russian word used for craftsman (tsekhovoi) colony, obtained all of its colonists from one area— indicates someone who belonged to a guild. This did Hesse, It could be that Stahl and Yagodnaya Polyana not necessarily mean an artisan. A craftsman of this represent two extremes of the diversity found in the type could also have been someone like a tinsmith or crown colonies. blacksmith. One profession that sticks out on the list One thing common to several of the areas (e.g., is that of Müller (family no. 20), who was a hunter Hesse, Saxony, Prussia and Silesia) from which the (yeger). This possibly refers to someone who bagged Stahl colonists originated is that they were areas game or ran hunts for the nobility. When the wolves affected by the Seven Years' War, which ended in howled in the wild woods and steppes around Stahl, it 1763. Other areas, such as Austria, Württemberg and must have been comforting to have had a resident Bavaria, were characterized by religious intolerance, hunter in the village' particularly towards Protestants. This suggests that the The list tells us some interesting things about the emigration from these areas to Stahl could have ages of the colonists. For the 48 male heads of resulted from war or religious intolerance. household, the average age was 33.5 years. For the 45 There is one other comment that should be made female heads of household, the average age was 31.0 about the origins of the Stahl colonists—the majority years. A more careful analysis shows the following seem to have resided in larger cities at the time of age distribution for the heads of household: their immigration to Russia. Assuming that the col- onists actually resided in these cities, this may reflect a pattern of people moving into the cities to find employment. However, since the colonists ended up Age Group Males Females Total leaving Germany, it may also indicate that 10-19 0 2 2 employment and other conditions in the cities were 20-29 22 24 46 not all that good. 30-39 14 9 23 40-49 7 8 15 50-59 4 2 6 60-69 1 0 1 Totals 48 45 93

THE COLONISTS AND THEIR The above figures give a much better picture of JOURNEY TO RUSSIA the age groups that participated in the colonization of The Stahl settlement list can also tell us some the lower Volga. One can see that the colonists interesting things about the colonists themselves and consisted mainly of people in their twenties and early their journey to Russia. Not all of the colonists were thirties. This is not really surprising. People of this farmers. Of the 45 male heads of household for age group would tend to be less established and which a profession is listed, the list shows the therefore would have less to lose by gambling on following:

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 23 settlement in a far-off land. Their younger bodies those married shortly before departing for Russia. In could better stand the rigors of the long journey to their case, they married at Büdingen in April 1766 Russia, too. and arrived in Stahl in June or July 1767. This gives The number of widowers, widows, and orphans some indication of the length of time required to among the Stahl colonists is grim testimony to the emigrate. Obviously, emigration to the Volga was a hardships of the long journey to the Volga and early difficult, time-consuming undertaking. life in Stahl. One widower and one widow— Vitsel’ As noted earlier, almost 40 percent of the Stahl (family no. 18) and Rot (family no. 41)—are included colonists came from one area—the Thüngen area in the list. Judging from their young ages, their ("aus dem Thüngischen") in northwest Bavaria spouses must have died on the way to the Volga or in (Unterfranken). Most of this group consisted of Stahl. The list also includes three other widows with young, married couples without children. One can children, all of whom remarried (see Pfeiffer [family imagine that this group may well have travelled to- no. 38], Kevelia [family no. 40] and Martin [family gether to Russia or may have settled together in Stahl no. 45]). Their former husbands are referred to as because they were from the same area in Germany. colonists, which indicates that they died along the This same pattern of travelling and settling together way or in Stahl. Five orphans (Sheeberg, Henneberg would later be followed when emigrants left Stahl for and Schnarr) are included in the list, their fathers also Brazil and the United States. described as deceased colonists. The youngest Schnarr boy was taken in by his sister (Kraus, family SURNAMES AND NICKNAMES no. 43), and the Henneberg boy was taken in by his It is interesting to compare the list of Stahl family brother (family no. 32). The other boys were taken in names with those that appear on the Stahl settlement by childless couples (Rizon, family no. 25; Gauzen, list. Some surnames, such as Kampf, Knoll, Krutsch, family no. 26; and Loresch, family no. 44). Pflaum, and Wolf, were represented well in Stahl by Virtually all of the Stahl colonists were married the early 1900s, but do not show up among the first prior to emigration. The only apparent exception is colonists. Given the number of Stahler with these Lenz (family no. 5), who received a very low cash surnames, it is surprising that they do not date back to allotment (4 rubles) and who must have married in the earliest colonists. One possible explanation is that Russia. Except for Val'ter (family no. 7), who left his colonists with these surnames settled in other Volga wife behind in Germany, all of the married men colonies and that they or their descendants later travelled to Russia with their wives. In recruiting moved to Stahl. Another possibility is that colonists colonists for Stahl and the other Volga villages, the with the missing surnames arrived in Stahl after the Russian government undoubtedly sought married list was prepared (i.e., sometime after 1767). This couples, because they would be more stable and bet- could have happened during further emigration to the ter suited for farming. Whether single men were Volga in the latter 1700s or during the retreat of refused passage or merely given a lesser allotment is Napoleon's army from Russia in the early 1800s. not clear. Equally surprising is the number of surnames on In comparing the married couples who settled in the Stahl settlement list that are not present in Stahl in Stahl, it is interesting to note the number that were the early 1900s. Most of the first 31 surnames on the married shortly prior to emigration. Of the 47 married list fall into this category. It is hard to believe that all couples named in the list, only 13 (i.e., 28%) were of these surnames died out through lack of male definitely married for a substantial time prior to children to carry on the family name. Perhaps some of immigration, presumably many of the other 34 these colonists ended up moving to other colonies. couples married shortly before immigration. There is a noticeable difference between the first The three couples (Larosch, Gutman and Appel) names of the original Stahl colonists and those later listed in the Büdingen marriage records were among

Page 24 AHSGR Journal i Spring 1991 used in Stahl in the latter 1800s and early 1900s. A that the Wine Krauses may have emigrated from number of the names used by the original colonists, Austria to the Thüngen area before emigrating to such as Bernhard, Christoph, Daniel, and Michael Russia. I plan to keep this second hypothesis in mind (Michel), Eva, Magdalena, Regina, and Susanna were as I continue researching the Thüngen area. Perhaps to my knowledge not used in Stahl in the period after additional research will clear up this mystery. 1860. This is somewhat surprising, especially considering the Volga-German tendency to perpetuate DIALECT RESEARCH the first names from generation to generation. On the The final topic I would like to mention in con- other hand, names like Alexander, David, Gottfried, nection with the Stahl settlement list is that of dialect Gottlieb, Kari, Amalia, Emilie, Helena, and Sophia research. In the Spring 1985 issue of the AHSGR that were so popular in Stahl before and after the turn Journal Vern Beilman wrote an interesting, innovative of the century, were scarcely to be found among the article about using dialect research, together with original Stahl colonists. I have no idea what led to other information, to locate probable places of origin these changes in naming practices. for Volga Germans. Being impressed by this article Of special interest to genealogists is the relation- and having little other information to go on, I decided ship between nicknames and the Stahl settlement list. to try this method to determine the origins of the Stahl Through personal contacts, I have learned a number of colonists. After recording samples of the Stahl dialect nicknames (Beinamen) used to refer to certain people and sending them to Dr. William Keel of the from Stahl. For example, one of the Schneider clans University of Kansas, I received a detailed analysis from Stahl was referred to as die Appels Schneider. indicating a probable area of origin between Frankfurt Another example is a woman by the name of Sophia and Darmstadt. Kraus, who was called die Drehers Sophie. I had It is amazing that the Stahl settlement list does always guessed that these nicknames referred to the indeed include five families from the predicted surname of the wife of the original ancestor. In other Darmstadt area. This seems to confirm the basic words, it was my theory that the ancestor of the validity of using dialect analysis to determine the Appels Schneider clan was married to a woman whose general place of origin of Volga colonists. surname was Appel. The Stahl settlement list lends In the case of Stahl, it is unclear whether the weight to this theory, since surnames such as Dreher village dialect evolved into a generic South-Hessian and Appel do indeed turn up among the earliest dialect (Umgangsprache) or whether the dialect con- colonists to Stahl. In gathering information about tinued to reflect the various origins of Stahl's colon- Volga-German genealogy, one should keep in mind ists. Judging from the different pronunciations noted this potential link between nicknames and the earliest by Dinges and some of the unusual words used by the colonists, Stahler (e.g., Peder = godfather or uncle, Geht = Having mentioned the link between nicknames and godmother or aunt, marode = tired), it may well be the earliest colonists, I should mention one example that the Stahl dialect continued to reflect the diverse where a nickname does not appear to gibe with the origins of the original colonists. [For another use of Stahl settlement list. Through personal contacts, I dialect research in locating places of origin, see have heard of a Kraus family from Stahl that is Timothy Kloberdanz's article in this issue—Ed.] referred to as Wine, because they originated from Vienna, Austria. Although there are several Krauses CONCLUSION on the Stahl settlement list, all of them came from the This article shows the type of information that can Thüngen area of Bavaria, not from Austria. I can think be obtained from the early Volga-German settlement of only two possibilities. The first is that the Wine lists. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, such lists Krauses came later to Stahl and are different than the will become available for all of the Volga villages. Krauses who came originally. The second is Keep in mind, though, that these lists are not a cure-all for the genealogist. Some of the

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 25 information can be difficult to decipher, especially the optimistic that additional information will be forth- colonists' places of origin. Even with these lists coming. available, it may prove difficult to find one's exact In closing this article, I would like to express my place of origin without additional information from deepest thanks to Professor James Long of Colorado Russian census records or German parish records. State University. Not only was Jim instrumental in In the case of my Schmidt and Schneider ances- helping me obtain the Stahl settlement list, but he has tors, the quest goes on. Unfortunately, the LDS also generously shared with me his extensive Church does not presently have parish registers for knowledge of the Volga colonies. I could never have the Thüngen area of Bavaria. This limits my ability to done it without you, Jim. do further research on my family history in Germany. But I still have some irons in the fire, and I am Walnut Creek, California. January 22, 1991.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Anger, Helmut. Die Deutschen in Sibirien. Reise Russia.] Appendix IV. St. Petersburg: Tipografiya V. durch die deutschen Dörfer Westsiberiens. V.Nusvalt, 1869. Deutsche Gesellschaft zum Studium Osteuropas, Langhans-Ratzeburg, Manfred. Die Wolgadeutschen: ihr Berlin; Ost-Europa Verlag, 1930. Staats—und Verwaltungsrecht in Vergangenheit und Beratz, Gottlieb. Die deutschen Kolonien an der Gegenwart. Deutsche Gesellschaft zum Studium unteren Wolga in ihrer Entstehung und ersten Osteuropas VIIL Berlin: Osteuropa Verlag, 1929. Entwickelung: Leibbrandt, Georg, Die deutschen Siedlungen in der Gedenkblätter zur hundertfunfzigsten Jahreswende Sowjet-union. Part 5: Deutsche Wolgarepublik. Berlin: der Ankunft der ersten deutschen Ansiedler an der Sammlung Georg Leibbrandt, 1941. Wolga, 29. Juni 1764—29. Juni 1914. Saratov: Druck von H. Schellhorn, 1915. Matthäi, Friedrich. Die deutschen Ansiedlungen in Russland: Ihre Geschichte und ihre Deutscher Volkskalender für Stadt und Land auf das volkswirtschaftliche Bedeutung für die Jahr 1914. Odessa, Russia: Klemensverlag. Vergangenheit und Zukunft. Leipzig; Die Evangelisch-Lutherischen Gemeinden in Russland. Verlag von Herman Fries, 1866. Eine historisch-statististische Darstellung. Vol. 1: Der St. Petersburgische und der Moskowische Konsistorial- Novouzenskii uyezd v estestvenno-istoricheskom i bezirk, Zentral-Komite der Unterstützungs-Kasse fur khozyais-vennom otnoshenii, Po dannym evangelisch-lutherische Gemeinden in Russland. St. obsledovanniya 1908 g. [Natural-Historical and Petersburg: Buchdruckerei J. Watsar, 1909. Economic Aspects of Novouzensk Uyezd, Based Giesinger, Adam. "Villages in Which Our Forefathers on Information from the Inspection of 1908.} Lived." Journal of the American Historical Society of Novouzenskoe uyezdnoe zemstvo. Vol. II, Germans/row Russia, 5,3, Lincoln: Fall 1982, Appendix, Novouzensk: Tipografiya obshchestva trudovoi pomoshchi, 1912, 1913, Hoffmann, Hermann. "Auswanderung nach Russland im Jahre 1766." Mitteilungen der Hessischen Familienge- Pisarevskii, Grigorii Grigorievich, Iz istorii inostrannoi schichtlichen Vereinigung. No. 4. Darmstadt: January, kolonizatsii v Rossii v XVIII v. [History of Foreign 1927. Colonization in Russia in the XVIII Century.] Appendix. Moscow: Pechatnya A.I. Snegirevy, Holborn, Hajo. A History of Modem Germany, 1648- 1909. English translation in AHSGR Work Paper 1840. Vol. 2, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., No. 25 (Winter 1977). 1964, Sbomik statisticheskikh svedenii po samarskoi Klaus, Aleksandr Avgustovich. Nashi Kolonii, Opyty gubemii. [Collection of Statistical Information on materialy po istorii i statistike inostrannoi Samara Gubemiya.] Vol. 7: Novouzensk Uyezd, kolonizatsii v Rossii, [Our Colonies: The Lessons 1890. Moscow and Samara: Samarskoye of Materials Based on the History and Statistics of gubernskoye zemstvo, 1883-1892. Foreign Colonization in

Page 26 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Schmidt, David, Studien Über die Geschichte der Wolga- Spisok naselennykh mest samarskoi gubemii, sostavlen v deutschen. Part 1; Seit der Einwanderung bis zum im- 1910 g. [List of Populated Places in Samara Guber-niya, Compiled in /9/O] Edited by N.G.Podkovyrov. Samara: perialischen Weltkriege, Pokrowsk: Zentral-VöIker- Gubernskaya tipografiya, 1910. Verlag der Union der Soz. Räte-Rep. Abteilung, 1930, Spiski naselemykh mest rossiskoi imperil, sostavlennye i isdavaemye tsentralnym statisticheskim komitetom min- Statisticheskie tablitsy samarskoi gubernii. [Statistical isterstva vnutrennikh del (Po svedeniyam l859 g). [List of Tables of Samara Gubemiya.] Section 1, Number 1: Populated Places of the Russian Empire, Compiled and Composition of the Population of Samara Province by Published by the Central Statistical Committee of the Nationality, 1870. Samara: Izdaniye samarskogo Ministry of Internal Affairs (Based on 1859 Data).] gubernskogo statisticheskogo komiteta, 1870-1871. Tsentralnii statisticheskii komitet. Vol. 36: Samara Province, 1864. St. Petersburg: Tipografiya Karl Vulf, 1861-1885. Stumpp, Karl, The Emigration from Germany to Russia in the Years 1763-1862. Lincoln: AHSGR, 1982.

Catherine the Great by Lampi, British Museum, London.

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 27

From map of Hesse, immigration to the Volga area (1763-1769). (Cartographer Dr. K. Stumpp)

AHSGR Journal / Spring 1991 PIECING THE PAST TOGETHER- THE IMPORTANT ROLE OF FOLKLORE IN FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH

Timothy J. Kloberdanz

The author's grandparents, Paffe George and Christina Kloberdanz, pose with twelve of their eighteen children (four died in infancy). Back row, left to right: Christina Kloberdanz holding George, Jr., Katie, Mary, Jake, John (the author's/other), and Paffe George Kloberdanz (with hat in hand). Front row, left to right: Annie, Opal, Susie, Frank, Millie, Christina (hoking up), and Rosie. Picture was taken near Sterling, Colorado, about 1924.

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 29 I. "ALLER ANFANG 1ST SCHWER" Back in 1969, when I first began interviewing older Volga Germans in my home community of Sterling, Colorado, I did not realize that I was embarking on a venture that would consume so much of my future time and energy. Now, many years later, I can reflect back on more than two decades of German-Russian research that seem to have sped by all too quickly. Unlike a number of my ethnic colleagues, I did not begin my research by focusing solely on my immediate ancestors. Naturally, I collected informa- tion about German-Russian relatives whenever I could, but it was seldom my primary goal. Instead, I sought to obtain a glimpse of the "big picture" and a better understanding of how German villagers lived in Russia and how some of their descendants later adapted to social and environmental conditions in the immigrant settlements of the New World. This emphasis reflected my training in anthropology and resulted in early publications of mine that were aimed at describing the general outlines of German-Russian life and culture.' After I left Colorado in 1976, my interest in the broader story of the Germans from Russia increased even more. I accepted a teaching position at North Dakota State University in Fargo and for the next dozen years or so, I familiarized myself with the background of numerous non-Volga-German groups: , Mennonites, , Caucasus Germans, Volhynian Germans, Sudeten- deutsche, Donauschwaben, and Austrian Burgen- länder.2 From the mid-1970s on, many people wrote to me for suggestions about researching their own family Vetter Hannes (John Nicholaus Kloberdanz) of histories. Those individuals whose ancestors were Osage, Iowa, as he appeared at the time the author interviewed him. July 1979. NOTE: Many researchers, particularly those working on Volga- German family histories, claim that one can only go so far in Volga-German were among the most desperate of all, tracing their ancestors due to the absence or inaccessibility of official records. In this essay, the author explains how he was able since the Stumpp emigration book and other published to pinpoint the place of his ancestors's origin in Germany and then sources were of only limited help to them. Always my piece together three hundred years of his family's history. The advice was the same: interview the oldest surviving secret? Pay close attention to nicknames, folksongs, family relatives and write down (or better yet, tape record) stories, dialect expressions, rhymes, and other types of folklore. These things are far from trivial; they often provide researchers everything they remember—family stories, with vitally important and even revelatory clues. nicknames, proverbs, folksongs, dialect terms, etc. Undoubtedly, most people who were given such advice considered it a not-too-subtle bias of mine, since I was the Folklore Forum editor of the AHSGR Journal for many years and was always

Page 30 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 pleading for new contributions of German-Russian year's sabbatical and a research trip to Western Europe folklore. Yet from my own experience in doing the following spring. While in Europe, I hoped to do interviews with older Germans from Russia, I had research at various ethnological research centers and come to appreciate the genealogical relevance of oral Freilichtmuseen (open air folk-life museums) in order history and folklore. I was convinced that family to gather information about the ways traditional rural stories, folk songs, and even nicknames could serve as populations had lived in Europe before the Industrial vital links not only to the distant past, but to Age. seemingly unrelated families and whole kindred as As I prepared for my trip to Europe, the idea of well. doing at least a few days of family history research in In the spring of 1988,1 assisted a team of medical Germany seemed more and more viable. Like most researchers at the University of Washington in Volga-German descendants, I had few ideas about Seattle. This team was (and still is) trying to trace the where my Kloberdanz ancestors originated in incidence of familial Alzheimer's Disease among 3 Germany. So I decided to put into personal practice Volga-German groups from two Bergseite villages. what I had professionally preached for so long. Again, my advice to them focused on researching the Nonetheless, an old German proverb quickly came to oral histories and folklore of the two kindred. I told mind: Aller Anfang ist schwer— Every beginning is the researchers that if they were able to trace and link difficult. I sorted through all the material that I had together the various "lineage nicknames" of the accumulated about the Kloberdanz family and was families they were studying, they might eventually disheartened to find so little after twenty years of discover how the families were related to each other, active German-Russian research. The few tantalizing and what ancestors) they shared in common. "Lineage bits of information, however, had come to me by way nicknames" is a term that I use to describe the of oral history and folklore. But even these items nicknames given entire Volga-German families or appeared a bit vague and seemed all too few. kindred. This was a practice common in Russia and The oldest piece of information that I had was even much later here in America. given to me in the form of a family nickname by my For example, in my home area of northeastern late father, John C, Kloberdanz. He often told me that Colorado, there were many Volga-German families unser Leit (our people) came from Rothammel, by the name of "Amen." These Amens were known Russia, and belonged to that branch of the Kloberdanz by a variety of monikers that enabled listeners to family known as Paffe. Thus my grandfather was "place" any Amen individual in the right kin group known as Paffe Jorigel (Paffe George) and my great- almost immediately. Some of the Amen nicknames grandfather was Paffe Michel {Paffe Michael). I asked from Colorado I recall are: "Stametz" (Steinmetz or Dad repeatedly what Paffe meant and he would "stone mason"), "Proctor" (they lived near Proctor, always reply, "It was a nickname, that's all." Yet Colorado), "Logan" (they lived near the little town of whenever Dad met other Kloberdanzes who were Logan, Colorado, which, incidentally, was called unfamiliar to him, he would always ask, "Which "Amen" in pre-World War I days), and even "Paw- Kloberdanz are you?" If the answer was something nee" (the "Pawnee" Amens had no direct ties to the like, "We're called Paffe” then Dad knew they were Pawnee Indians but they did live on Pawnee Creek!). relatives of ours. The lineage nickname of Paffe did As Volga-German families of the same surname grew not, however, rule out the possibility of additional larger and larger, more and more nicknames became nicknames being given members of the Paffe necessary to keep them apart. Within only two or relationship. Dad, after all, was known to many in three generations, large families with the same northeastern Colorado as Lanz or Landsmann surname but different lineage nicknames often (meaning "Farmer"); an uncle of his who remained in claimed no relationship to each other, although they the old country was known by the curious German- usually were more closely related than they Russian nickname of Schlittje Baschlie Hannes themselves believed. (literally, "Little Sled, Let's Go, By the summer of 1988, I was preparing for a

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 31

BINGEN RHINE RIVER MAINZ

ALZEY DITTELSHEIM METTENHEIM

MARIENTHAL WORMS

Scale: Miles 0 1 2 3 4 5

Map of the area known as "Rheinhessen" in modern-day Germany. The locations of several cities and villages mentioned in the article are shown.

Page 32 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Johnny!"); and an extremely tall first cousin of Dad's, Herz entzwei" (in two-times thirteen hours, his heart a Paffe Kloberdanz living in Colorado, was known by broke in half).5 the English nickname of "High Pockets." Other than for my father's emphasis on the nick- Some of the older Volga Germans I talked to in name and the folk song about the scorned lover, there northeastern Colorado told me they thought the was little other information available in northeastern nickname Paffe came from the German term paffen Colorado about the Kloberdanz family, even though (meaning "to puff on a pipe or cigarette). They there were about a dozen households in the Sterling admitted this was a guess although it made sense to area alone. The Kloberdanzes left behind few written me. My grandfather, Paffe Jorigel often smoked a pipe accounts or records. They seemed little interested in and my Dad was a cigarette smoker, as were a number books, old documents, genealogies, and the like. The of others in the Paffe Kloberdanz relationship, Kloberdanzes were mostly farmers and were known to Another thing that my father remembered about be hardworking but unassuming. They especially my grandfather Kloberdanz was that he like to sing an feared that any of their actions might be interpreted as old Volga-German folk song that began "Ich steh auf being those of "show-offs." Perhaps this explains their hohe Berge'/schau 'nunter ins tiefe Tal (I stand upon a reluctance to write about themselves or their own past. high hill/and look down into the deep valley)." My While striving to keep a low profile can naturally father could remember only the first few lines, but a be admired, one must not overlook its drawbacks. dear friend and distant cousin of ours in Sterling, How many young Volga Germans refused to pursue Wees Lena (Mrs. Felix Kloberdanz, 1888-1984) their dreams and ambitions simply because they were happily sang the entire song for me. She agreed that it afraid to be branded "show-offs?" Was it really an was Paffe Jorigels Lied (my grandfather's favorite unforgivable social sin to excel at athletics, to give a song) and he always sang it in a distinctive, plaintive piano recital, to run for political office, to create fashion. The folk song, an incredibly old ballad that works of art, or to publish articles and books? dates from perhaps as early as the 1300s, tells the While doing German-Russian research in western story of a lovestruck man who desired the hand of a Saskatchewan in 1977, I came into contact with a young maiden.4 The woman, however, refused to Kloberdanz family living near the prairie town of marry him, saying, "Ins Kloster will ich gehen,lwill Primate. These Kloberdanzes reminded me very much werde' eine Nonn (I want to go to the convent and of some of my own relatives in Colorado, but they become a nun)." Accepting her decision, the dejected told me that they traced their ancestry to the Volga- man told the maiden: German village of Schuck, not Rothammel, where my own paternal ancestors originated. While much of the Wilfst du ja eine Nonne werd', folklore they remembered was similar to that of the so gedenk' an keinen Mann. Colorado Kloberdanzes, the nickname Paffe and a number of other things seemed quite unfamiliar to So gedenk' an Gott dein Voter them. der dich ernähre kann. There was, however, one piece of family folklore If you want to become a nun, then that both the Canadian Kloberdanzes and their think of no man. Think only of God counterparts in Colorado remembered. In Russia, your Father He'll protect you as only whenever a little Kloberdanz ventured out on the He can. village street, the other children inevitably sang or Some versions of the same song relate how the called out: man later encountered the young woman after she had Kloberdanz, Kloberdanz, cut her long hair and donned the new garb of her Grie' die Kuh am Schwanz! religious order. The sight of the woman as a nun was too much for the man; he went to a high place and "in zweimal dreizehn Stunden/sprang ihm sein Kloberdanz, Kloberdanz, take the cow by the tail!

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 33

An old print by M. Merian shows the fortified German city ofAlzey in about the year 1645. This Liedja was carried to the New World and in many of the gaps that I once thought could never be sung both in the school yards of Saskatchewan and filled. the sugar beet fields of Colorado. When I asked Vetter Hannes about the nickname of Paffe he offered a quick and interesting explana- II. VETTER HANNES: tion: THE MAN WITH AN AMAZING MEMORY There was this Kloberdanz who lived a long In the summer of 1979 I befriended and inter- time ago back in Rothammel. He had his hair viewed an elderly Volga-German man in Osage, kinda long and the people teased him and said Iowa, known as Paffe Hannes. Also known as that he looked just like a russe Paff [Russian Nicholas Kloberdanz, Paffe Hannes (I called him Orthodox priest]. The Russian Paffs always Vetter Hannes) was born in Rothammel, Russia, in dressed in black and had their hair real long. 1889 and was a walking repository of Volga-German You could spot ‘em a mile away. folklore, folk songs, and oral history.6 His daughter, Well, that's how the Paff nickname started Margaret Gorrell, had written to me repeatedly and and that's why we're still known by that name urged me to interview him since he still remembered today. Ja, that long-haired Kloberdanz who so many stories and songs from "the Old Country." It lived a long time ago was the first Paff. He took Vetter Hannes and myself a while, but we finally started it all. So we can blame him! [laughter] figured out that my great-grandfather (Paffe Michel) and his grandfather (Paffe Martin) were brothers and Vetter Hannes went on to explain that there were thus were the sons of Paffe Jakob Martin Kloberdanz several families in Rothammel by the name of Klo- and Maria Theresia Kramer. Both of these common berdanz, but there seemed to be two main groups as ancestors of ours would have been born around 1800. evidenced by their nicknames, the Paffe Klober- Vetter Hannes, because he was interested in his danzes and the Franze Kloberdanzes. When I asked family's history even as a young man, had listened Vetter Hannes how the Franze nickname originated, intently to the stories told by his elders before he he surmised that an early ancestor of theirs was immigrated to America. Thus he was able to fill named Franz.

Page 34 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 After telling Vetter Hannes that I had met Klober- we talked about how old many of the songs must danzes in western Saskatchewan who said they had surely be. This sparked a memory about how Vetter come from the Volga-German colony of Schuck Hannes had come upon a group of old Paffe Klober- (rather than Rothammel), Vetter Hannes smiled danzes in Rothammel. The grizzled men were sitting knowingly and said, "They're our bunch all right, but around a table in the yard, drinking and singing. Then way back." Again a piece of oral history from Vetter the men became silent and told Vetter Hannes they Hannes1 amazing memory shed light on this almost knew a real old song from their original home in forgotten relationship: Deitschland. They removed their hats and sang a song A long time ago in Rothammel, there was about "Kaiser Ludwig." Fascinated by this newly this Kloberdanz woman who lost her husband. resurrected memory I asked Vetter Hannes if he She had three kids, but there was nobody in the remembered how the song went. I hesitated to ask but village she could marry. You see, two of her Vetter Hannes had told me previously that he was children were boys and nobody in the village blessed with a good memory. "I only have to hear a wanted to lose those Dusche (land allotments) song once to remember it," he casually remarked. for the two boys. So here's what they [the Wasting no time at all, Vetter Hannes paused and then village elders] decided. They found a widower sang the old folksong so reverently sung by a group of for her to marry in Schuck and in exchange, a Paffe Kloberdanzes in pre-Revolution Russia: widow from Schuck named Werz moved to Rothammel and married. This Werz woman Ludwig, du grosser König! also had two boys, as well as a little girl. Dir bin ich untertänig. This way nobody in either Rothammel or Hab' ich was getan und wäre nich recht, Schuck lost any Dusche— understand? And Verzeihe mir als dein treue Knecht! that's how the Kloberdanz name got started in Der Tod ist hier; Schuck and the Werz name came into Ich muss von dir. Rothammel. When I was back in Russia I used Viele Bataille' hab' ich gewonnen, to see those Kloberdanzes from Schuck and I'd Viele Städte eingenommen always go up to 'em and say, "You really belong Stadt Mainz die war die letzten; to us, to Rothammel." But they'd just look at me Dort war der Streit am besten. kinda funny and say, "Was maant Ehr? Mer sin' Und dort hab' ich mit meiner Macht Shuggare!" (What do you mean? We're from Viele Länder und Städte zu Friede gebracht. Schuck!) Mit meiner Macht, Based on what Vetter Hannes told me, I figured Ich hab's vollbracht! that the exchange of the two widows and their chil- Ludwig, you great king, dren probably occurred in the mid-1800s. This con- Of whom I am a subject! clusion was based on the names and ages of all the If I did something that wasn't right Werz descendants Vetter Hannes could remember who lived in Rothammel prior to his own immigration Forgive me, your true servant! to the United States in March, 1911. Death is here; Vetter Hannes remembered many old Volga- I must leave you. German folk songs and I recorded these along with his comments about how and where he had learned I won many battles each one. Even at the age of ninety, he had a good, [And] conquered many cities. strong voice and obviously enjoyed singing all the The city of Mainz was the last; songs he could remember. At one point while Vetter There the fighting was at its height. And Hannes rested between singing the old Volkslieder there I liberated Many lands and cities.

AHSGR Journal / Spring 1991 Page 35 With [all] my strength, I Un' die Lohme' un' die Kromme' accomplished it! schickt der wieder nach Haus. Of particular interest in the song was a reference Ei, die Lohme' un' die Kromme' to a battle in Mainz, a famous city on the Rhine. Upon schickt der wieder nach Haus. first studying the text of the song, I surmised that it 'S Regiment vom Alzen Burg, concerned the French King Louis XIV and might date Ei das Regiment vom Rhein. from the 1680s when the area around Mainz was Ei, der Kaiser aus Deitschland der overrun by French troops. The folk song seemed such tauter junge Leit.... unique and no collection of old German folk songs that I perused contained anything even resembling The emperor seeks out [all] "Ludwig, du grosser Konig." the handsome and fine [young men]. Eventually I sent out a number of letters to Ger- Those who are lame and bent over man folklorists and ethnomusicologists asking about he sends back home. Oh, those who are the song but none seemed to recognize it. Finally, Dr. lame and bent over Waltraud Linder-Beroud of the Deutsches he sends back home. Volksliedarchiv in Freiburg, Germany, solved the [There is] a regiment from Alzen Burg, Oh, a mystery for me. After considerable research, Dr. regiment from the Rhine. Oh, the German Linder-Beroud discovered that "Ludwig, du grosser emperor König" was a shortened form of a much longer song wants nothing but young men .... that first appeared around 1750 entitled "Jetzt kann ich sorglos leben (Now I Can Live Without Worry)." I had not heard the above song before but when I The song actually dealt with the French King Louis returned home and compared the text of the song XV (1715-1774) and his loyal subject Comte de Saxe against other known variants of the same folk song, (Moritz von Sachsen) who had distinguished himself Vetter Hannes' version was the only one that referred 7 in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). to a place called "Alzen Burg."8 Vetter Hannes Most surprising of all was how similar the lyrics sung himself did not know where "Alzen Burg" was. He by Vetter Hannes in 1979 were to even the oldest merely sang the song the way he had first heard it versions of the same song collected in Germany in the from the other Paffe Kloberdanzes in RothammeL 1800s. The major difference, however, was that For some reason they referred to "Alzen Burg" in nearly all of the other known variants of the song their version. referred to a battle in Mastrick (in the Limburg On checking my maps of Western Europe, I could province of the Netherlands) that was fought in 1748. find no "Alzen Burg" in either present-day or pre- Vetter Hannes referred instead to a battle in Mainz. 1 World War II Germany. But I did find a city called Why, I wondered, did Vetter Hannes song mention Alzey in "Rheinhessen" (Rhine Hesse), and curiously, Mainz rather than the Dutch city of Mastrick? it was located only a few miles southwest of the city The folk song repertoire of Vetter Hannes, while of Mainz. incredibly large and rich, posed other questions and Perhaps, I wondered, early Volga-German folk challenges. During the time I spent interviewing him, singers changed the names of certain locations in their he sang for me still another song that he described as traditional songs to reflect place names with which being "very old." It was a Soldatenlied (soldier song) they were more familiar. This is a common that dealt with military conscription. Like "Ludwig, phenomenon in modern-day folklore, whereby story- du grosser König," this folk song also mentioned a tellers "localize" a story to make it more believable, specific place in Germany: emotionally compelling, or personally relevant. Die Hübsche' un' die Feine sucht Thus, a story like that of the woman who acci- der Kaiser sich raus. dentally kills her rain-soaked poodle by putting it in the kitchen microwave to dry off is told as a true

Page 36 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991

The city ofAlzey, Germany, as it looks today. Unlike much of modern-day Germany, this portion of "Rhein- hessen" has plenty of treeless stretches, sunny skies, and expansive fields. (Verkehrsamt der Stadt Alzey)

story by Americans from New York to California. 1988 IGI listing for other Volga-German surnames Those in California claim it really happened in from the Catholic village of Rothammel and the Bakersfield while New York State residents may closest neighboring Catholic colony, Seewald. The claim that the incident actually occurred in Syracuse. vast majority of all the family surnames from both Such "localization" is a common feature of villages in Russia could be found in Catholic parishes contemporary oral folklore.9 Might early Volga within a fifty-mile radius of Alzey, Germany. Germans have localized their folk songs in much the Interestingly, this discovery supported an earlier same fashion to make them more meaningful? contention by German folklorist Thomas Kopp who Imagine my surprise—nearly a decade after claimed that the Volga-German dialect of the recording the folk songs of Vetter Hannes—when I Rothammel people he heard in South America was doing research in the Family History Center in seemed very similar to the dialect spoken in Worms, Fargo and once again ran across the name of "Alzey." Germany, a city which is less than 15 miles from I was checking numerous German-Russian family Alzey.10 surnames and, on a whim, decided to scan the new Before long, I ordered microfilms of all the 1988 IGI (International Genealogy Index) microfiche Catholic church records from Alzey, which went back listing for the name "Kloberdanz" in Germany. On to the 1690s. The handwritten entries were in Latin pages 253,495 and 253,496 I found nearly thirty and invariably were faded, ink-smeared, torn, or in "Kloberdanz" entries (spelled exactly as our family labored penmanship. But slowly the fragmented story spells its name today), followed by the individuals' of the Kloberdanzes in Alzey began to emerge. primary places of residence during the late 1700s and The earliest Kloberdanzes that appear in the Alzey early 1800s in Germany: Hessen, Rheinhessen, Alzey. Catholic church records are "Joannes and Anna Elisabetha Klowerdantz," whose infant daughter III. A FAMILY SAGA EMERGES Agnes was baptized on January 1, 1702. In later years the surname was spelled by church Wasting as little time as possible, I checked the

Page 38 AHSGR Journal / Spring 1991 scribes in as many as twenty different ways, ranging was able to construct an unbroken line of male Kloberdanz from "Cloberdans" to Klopperdantz, but by the mid- descendants that spanned ten generations and three 1850s it had evolved into the more common spelling centuries—from my youngest son Matthew (born in 1980) of "Kloberdanz." to Johannes Kloberdanz of Alzey (born ca. 1680). In Evidently the same surname development addition, I was able to trace our ties to the Kloberdanzes occurred in distant Russia where the spelling who never left Germany. The Franz Kloberdanz whom I "Kloberdanz" eventually won out over all the others. believe immigrated to Russia and is my great-great-great- No doubt this came about because the Kloberdanzes great-grandfather had a brother named Johannes Jacob who in both Germany and Russia continued to pronounce remained in Alzey. The descendants of Johannes Jacob it similarly, regardless of its variant spellings by seemed to favor the name "Johannes" and used it church and government officials, consistently in Alzey without exception from 1702 until the I had hoped to find some indication in the church last male Kloberdanz died there in the 1950s. The name records of German families who had left Alzey for "Johannes" or "John," by the way, is quite common in my Russia during the 1760s, but no such notations were own family. My father was named John, as was an older made. In vain I searched for a brief note in the margin brother of mine and a great uncle who remained in Russia, like "die ganze Familie zog nach Russland" or The middle initial in my own name, "J," also stands for "ausgewandert." I did find, however, that a certain "John," Although there were many Kloberdanzes in the Kloberdanz family simply dropped out of sight about Alzey area during the 1700s and 1800s, the name died out the same time as the great immigration to Russia in June 1981 with the death of 89-year-old Anna occurred in "Rheinhessen." Franz and Maria Anna Kloberdanz, wife of Johann Ernst Peter Kloberdanz (1888- (nee Reitz) Kloberdanz were married in Alzey on 1953). Johann and Anna Kloberdanz had no natural chil- February 12, 1748. According to the Alzey Catholic dren of their own but they did adopt a daughter shortly after church records, this couple later had ten baptized the Second World War. The child, Roswitha, grew to children, three of whom died in infancy. In May adulthood and now lives with her husband and children in a 1765, which is the date of the last church entry for small city north of present-day Alzey. Before going to this family, the ages of the remaining seven children Europe, I had the fortune of coming into contact with ranged from 17 to less than one year. Hermann Lückel of Alzey, a nephew of Johann and Anna Four of the sons of Franz and Maria Anna Ktoberdanz. Anna was his paternal aunt and thus he wrote Kloberdanz were named John Martin (born 1749), to me and offered to show me around Alzey. He also Georg Heinrich (born 1753), Michael (born 1758), promised to find whatever information he could about his and Franz (born 1761), These names were of par- late uncle and aunt and to make it available to me when I ticular interest to me because all of these same Vor- visited him in Alzey. namen were popular among the Kloberdanzes living in Rothammel, Russia, well into the twentieth cen- IV. IN THE LAND OF THE BLUE NUN tury. Indeed, several of the Kloberdanz households in Rothammel were known by family nicknames such as In April 1989,1 left for Europe, primarily to do Paffe Michels (Priest Michael's), Paffe Hense (Priest research at selected Freilichtmuseen in West Germany, Heinrich's), Franze Scheckiche (Franz the Freckled Austria, and the Netherlands. Two of the open air folklife One), and Soldaten Martin (Soldier Martin). museums I planned to visit, Hessenpark (northwest of After I went out on a limb and made the assump- Frankfurt) and Sobernheim (southwest of Bingen) were not tion that Franz and Maria Anna Kloberdanz and their far from Alzey, so I decided to spend at least a few days children were the first Kloberdanzes who went to there. Also, I had read that the museum in Alzey was Russia in the mid 1760s, many things soon fell into particularly place. Combining information from both the old Alzey Catholic church records and my interviews with older individuals like Vetter Hannes, I

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 39

The Volkerbrunnen is the symbolic center ofAlzey. In 1985 a bronze statue of a warrior's horse was erected that bears the simple inscription "Volker von Alzey." According to local legend, Volker—the warrior-musician who figures in the <

Page 40 AHSGR Journal / Spring 1991

The castle in Alzey, looking south. Built around the year 1100, much of the castle-was destroyed by French troops in the late seventeenth century. It was restored in 1906 and is a popular attraction today. (Rheinischer Vereinfur Denkmalpflege und Landschafsschutz)

good because of the many important paleontological previous reading, 1 knew there were many vineyards and archeological discoveries that had been made in in the area and that the people of Alzey took pride in the surrounding area. the location of their city as being "im Weinparadies I set out for Alzey by train on the afternoon of Rheinhessen.” In fact, one of the world's most May 9, and the ride from Mainz to Alzey was itself an famous white wines, "Blue Nun," is bottled in Alzey. unforgettable experience. For the first time during my For years I had seen the smiling nun on the colorful stay in Germany, I heard older people on the train label of "Blue Nun" wine bottles, never realizing speaking German that was very similar to the Volga- there might be the slightest connection between the German dialects with which I was familiar, As we veiled blue figure carrying a big basket of golden came closer and closer to Alzey, more and more grapes and the homeland of my own Kloberdanz people kept getting off at various stops until it seemed ancestors. Images of the Blue Nun came to mind as I was the last person on the train. The countryside in the train approached Alzey, as did the melody of my that part of "Rheinhessen" is rolling and fairly open, grandfather's plaintive folk song about the young not heavily forested. Huge fields stretched out on all woman who renounced the world in exchange for a sides, giving me an impressive view of the lay and life of prayer and piety in the convent. shape of the land. From my One thing I definitely did not expect to see so

AHSGR Journal / Spring 1991 Page 41 close to Alzey were people working in sugar beet fields. Women in white kerchiefs walked between the long beet rows, hoeing out extra beets and unsightly weeds. Men and even a few children could be seen in the beet fields as well. Although it was early May, it seemed uncommonly hot and the sun shone brightly. I thought of my own grandparents and parents who had trudged up and down innumerable rows of sugar beets in far-off Colorado. Even in the lovely wine paradise of "Rheinhessen" farm families surely knew the sting of the sun and the awful truth of the Volga-German folk expression: "Die Riewe sein siess, awere die Arweit is' bitter" (The beets are sweet, but the work is bitter).11 Two of the above dialect terms that truly surprised me as being spoken in Alzey were Gummere (cucumbers) and Latwerg (a type of pulp or jam). A number of writers have speculated that these terms were Russian in origin and were picked up by the Volga-Germans during their stay in Russia.12 Actu- ally, these particular words appear to have originated in Germany and are used by dialect German speakers in Rhine Hesse today.13 A number of folk expressions and proverbs still Alzey is filled with beautiful old Fachwerk houses, heard in the Alzey area are nearly identical to those some of which are quite old. This particular building uttered by Volga-German speakers, especially in dates from 1717. (Verkehrsamt der Stadt Alzey) terms of dialectal nuances. These include, for ex- ample, traditional expressions like "Was dr Bauer net everyone in the whole city was "out in the beets." I kennt, des fresst dr net" (Whatever the farmer isn't began to think that the Blue Nun herself had lured me familiar with, he won't eat); "Esse un' Drinke halt to Alzey, which was nothing more than the Old World Leib un' Selle 'samme" (food and drink hold body and counterpart of my own hometown of Sterling, soul together); E Schtick vun de Gutigkeit is e Schtick Colorado. Is that why the Blue Nun possessed that vun de Lidderlichkeit (An act of kindness is indescribable smile? Was she a heartbreaker, too, like [sometimes] an act of carelessness). One folk expres- the nun in my grandfather's sad song? sion that I heard in Alzey turned out to be completely Despite the heat and the initial disappointment, I new to me; its sentiments, however, seemed all too called a taxi and was taken to a Gasthaus on the familiar: "Mer strunze net—mer hun!" (We don't have northeast edge of Alzey. Within minutes, I had to show off!)14 unpacked and was on a walking tour of the city. Fortunately, everything began to take on a comforting, Before I realized it, I was standing on the platform cheerful hue and as I neared the center of Alzey, of the train station in Alzey. Not a single other soul numerous shoppers and sightseers could be seen. They got off the train and for a few minutes the Alzey were friendly and gave me a hearty "Guten Tag!" Bahnhof struck me as the hottest, loneliest, and most Without even looking for it, I soon found myself deserted place in the whole world. I was still recov- facing an enormous castle that seemed unreal because ering from the shock of seeing people working in the of its size. The castle, originally built in the twelfth outlying sugar beet fields. Maybe, I thought, century, had been destroyed during the French reign of Louis XIV and later restored in the early 1900s. As I stared at the castle, I thought of

Page 42 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Vetter Hannes' song in which he mentioned "Alzen triangular shield with the engraved legend Volker von Burg" (literally, Alzey Castle). Vetter Hannes had Alzey (Volker from Alzey). died in 1986 but he was with me in his songs that As I watched the children splashing one another day, as were so many of the other old Paffe Klober- with water, I couldn't resist saying in German dialect danzes and "Rothammeler" who had prepared me for to a group of old men nearby, "Kinner misse Kinner this journey. sei (Children must be children.)" Within seconds, Later that same afternoon, as I made my way into they were asking me many questions. Where was I the very heart of Alzey, I sat near the Volker-brunnen from? Where had I learned German dialect? What and watched children romping in its cool water. was I doing in Alzey? When I told them I was a Besides being located in a prime wine-producing area Kloberdanz from America, several of the older men of Germany, Alzey also takes pride in being expressed surprise. They excitedly told me they "Volkerstadt," the home of the legendary Volker, the remembered Kloberdanzes who once lived in Alzey. warrior-musician in the Niebelmgenlied. A large After all, the men said, how could they forget an statue of a horse near the fountain bears a unusual name like "Kloberdanz?" Volga-German "Rhine Hessian" Standard German English Equivalent (Rothammel Dialect) (Alzey dialect) (Hoch-deutsch) arig arig sehr very Bissje' Bissje' Bisschen a little Bucket Bucket kleiner Hugel small hill Ebbel Ebbel Apfel apples Fassenacht Fassenacht Fastnacht Shrove Tuesday Fraa Fraa Frau woman Freindschaft Freindschaft Verwandtschaft relation, kin Gaul Gaul Pferd horse Glees Glees Klosse dumplings Goht Goht Patin godmother Grebbel Krebbel "Krapfen" a sweet pastry gucke' gucke' schauen look Gummere Gummere Gurken cucumbers Haisje Haisje Haueschen little house Hinkel Hinkel Huhn chicken Kerb Kerb Kirchweih church feast day Kerich Kerch Kirche church Kersche' Kersche' Kirschen cherries Latwerg Latwerg Mus pulp, jam Lewe' Lewe' Leben life neies Johr neies Johr neues Jahr new year nochemol nochemol noch ein mal once again Potter Fetter Pate godfather Riwwele Riwwele Streusel fine crumbs schaffe' schaffe' arbeiten work scheen scheen schön pretty Schnerch Schnerch Schwiegertochter daughter-in-law zwa zwa zwei two

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 43 Yes, of course, they remembered. When I told them my wife's maiden name was Appelhans, one man nearly fell off his seat. That was a name they recog- nized, too! The men said Appelhanses had once lived in Alzey, and yes, they were "katholisch"—just like the Kloberdanzes. Surely my ancestors and maybe my wife's and maybe everyone's in America had come from Alzey! I told them I wasn't sure about my wife's ancestors or other Americans’ but I was quite certain that my own forefathers once made their home in Alzey. Before long, the old men were even more convinced of this than I was after we compared dialectal terms. (See page 43 for the many dialect words we have in common.) During the time that I spent in Alzey, I made innumerable other discoveries that convinced me Rhine Hesse was a region that spawned large numbers of Volga-bound families in the 1760s. In the mid-eighteenth century, the area in which Alzey and numerous other German villages lay was known as the Kurpfalz (Electorate of the Palatinate). Less than seven miles east of Alzey is the small village of Mettenheim, from which several German families emigrated in 1766 to establish themselves in the burgeoning Volga-German colony of Dietel, Russia.15 (Not surprisingly, a village only a short distance from present-day Mettenheim is known by the curious name of "Dittelsheim.") To the southwest of Alzey is the village of Marienthal, from which a number of people left to settle in Russia in the mid-1760s. The Catholic colony they established on the Volga Wiesenseite also was called Mariental.16 In the old handwritten protocol books on the upper floor of the Alzey Museum, I came across many surnames that read like a directory of Volga- German Bergseite Catholics: Bernhardt, Frank, Heid(t), Lauer, Maurer, Mildenberger, Weingardt, The old Fachwerk houses and narrow streets of Alzey Werz, etc. To top everything off, the Alzey Museum seem alive with stones, even when no people can be turned out to be one of the best local collections of seen or heard. (Rheinischer Verein fur Denkmalpflege prehistoric and archeological material that I saw und Landschaftsschutz) during all my traveling in Germany.17 I met many people in Alzey and they were and gripped my hand in welcome as if I were a long- generally very hospitable, especially upon learning of lost grandson. I showed the lyrics of the songs sung my ancestral ties to the area. The younger people by Vetter Hannes to a number of people in Alzey and were unfamiliar with the name "Kloberdanz" but the they were not only interested, but a bit taken aback. old-timers in Alzey usually recognized the name The songs about "Alzen Burg" and "Ludwig, du grosser Konig" were read over and over by a number of individuals. The songs, how-

Page 44 AHSGR Journal / Spring 1991 danz about the young woman who entered a convent, Ich steh auf hohe Berge', was familiar to several of the older Alzey residents. None of them could sing it in its entirety but they remembered enough of it to convince me that the distinctive melody was basically the same as that sung by the Paffe Klober" danzes.18 Despite the warmth and hospitality I experienced in Alzey, I occasionally detected uneasiness whenever I mentioned that my grandparents came from Russia. This feeling perhaps stemmed from the negative publicity that the more recent Soviet-German emigres (Aussiedler) have received throughout present-day Germany. Some of the Germans I talked to felt that the newer Soviet-German arrivals were creating economic problems for the whole country due to the general shortage of housing and jobs. This was a touchy topic, especially since I was a guest, but I refused to conceal the facts about my own

A tombstone dated 1464 stands inside the old "Niko- hikirche" (St. Nicholaus Church) in Alzey. The grave Johann Ernst Peter Kloberdanz, the last male Khber- marker honors the memory of Otto von Altenbaum- danz in Alzey, stands at far right. His wife Anna is in burg. (Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und back and the couple's adopted daughter Roswitha Landschaftsschutz) stands in the foreground. A nephew of the Klober- danzes, Heinz Bechtel, stands at the far left. Picture ever, were completely unknown to them. They taken about 1950. (Courtesy of Hermann Lückel, explained that during the early years of almost con- Alzey) stant warfare and French occupation much of the old Rhine-Hessian folklore was lost. "I think the Volga- Germans in America have more of our old culture that we do," one young German commented. The folk song sung by my grandfather Klober-

AHSGR Journal / Spring 1991 Page 45 ethnic background or to allow unfair criticism of the Soviet-German Aussiedler to pass by unchallenged. Toward the end of my stay in Alzey, I finally got the chance to meet Hermann Lückel, the nephew of the late Johannes and Anna (nee Lückel) Klober- danz. We spent several hours together and Herr Lückel showed me where the Kloberdanzes once lived in Alzey. He admitted that he did not know much about the Kloberdanzes since his only ties to the family were by way of the marriage of his pater- nal aunt. Yet he kindly showed me all the information he had, including an original copy of the Heirat- surkunde (marriage certificate) of Johann and Anna Kloberdanz and the obituary notice of his aunt, dated June 10, 1981. Herr Lückel had no photograph of Johann Kloberdanz, but he did offer a verbal description; Uncle Hans was of medium height, a bissje breit (little broad) and he had dark hair and eyes. He wore a mustache and always had a pipe in his mouth. He was a Schreiner [carpenter] and was very quiet. He didn't talk much or draw attention The author's parents, John and Elizabeth Kloberdanz, to himself. Uncle Hans was a good man, and a enjoy a hug on the evening of their golden wedding hard worker, too. anniversary, January 1984. A congratulatory bottle of "Blue Nun" wine can be seen on the table. At the time, Although I appreciated Herr Lückel's description, no one suspected there might be a connection I was disappointed that he had no photograph of Hans between the famous wine and the original home of the Kloberdanz. Sensing my disappointment, Herr Lückel Kloberdanzes in Germany. made several phone calls and was finally able to track aged me to come back to Alzey with my wife and down a group photograph that included the elusive children. I told them that nothing could make me Uncle Hans. The photograph, which was taken about happier than to return. 1950, shows Johannes ("Hans") Kloberdanz, his wife, Alzey turned out to be incredibly rich in history their adopted daughter Roswitha, and a nephew. Herr and a microcosm of contemporary German life and Lückel described this sole photograph showing culture. I told the Lückels that I could not have Johannes Kloberdanz as "der typische Onkel Hans— dreamed up a better place in Germany to claim as my wie er leibt und lebt, diesmal (ausnahmsweise) one ancestors’ place of origin than Alzey. Despite my Pfeife" (typical of Uncle Hans—the very image of initial disappointment when I arrived at the Alzey him—except this time he was without a pipe). train station, the city of Volker turned out to be a Herr Lückel and his wife Anneliese treated me charming little city in the middle of Germany's "wine kindly, so I felt right at home. We discussed similari- paradise." At long last I discovered why the Blue Nun ties between Volga-German folklore and Rhine of Rhine Hesse had that strange, indescribable smile, Hessian traditions. Once again, we discovered One of my last stops in Alzey was its large ceme- numerous commonalities. tery, from which I could see the city's imposing Before I left, the Lückels presented me with a castle. Even from a fair distance, the old Burg seemed bottle of local wine from Alzey. They also encour- to dominate everything around it. Herr Lückel offered to show me where his uncle and

Page 46 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 aunt—the last Kloberdanzes of Alzey—were buried. He told me he was one of the few people in Alzey who knew where the burial site was. Herr Lückel’s remark puzzled me until we reached a portion of the cemetery where there was a single, unmarked grave. Herr Lückel stood at the foot of the grave and told me that both Hans and Anna Kloberdanz were interred in the same plot. His uncle and aunt, he explained, didn't like fancy tombstones. The Kloberdanzes, he said, just weren't that way. They were unassuming and kept a low profile. So they decided before their deaths not to have any tombstone at all. I stared at the other tombstones around us (some of which seemed to touch the highest trees) and then glanced down again at the unmarked grave of the last Kloberdanzes in Alzey. Herr Luckel seemed to be searching for something more to say but I told him he didn't have to explain. Although removed from the Kloberdanzes of Alzey for more than 225 years, I understood.

V. EPILOGUE The preceding pages were written in the Fall of 1989. Writing the piece proved emotionally exhausting, so I temporarily put it aside to focus on other tasks. Approximately one year later, in October 1990,1 received a letter from a history professor at a univer- sity in the U.S.S.R. I had written to him some weeks prior, asking about a book-length manuscript I heard he was preparing to publish that contained vital information about many of the original Volga- German colonists. The professor indicated in his letter that his work was based on extensive research in the Soviet archives and that he planned to publish his material about the first Volga-German settlers at the earliest opportunity. Recognizing my name as being Volga-German, The grave of the last Kloberdanzes in Alzey May the professor kindly shared with me a sample entry 1989. from his list of the first German colonists on the (38) and sons Martin (20), Georg Heinrich (16), Volga. His choice should not have surprised me, but Michael (10), Franz (7), and daughter Barbara (14), it did: They came from the city of "Alzen" [Alzey] in the principality known as the "Kurpfalz." He [Franz Franz Kloberdanz (40 years old) came to the KloberdanzJ was given 25 rubles, 2 horses, and a colony of Pamyatnaya (Rothammel) on 21 cow. August 1767, along with his wife Maria Upon reading the above, I could hardly believe my eyes. Now I had documented proof (from the U.S.S.R., no less) for my contention that the first

AHSGR Journal / Spring 1991 Page 47

A funeral picture from the Volga-German Catholic colony of Rothammel (Pamyatnaya), Russia, taken about 1927. The deceased is Anna (Gertje) Frank, wife of Franzgals Martin Frank (seated at far left). Most of the people in this photo were related to Vetter Hannes (John Nicholaus) Kloberdnz—who is mentioned in this article. (Courtesy of Timothy J. Kloberdanz and the late Margaret Gorrell)

Volga-German Kloberdanzes came from AIzey. Even Kloberdanz and his family more than two hundred the names matched those I previously had discovered years ago. I could not help imagining one of the in the old Alzey church records. With a tinge of children of this distant ancestor playfully grabbing sadness, however, I noted that the names of the that gift cow by the tail and following it over the pioneer couple's two youngest sons, Heinrich (born steppes to the family's new home on the Karamysh 1763) and Johann (born 1765) were missing from the River. Perhaps other youthful colonists chased Russian records. Evidently, those children died en behind, laughing and putting into song a little verse route to Russia. that would outlive them and even their children's Yet as 1 studied the information about my ances- children: tors that the Soviet professor sent me, a happier thought came to mind. There was, after all, a refer- Kloberdanz, Kloberdanz, grie' ence to a cow given by the Russian Crown to Franz die Kuh am Schwanz!

Page 48 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 NOTES 1. See, e.g., my essays "The Volga Germans in Old Russia in Baden-Württemberg that is located close to the Rhine River and in Western North America: Their Changing World View," and opposite the French city of Strasbourg. Anthropological Quarterly 48, October 1975, pp. 209-222 and 9. See, e.g., Jan Harold Brunvand, The Vanishing Hitchhiker: "Plainsmen of Three Continents: Volga German Adaptation to American Urban Legends and Their Meanings (New York: W.W. Steppe, Prairie, and Pampa" in the volume Ethnicity on the Great Norton and Company, 1981), pp. 13-15, 62-65. Plains by Frederick C. Luebke (Lincoln: University of Nebraska 10. Thomas Kopp, "Um die Urheimat der Wolgadeutschen Press, 1980), pp. 54-72. Argentiniens," Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Russland 1963, 2. See the chapter "Hungry for Land, Hungry for a Home: p.155. North Dakota's Other Germans" in the volume Plains Folk: 11. Timothy J. Kloberdanz, Introduction to Second Hoeing, a North Dakota's Ethnic History ed. by W.C. Sherman and P.V. novel by Hope Williams Sykes (Lincoln Nebraska: University of Thorson (Pargo: North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies, Nebraska Press, 1982 reprint of the 1935 edition), p. xvu. 1988). pp. 117-181. 12. See, e.g., Karl Stumpp, "Fremdes Wortgut in der Um- 3. Thomas D. Bird, et al., "Familial Alzheimer's Disease in gangssprache der Russlanddeutschen," Jahrbuch für ostdeutsche American Descendants of the Volga Germans: Probable Genetic Votkskundell, 1978, pp. 294-332. Founder Effect," Annals of Neurology 23, January 1988,pp. 25- 13. The Alzey dialect has been captured in print by a number 31. of German writers. See, e.g., Hans DörrhĒfer, Alt Alse uff 4. For a detailed and scholarly discussion of this folk song, see alserich: E Alser Bilderbuch (Mainz, Germany; M & B "Graf und Nonne," Johannes Künzig and Waltraut Werner, Werbedruch, 1988). Balladen aus ostdeutscher Überlieferung (Freiburg im Briesgau, 14. A number of typical Rhine Hessian folk expressions, Germany: Rombach & Co.. 1969), pp. 101-103. dialect terms, and traditional recipes (including one for "Kreb- 5. Ibid., p. 58. bel!") can be found in Kirsten Beisiegel's Rheinhessisches Koch- 6. See Timothy J. Kloberdanz, "Tradition and Creativity: buch (Alzey, Germany: Verlag der Rheinhessischen Drucks- The Folk Songs of Vetter Hannes," Journal of the American werkstätte, 1983). Two other revealing books about the esoteric Historical Society of Germans from Russia 7, Winter 1984, pp. nature of Rhine Hessian folklore include the volumes by Hans- 23-29. . Jörg Koch, Wenn Schambes schennt: ein Rheinhessisch-mainzer 7. According to Dr. Waltraud Linder-Beroud of the Deutsches Schimpf-Lexicon (Alzey: Verlag der Rheinhessischen Druck- Volksliedarchiv in Freiburg, Germany, only about five werkstatte, 1975) and Blarrer, Zappe, Leddekobb: Ortsnecke- documented versions of this song are known to exist. See, e.g., reien aus Rheinhessen (Alzey: Verlag der Rheinhessischen Franz Wilh. Freiherrn von Ditfurth, Die historischen Volks-lieder Druckwerkstätte, 1984). vom Ende des dreissigfährigen Krieges bis zum Beginn des 15. See, e.g., Karl Stumpp, The Emigration from Germany to siebenjahrigen (Heilbronn, Germany: Verlag von Gebr. Hennin- Russia in the Years 1763-1862 (Tübingen, Germany: Karl ger, 1877), pp. 345-347. In a letter to the author dated April 10, Stumpp and AHSGR, n.d.), pp. 117-165. 1990, Dr. Linder-Beroud wrote: "Das Lied, dis Ihnen Ihr 16- See Arthur E. Flegel, "Mariental on the Volga," AHSGR Gewährsmann vorgesungen hat, ist eine Reliktfassung eines his- CluesII, 1982, p. 14. Also see Joseph Schnurr, "Die Kirchen und torischen Testamentsliedes, das im Laufe des 18. Jahrhunderts das religiose Leben der Russlanddeutschen," Heimatbuch der mehreren berühmten Feldherren in den Mund gelegt wurde . .." Deutschen aus Russland 1969-1972, pp. 124-126. 8. A Volga-German variant of this song, "AufdemMeer bin 17. See the excellent and beautifully illustrated little volume ich gefahren," can be found in Thomas Kopp, Russlanddeutsches by Hildegard Friess-Reimann, Museum der Stadt Alzey (Speyer, Liederbuch (Buenos Aires, Argentina: Deutschen Volksbund fur Germany: Verlag der Zechnerschen Buchdruckerei, 1986). Argentinien, 1937), p. 129. In this version, as well as in most 18. See, e.g., Georg Heeger and Wilhelm Wüst, Pfalzische others, the place mentioned in the song is Offenburg, a large city Volkslieder (Mainz, Germany: B. Schott's Söhne, 1963), pp. 19- 20.

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DOWN "DIE LINIE," CAUCASIAN FRONTIER William Seibel* underway until driven south by famine in the Volga Region in 1891.1 My grandmother Marie Elisabeth When I was a boy my father used to tell me stories Simon, then a girl of seventeen, remembered to the about his own boyhood in Russia. He likened life in end of her days the kindness of Russian peasants Ciscaucasia where he was born to the American along the way who shared what little food they had western frontier. While I was skeptical of what he had with the strangers passing through. She often recalled to say about the marvelous fertility of the soil which one woman in particular who gave her entire supper his family farmed, particularly the enormous size of of kraut bierocks to the hungry Simon family. melons and vegetables grown, I was entranced by his Never heavily populated even before Russia's tales of nighttime raids the settlers repulsed. initial incursion in the sixteenth century, Ciscaucasia Ordinarily my father wasn't at all animated, yet when had experienced the loss of almost half a million he told about the men of the village rushing outdoors people less than a decade before the Seibels arrived.2 to defend their property and bullets striking the house, Other Volga Germans found the vacuum irresistible his eyes would glisten with boyish excitement and his and many had preceded the Seibels, some as early as words would tumble out. He called the raiders 1840.3 Thus there were familiar tongues, religions, "Turks," but was otherwise vague about them. and even relatives to greet the arriving Seibels, Like so many other ethnic Germans, my father's though these were concentrated in Nalchik and its family came to be in the Caucasus because of chronic nearby surroundings. overpopulation in their village of origin. Both sets of The Seibels arrived in February 1880 and spent his grandparents and his parents were born in Dietel, a some time in the vicinity of Nalchik. Then they went Volga Bergseite Protestant colony near the to a small town with both Russian and German in- headwaters of the Karamysch River about 85 habitants some 45 kilometers southwest of Prokh- kilometers southwest of Saratov. Both the Simons and ladnaya, an important rail center near the great bend Seibels were among the 70 families which founded of the Terek River. Relatively early in their southern Dietel in 1767. stay the family moved to Emaus, about 55 kilometers The Seibels left Dietel in 1879 or 1880, heading southeast of Prokhladnaya. Emaus was a long- south down what came to be known as die Linne, a established village whose legitimate Tatar owners scattering of German colonies and farm settlements in fled or were removed. A fairly recent immigrant from the northern Caucasus. Johann Georg Seibel and Eva Germany named Riedenbacher purchased it and a Elisabeth Ring made the 900 kilometer journey in a large surrounding tract of land from the Russian covered wagon (which they called a kabitka), government. bringing with them everything they could carry as Emaus was a compact village with houses built of well as their sons ten-year-old David and seven-year- kiln-fired bricks, as was its most prominent landmark, old Johann Georg, my grandfather. The journey was a large fortified structure at one end of the village. in every respect as arduous as those made by This was known locally, albeit erroneously, as Americans crossing the western plains not much Shamyl's castle,4 All the roofs were of tile fashioned earlier. Though, unlike the American experience, in the Mediterranean style of curved troughs rather danger from indigenous people did not occur until than the flat shingles found in the European style. they reached their destination. Living quarters and barn were a single structure, just The Simons, Peter and his wife Marie Kathrine as in traditional colonies elsewhere in Russia. Seibel, brought a much larger family, but didn't get However, the stables were set at right angles to the rest of the structure. Windows had heavy oak shutters *Copyright by the author, used with permission. and doors were made of the same sturdy

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 51

Johann Georg Seibel, my great grandfather and his second wife. We know almost nothing about her except that she was a widow named Schneider when the marriage took place late in great grandfather's life. Date of the picture is c. 1910. (The observant viewer will notice that this rather jauntily attired old chap is wearing an earring in his right ear and would have been wearing the other as well except that he had lost it. I don't know if this was a custom borrowed from the indigenous peoples on the Caucasian frontier or one brought from the Volga Colonies. Certainly I've seen and read nothing to suggest such peacock pageantry was common among the mostly dour German settlers.)

wood. At sunset they would be locked from the winter, storing equipment, or similar purposes, A inside. Upstairs in the high, pitched attic, a family's very small garden was sometimes planted here, food and other supplies were stored. though each family was allotted a much larger garden Each house in the village had a Hof, a large plot at the edge of the village.5 enclosed yard. The house and attached barn or stable The withdrawal of natives to Turkey did not leave formed part of the enclosure while tall pickets or even the southernmost Ciscaucasian area as depopulated as lower stone walls completed the design. Inside the farther north. Several villages near Emaus had not compound were subsidiary sheds or buildings for been abandoned by their original inhabitants. Some cooking in the summertime, washing clothes in the were near enough that the Ger-

Page 52 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 mans in Emaus could hear the call to evening prayers father's job was to hold the horses while his father from the mullahs' towers. Moreover, much of the 8 population living in the countryside remained and treated patients in their houses, was a continual danger to the German colonists.6 Like other teenagers. Grandfather was interested Throughout the years the Germans stayed in Emaus, in making spending money so he would occasionally they were harassed and victimized by these people, hire out for a few kopeks after a hard day's labor on losing much property and occasionally some lives. his own family's farm. Once, on such a nighttime job, But if life was hazardous in Emaus, it was also he was hired by a farmer to dig a deep trench to keep worth the danger. The German settlers found it a hogs out of the area the farmer wanted protected. As farmer's Eden. Irrigation was unnecessary because of Grandfather dug, the ground suddenly caved in abundant rainfall.7 The ground was remarkably beneath him and he fell in up to his chest. When he lit fertile, supporting bountiful crops of wheat, potatoes, a match to see what had happened, he found a human rye, corn, barley, mustard seed, and tobacco. skeleton in a small chamber. A water jug was beside Potatoes, mustard seed, and tobacco were generally the remains but none of the wealth customarily buried grown in gardens close to the village. Uncle John with Tatar nobles. Grandfather's experience wasn't Seibel, who was born in Emaus in 1900, recalled that altogether unusual for those in the Emaus area. his father would often go to the garden early in the Numerous burial mounds existed since Russians and morning to bring back some melons. At most he Turks had so long contested the area. could carry only three because they were so large. A Because of his aversion to bloodletting, at some variety of melons was grown, not just watermelons. point in his youth Grandfather apprenticed as a One of the villagers called them a Butzmelon, which bricklayer or stonemason. For a time he also earned Uncle John translated as "lump melon." his living this way as a young adult, but was forced to Speaking of his youth, Uncle John remembers the leave the trade as a result of an industrial accident. He village this way: fell through the skylight of a building he was working on, severely injuring his back. After this, and because Emaus was beautiful. We had hills like the his father no longer engaged in active operations, hills around Martinez (California) but those hills Grandfather turned to farming in partnership with his had no trees, only grass, and that grass became brother David, an arrangement which ultimately hay for our stock. In the springtime you looked at proved quite profitable for both. those hills and it was like a patched quilt. There The arrival of the Simons in Nalchik led not long were millions of wild-flowers blooming on one afterward to Grandfather's marriage. Most likely side of the hill and in the bottom of all this grass Grandfather first met Marie Elisabeth, the cousin who and flowers were wild strawberries. Later on, was to become his bride, soon after her family when the hay was cut, the berries were still in the arrived. Young Johann Georg didn't follow the pre- hay, all dried up. Boy, how the stock loved that vailing custom when he decided to ask for her hand. hay with the strawberries! The usual practice was to enlist the services of a matchmaker to negotiate with the father of the girl Johann Georg and his sons farmed in Emaus as concerned. Instead, Grandfather himself did the did all the villagers, in fields as much as 15 kilo- negotiating, going directly to her father and pleading meters distant. He brought with him from Dietel the his case. Grandmother reported years later that her practice of a profession which had been in the family father let him talk all night before finally consenting since its departure from Germany in the eighteenth to the marriage. Soon after their marriage in 1893, century. Coincident with farming, he established a Grandfather began army service. His brother David fairly wide practice as a Schropfer, that is, a was the one actually drafted, but by this time David bloodletter. In the early years his youngest son, my had a large, young family to support. So Grandfather grandfather, made the rounds with him. Grand volunteered to go in his place. Grandmother, the new bride, lived with her in-laws while

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 53 her husband served out his four year tour of duty (present day Ordzhonikidze) while his parents were across the summit in Transcaucasia. During this time, on one of their periodic shopping trips. Vladikavkas Grandfather was not given any home leave. While he is about 40 kilometers southeast of Emaus, then a was gone, his first child was born, a son he was long day's drive by horse-drawn wagon. With but one destined never to see. The boy, baptized Conrad, was exception, neither my father nor any of the children born in 1894 and died about the age of three. After who were to follow were given the customary middle Grandfather returned from the army in 1898, children name. The exception was the third son who followed regularly. Unfortunately, many of them died Grandfather rather grudgingly named Johann Georg in infancy, as was then common. In 1902 there was to perpetuate the family tradition. The practice another Conrad who died in 1904. Not until the third reflected his distaste for the way people contracted one did a child so named finally survive to adulthood. given names or used them as nicknames,10 My father, Jacob Seibel, was the first child of my As the years passed, the Germans in Emaus were grandparents' union to survive. He came into the increasingly subjected to harassment and violence by world on July 31, 18999 in the town of Vladikavkas various elements of the indigenous people. The later years in Emaus became the exciting years my

Johann Georg and Mane Elisabeth (Simon) Seibel, my grandparents and their young family a couple of years after their arrival in Deerfield, Kansas. Date of the picture is early 1913. Left to right are: Johann Georg, Pauline, Jacob (rear), Conrad (front), David (rear), Henry (front), John (rear—standing), George, and Marie Elisabeth Jacob is my father. (Only Henry was born in the United States.)

Page 54 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 father so animatedly remembered. Adults undoubt- opened fire and dropped all four. We had a edly thought of them as years of danger and tension, midwife. I guess she was some kind of nurse. but to youngsters caught up in the excitement of a Anyway, she removed the bullet from the nighttime raid by a Tatar band they were high man's shoulder. I saw him myself, the next adventure. Such depredations were not rare. Uncle day, with his bandaged shoulder. John recorded much of his youthful experience and Often the Turks would break into the had this to say:11 people's barns. I don't know how they One night the Turks broke into the neigh- removed the bricks. Once they took the cows bors' barn and tried to steal their cattle. In doing out of a barn and laced them together by their so, they set the barn afire. Now as soon as horns with a rope. One guy led the cows out shooting started, all the able-bodied men came and others walked behind to prod them with running. Our family and Uncle David's both their daggers to make them walk faster. Those lived in the same big house. We were just like little daggers they called Ginshall (N.B, also one big family. We cooked and ate together, all spelled kinzhal or kinjat). They were sharp on at the same table. Anyway, when our watchman both sides and had a point almost like a started shooting, my father and young Dave needle. Our watchman discovered the Turks. Seibel—he was only 16 years old but he already He came to our house to tell Dad that they had his own rifle—opened fire on the Turks were coming by our backyard with the cattle. from our storage loft. Pretty soon there were five We had a stone wall about three feet high of our men in the loft. Once in a while they all across the back of our yard, so Dad and the fired together. When they did, some plaster from watchman got behind it and waited. Sure the ceiling fell from the vibrations on us kids enough, here came the Turks, real quiet, but down below in our beds.12 The next morning the when they got abreast of them, Dad and the men measured some of the footsteps the Turks watchman started shooting over the top of the made while they were running. They measured cattle. The noise spooked the cattle and they seven feet from footprint to footprint. ran over the man who was leading them. They It made no difference how many Turks were knocked him down and stomped on him. killed, they never left any bodies behind. They Other of our men ran in then and cut the ropes always took their dead and wounded along. Only to free the cattle. The cattle all came back home with pieces of rope hanging on their once do I remember where our people buried a 13 Turk. Then his own came back during the night horns. and dug him up and took him away. About a week later the Turks brought a Another time they broke in on the other side guy to Grandpa for treatment. Grandpa said of our house. This time they broke through the you could see every footprint on his body. It brick wall of our neighbor's barn. Again our was the same guy the cattle trampled. You night watchman spotted them and opened fire. know, my grandfather was a kind of doctor. But they shot back and wounded him in the left He treated lots of Turks and always seemed to shoulder so he couldn't use his gun anymore. He help them. They must have had a strong faith. started to run away. At the first shot Dad and Our grandfather was known as Schreffer Dave rushed to our upstairs. Just as they got to Hanyar. My dad was Shreffers Hanyar and the window—it was a bright, moonlit night— my uncle was Schreffers David. Everybody in they saw four Turks chasing our crippled our village had a nickname. My mother's watchman and trying to stop him with their people were known as the Una Webers, which daggers. Dad and Dave means "linen weavers" (i.e., die Leinenwebem. Also see note 10 above). One night the watchman told Dad that a

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 raiding party was coming by on the road in Süssholz is what the colonists called licorice root, back of our neighbors across the street. Dad They were quite fond of them and gathered them ran over there and was going to head them off. whenever they could. The roots were dried in the loft This neighbor had a straw stack and an old then pulverized. The powder was used to make a tea threshing machine. When Dad got to the or flavor water. In this next episode, Uncle John tells neighbor's yard he was going to run to the about one of the times his father went out in the back of the machine, but something told him countryside to dig some Süssholz. to make sure it was safe. So he fired a shot One day Dad took his shotgun, a shovel, and towards it. Instantly three shots were fired a sack and started out to get some Süssholz. He back at him. Turks were already there. I took the shotgun because he thought he would remember sometimes us kids were digging chase up a rabbit on the way. When he started bullets out that were lodged in the brick of our digging he laid the shotgun alongside him in the homes. grass. He was busy digging when (cousin) I was involved in this next episode. In Henry Simon and his girl friend came driving by Russia the farmers didn't live on their farms on a wagon. At the same time a couple of Turks like they do here. They all lived in the village came along on saddle horses. Henry was on his and commuted to their farms to do their work. way to get a load of grass for the stock. Well, the Some of the land was as far as ten miles from Turks started to call Henry and his girl every- home. We went out to the piece of land, stayed thing they could think of. Henry kept right on all week and came home on Saturday night. I going. Then they came over to Dad and started was out on the farm with Dad and Mom and as in on him. They stayed just about far enough we were getting ready to go home, five guys back so he couldn't reach them with the shovel, with hoods over their heads came riding out of though. He told them that if they were smart the forest that was right along one side of our they'd go away and leave him alone. They just field. They were riding those beautiful Arabian laughed and started to ride at him. He made a horses. The minute they came out of the dive for his shotgun. The minute he grabbed the woods they started shooting. I guess they gun they hadn't seen, the Turks wheeled expected Dad to desert his wife and son and frantically and tried to get away. Dad didn't want start running. But they got fooled. Instead of to hurt them too much so he waited until they running, he went straight for them, shooting. were far enough away before he fired. One man They couldn't shoot very straight from running was hit in the back but ran all the faster, horses but one bullet hit right between Dad's screaming all the while. Dad picked up his legs and threw dirt in his face. Well, he didn't shotgun, shovel, and Süssholz and went for want to kill any of them so he shot close home because he thought they might come back enough to scare them. One after the other put with rifles. His shotgun was no match for those. the whip around his horse's belly and dashed back into the woods. Having spent four years Our folks used to go shopping once a week in the Russian army, Dad was a good shot. in Vladikavkas.15 That city was 25 miles from Mother said I kept screaming "They're going Emaus and it took two days to make the trip so to kill my daddy!" You have a brave they always had to take hay along for the horse. grandfather, June. The minute they started Well, one morning Dad started on one of those shooting he didn't try to hide behind the shopping tours. The road went through a Turkish wagon; he ran straight toward them, away village. He said it was a beautiful morning. The from the wagon so they wouldn't hit Mother or team was me. It took a lot of nerve to stand up to five armed men.”14

Page 56 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 walking along slowly and he was happy. But all of a sudden it was just like someone told him to look back. When he did, there was a turk trying to sneak up on him with a dagger in his hand. Dad grabbed his gun out from under the hay and held it on the Turk. The Turk turned as white as a sheet and begged Dad not to kill him. He said he wouldn't bother Dad as long as he lived, and he never did again. Dad thought it was the same man the cattle trampled and that he was trying to get revenge. Dad had some friends among the Turks that saved his life more than once. I remember every once in a while they would come dashing into our yard on their beautiful Arabian horses and tell Dad not to ride out on a certain road that day because someone was waiting to ambush him. One thing about the Turk, when he was your friend, he was a true friend. You could trust him and rely on his honor. One day Grandpa was treating one of those Turks who had his wife and little daughter along, a girl about my age. I was watching and Grandpa went to the kitchen to get something. While he was gone I was alone in there with those people. The girl's father told me that his little daughter would be my wife when we grew up. Well, I sure made tracks out of there. I thought they were going to kidnap me. They used to do that now and then, kidnap children. Getting back to Henry Simon and his girl Johann Georg and Marie Elisabeth Seibel in later life friend once more—they took me along once to (c. 1935). get some hay. One of those "Father Time" scythes was in the back of the wagon. All of a accosted by Tatars. Dad told Pete to stay out of sudden we had a runaway and we all fell the action because they were on Pete's home backward off the seat right onto that "Father ground. In case any of the Tatars wound up Time" scythe. I still got the scar on my back, dead, Dad felt it was best he be thought the Uncle John's stories of life in Russia have partic- perpetrator since he didn't live there. ular pertinence because he lived through them. Nevertheless, when Dad succeeded in driving However, his younger brothers and sisters recall them off, Pete couldn't resist firing at least one many of the tales their father told. Here is one related shot at the fleeing Tatars. He had a shotgun by Uncle Herman: loaded with a slug, not buckshot. The slug One time Dad was out somewhere with his cousin caught a Tatar just under the saddle, inflicting a terribly painful bruise on the man's rear—much Peter Simon, and they were more damage than Dad would have done—but fortunately not killing him. Next day one of those in the raiding party (and such groups always concealed their faces since they were also neighbors of

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 57 the German colonists they raided) told Dad he protection. The gun was the only law we had. had heard of the raid and began questioning We got the guns from the government for our him. Dad claimed he was the one, but his protection. The Turks were not supposed to interlocutor said he'd heard Dad was using a have guns but they did anyway. Berdanga,16 so couldn't have been the assailant. Dad stuck by his story but mitigated it somewhat by stating he hadn't meant to kill, No doubt such fears figured in the decision to only drive the man off. The only man he had move, but the colonists' actual manner of withdrawal wanted seriously to shoot was the one on the suggests other factors played a role as well. As we white horse. This he well knew to be the man shall see, the move was carried out in a rather who was questioning him so closely. The man leisurely fashion. Most definitely the migration was ended the conversation quickly and left. not a panicked rout. What these other factors might have been are uncertain, though one could speculate Uncle John commented also on one of his father's that the colonists' endemic itch for greener pastures most faithful companions during nighttime hostilities: played a significant part. Dogs were vicious animals in Russia. I In 1906 or 1907 the families, indeed the entire almost got killed by our own dog. He was village, decided to relocate. Because Grandfather was chained up but I wandered too close to him and fluent in Russian and got along well with the polyglot he grabbed me. He started to maul me just about population in the area, the villagers entrusted him the time my aunt came out the door. She thought with the task of locating suitable land to move to. No he had a chicken so she ran over to take it away doubt his strong personal characteristics figured in the from him. It wasn't a chicken, but a little boy selection. One other man was chosen to accompany about six years old, I still have the scars on my him on the quest. Some 50 kilometers northwest of head today. I barely remember when it Emaus as the crow flies, Grandfather found what he happened. I begged Dad to shoot that dog, but was looking for. A Russified Tatar named Tokhlonov Dad said, "Child, if he wasn't such a valuable owned about 5,000 dessiatines in the vicinity of dog I would shoot him." And he was a Prokhladnaya. He agreed to lease a thousand to the wonderful companion for Dad at night when he villagers from Emaus. The actual site was had patrol duty. He took the dog with him every approximately ten or eleven kilometers southwest of time and felt perfectly safe. He knew that no Prokhladnaya in the direction of Nalchik. The Turk would sneak up on him and stab him.17 location chosen for the village was about one quarter The time finally came when the natives' maraud- mile from the Baksan River, one of several tributaries ing became more than the German colonists were of the Terek River a few kilometers farther east. A willing to bear. Neither Uncle John nor any other small Russian village named Valdavsky was nearby member of the family phrased it this way, but the oral on the other side of the Baksan. The actual move to evidence suggests the menace grew slowly through the new site took place in stages during the spring of the twenty five or so years the families were in 1907. First the families hauled a load of possessions Emaus. Eventually the colonists came to fear to the new land and planted a crop. When they massacre. Here is what Uncle John had to say about returned to Emaus they loaded the remainder of their it: goods in wagons and left as a caravan. The villagers' Now the reason we left Emaus was we were final act was to remove the church bell from its tower. afraid the Turks would attack us some night and When the wagons rolled out of the village, not one kill every man, woman, and child. There were human being remained. The bell was later rehung in more of them than us. We had no the new village. Here is the exciting event as seen through a tittle boy's eyes and remembered by Uncle John almost 80 years later:

Page 58 AHSGR Journal / Spring 1991 As near as I can remember, it took us about Uncle John and his cousin Conrad alternately drew a five or six days. That was quite an adventure slip from a hat to determine which of two like items for us kids. I remember in one place we went to which brother. John didn't say if they drew followed the railroad track. We had never seen lots to see which brother would provide lodging for a train before. Well, here comes a train and we their aged parents, but as oldest son, we can be sure got real excited. I guess we came a little closer David assumed this obligation. to the track than the engineer thought was safe The tiny village consisted of 21 buildings on both so he blew some steam out on one side of the sides of a single north-south street. The street was locomotive. All that was something we never only wide enough for two wagons to pass one dreamed of before. another. The villagers named their new home— When we came to our new home it was just somewhat unimaginatively, I think—Tokhlonov exactly as it was when our German people first Kutter.i9 came to Russia—flat land as far as the eye Uncle John recalls that he had the unpleasant could see and absolutely nothing. We built our boyhood job of riding horses for more than mixing own houses and buildings from clay bricks adobe and plowing. He hated it. The specific recol- mixed with straw. I remember how we mixed lection which fanned his ancient antipathy was about that clay. We had to ride around and around in threshing wheat at Tokhlonov Kutter. Uncle John had it to mix the stuff.18 Then it was put in forms to ride the horse around and around for hours while about eight inches by eight inches by ten the animal dragged the cylindrical threshing stone inches. Those forms were made out of boards behind.20 about eight inches wide. After the stuff dried Uncle John recalls the first full year at Tokhlonov the brick drew away from the form Then you Kutter with somewhat wry pride. Here he tells about could lift the forms off the bricks. Everybody plowing the new ground with my father: worked together to build the houses. They had The first year we were there. Dad decided to no floors, just packed dirt covered with fresh build a new wagon bed to haul things on, so he sand from the river once a week. The river was took Jake and me out in the field and got us a quarter mile from our village and the poor started plowing. I had to ride on one horse and women had to carry all that sand from the river guide the team and Jake handled the plow. So plus all our drinking water. We had wells but we went round and round the field until it was the water wasn't very good. The women had a plowed. That way we worked all spring getting yoke that fit around the neck. They hung a our crop in. Mother kept saying to Dad, "My bucket on each side of the yoke. The roofs of God, what kind of work do you think those the houses were covered with reeds that grew children are doing?" I was eight years old and along the streams. The reeds were cut and tied Jake was nine. Anyway, Mother said we had the in bundles like sheaves of wheat, then laid on best crop that year we ever had. the roof like shingles. The bundles were trimmed off at the eaves with a block of wood Whether during this time or some other, Uncle and a hatchet. John also remembers another serious plowing inci- Since Grandfather and his brother were starting dent. One time when Jake and John were to spend the from scratch, there was no longer any need for them day plowing, they sneaked a set of reins out to the to share the same house and Hof. At Tokhlonov, they field by concealing them under their shirts. built separate facilities. The brothers also divided all Grandfather had forbidden the boys to use reins the stock and farm equipment. They did this by first because he didn't think the boys were big or old making a complete inventory then wrote what each enough yet to handle the horses other than by having item was on individual slips of paper. one boy ride to guide while the other handled only

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 59 the plow. The boys' object in having reins was that successfully, and that if he was to find help anywhere, while one plowed, the other could loaf. This plan it would have to be in America. As it was to transpire, worked well until Grandfather caught them in the act. Grandfather never did find satisfactory medical He not only confiscated the reins, he used them to treatment for his illness even in America. The administer a sound whipping. affliction remained with him to the end of his long Throughout their farming years, Grandfather and life. There was, however, another "health" reason for his brother David also ran a business wholesaling leaving Russia which may have played a part in his farm crops and products. Grandfather's fluent Russian decision to emigrate. Grandfather, despite his made him the natural field man, while David attended aversion to bloodshed, had killed at least one Tatar, to rounding up the sale products from German perhaps more. Vengeance figured so strongly in the producers. Evidently they made a good thing of it, for Tatar ethic that sooner or later he could expect to be when my grandparents left Russia they had sufficient murdered.21 funds to finance the entire family's travel at the same But whatever his personal reasons might have time, unlike so many others where the father was been, Grandfather was not alone in planning emi- forced to emigrate alone and work until he had earned gration. He and his brother David tried to persuade enough to pay his family's passage. their father to leave Russia with them. When the old Living family members have no knowledge of man adamantly refused, David felt obliged to post- when Grandfather decided to leave Russia, only his pone his own family's emigration, with but one stated reason for departing. What is most striking is exception, until after the father's death. His oldest son his willingness to leave behind, after barely three David, the young marksman now approaching years, the immense investment of labor involved in induction age, was the exception. One other family in building a house and establishing a thriving farm the village also began making plans to leave with business at Tokhlonov Kutter. The generic reasons Grandfather's family. And so in the spring of 1910, usually given by emigrating German families—mili- the decision made, Grandfather journeyed one more tary service, religious persecution, economic hard- time to the ancestral village of Dietel. The most ship, the alluring picture painted by those who had recent reapportionment of land in the ancestral village already made the trip—were not those which moved awarded 29 dessiatines to the Seibels and Grandfather Grandfather. He was motivated only by his health. arranged for long-term lease of the property just Grandfather suffered a chronic and episodically before returning to Tokhlonov Kutter. Now he was severe stomach problem for which he was unable to ready for the final hurdle, jousting with the Czar's find satisfactory medical treatment. Russian doctors apparatchiks for permission to emigrate, a task which told him there was no one in Russia able to treat him was to prove only slightly less difficult than dealing with the Tatars,

NOTES 1. Harrison E. Salisbury says 1891-1892. He goes on to numbering perhaps 400,000 souls, was permitted to emi- say "... crop failure brought famine on the Volga. There grate to Turkish territory. Their departure left the western were no reserves of rye and wheat in the villages. All had area almost deserted. Apparently these people had second been sold for export. Raging cholera devastated the thoughts and were supported by Turkey in their efforts to countryside. The Volga disaster was so great it changed the return during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. Tur- social temper of the whole countryside. In Samara local key's loss in the war doomed any hope the expatriates had burghers organized soup kitchens for the starving of reoccupying their homeland. However, enough Circas- peasants." Black Night, White Snow, Russia's Revolutions sians as well as related Muslim tribesmen remained to 1905-1917, Doubleday and Co., Inc. Garden City, New cause serious problems for many of the arriving German York, 1978. p. 38. immigrants. 2. The Russians had generally pacified Ciscaucasia by 3. Earlier settlers from the Volga Region founded Kana, 1864. Thereafter almost the entire Circassian nation, east of Pyatigorsk, in 1840; Alexanderdorf near Nalchik in

Page 60 AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 1843; and Bethanien and Nikolayevka also in the vicinity terness of the draught as well as the alternate bouts of of Pyatigorsk in 1852. Heavier migrations from the Volga chills and fever. beginning in the early 1860s resulted in wider settlement. 8. Many years afterward Grandfather spoke fondly of Black Sea Germans also contributed large numbers to the visits to an Armenian village for this purpose. The colonization. By the time the Seibels arrived, there were 15 Armenian girls were very affectionate and as they came by to 20 German colonies in Ciscaucasia. would hug and kiss him. Grandfather didn't say how many 4. Born in Ghimri in northeastern Daghestan in the years this went on, but he accompanied his father until he 1790s, Sharnyl had become a legend throughout western was well in his teens. Since he harbored a lifelong aversion Europe and Russia for his long, determined resistance to to the trade ofbloodletting and therefore refused to continue Russian rule in the Ciscaucasian area. Not until 1859 were the family tradition, it's probably safe to assume these the Russians able to capture him and thus end almost thirty displays had something to do with his enjoyment of the years of protracted guerrilla warfare. His actual trips. He also observed that the many different ethnic fortifications were many kilometers east and south of groups living in Ciscaucasia who often disliked one another Emaus in the mountain fastness of Daghestan proper. were quite agreed in their contempt for the Armenians. 5. My uncle John Seibel, who was born there, tells a Since the lowly Armenians gathered and ate the tasty charming little tale of going with his mother when he was asparagus which grew everywhere, no one else did so. It very small to work in the larger garden. The weather was was obviously not a contempt Grandfather felt. threatening and when after a time there was a sudden 9. All dates given are in terms of the Julian calendar deluge, his mother started to run for home, calling for John which was used in Russia until the Revolution in 1918. to do the same. However, the clouds parted at that moment. Therefore my father's date of birth was August 14, 1899 in While the rain didn't diminish in intensity, the sun broke the Gregorian, or "New" style. through. "Ach," Grandmother said, slowing to a walk, "Das 10. Contractions and nicknames are a fascinating aspect ist nur Sonnenregen." (Oh, that's just sun-rain.) of village life in Russia. Just about everyone had a 6. My grandfather referred to the indigenous population nickname. When one recalls the frequency of intermarriage as "Tatars," though others refer to them more gener-ically in small, often isolated German settlements, one begins to as "Turks." However, the region contains a rich mixture of appreciate the need for some way of differentiating races: Tatars, Georgians, Balkarans, Armenians, and other between three or four Conrad Seibels, for example, all ethnic stocks. Tatars, a nomadic people, were probably the living at the same time in the same small village. most persistent raiders in the region. Nicknames did this well, though they were sometimes most 7. The water table was extremely high. One could dig a unflattering because they were based on a physical or hole a couple of feet deep anywhere and an hour later pull behavioral quirk. Contractions were rampant as well. out a bucket of water. When the Seibels arrived in Emaus, Grandmother was called Marillis, a contraction of Maria there was even a pump to bring water up from the river. It Elisabeth. Grandfather was known as Shreffers Hannjar had been installed by one of the villagers, a man named (that is, Schropfers Hannjerg, the first a reference to his Landl. The pump moved water from a pit beside the river father's profession, the second a contraction in dialect of up a head of about 1,5 feet. Though some two blocks Johann Georg). His brother, naturally, was Shreffers David. distant from the barn, the pump could be started with a Uncle John recalled that one of the Weinmeisters in Emaus wire strung between the pump and barn. Later the wire was known as Dickekunrad, (Dicke Konrad—f&t Conrad) rusted away and occasionally one or another family and another man was referred to as Bostjong, the meaning member would have to go to the mouth of the pit to start of which he no longer remembered. The practice continued the pump by punching a lever with a pole. The pump to some extent when the families emigrated, however it operated on the impact or impulse principle. Moreover, almost entirely passed away with the older generation. there were creeks everywhere. Adverse consequences of Immersion in the new culture, wide dispersal, and the abundance of water were mosquitoes and malaria. particularly the change of language from German to Uncle John had malaria twice while in Russia, once in English put an end to this picturesque custom. Nalchik. Treatment at that time consisted of doses of 11. The entire Seibel clan is indebted to my cousin June quinine, which was administered in powdered form (Boltz) Druse of McMinnville, Oregon for persuading wrapped in small sheets of paper. The quinine was Uncle John to record his experiences. He did so in a long sprinkled into a glass of water which the patient then letter to her in 1983 which she has very generously shared drank. Uncle John remembers vividly the exceeding bit with other family members. I edited the text which

AHSGR Journal I Spring 1991 Page 61 follows in the interest of clarity. Such instances, however, Uncle John in speaking of the incident later said that the are not substantive. children were partly to blame for the dog's meanness 12. When the gunfire began, the children would crawl because they teased the chained animal unmercifully. He under their beds. All the beds had long fringes around the said that his father was the only one who could handle bottoms and the children thought the raiders wouldn't be Barbos. Uncle John added that one night the dog fought a able to find them if they should break in. tiger and would have beaten him too, but for being chained. 13. Grandfather's youngest son, Uncle Herman, says Attracted by the commotion, Grandfather came out the this incident occurred a bit differently than his older door and the tiger jumped back over the wall and ran off. brother remembered it. Grandfather told him the Tatars In addition to tigers, there were also bears in the burrowed under the wall since that was easier than going neighborhood. Uncle John said bears would raid the melon through the hardened bricks. Tatars had a real knack with patches and were quite selective. They would rip melons animals, he said, and were able to rope the cattle together open until they found a ripe one. by the horns and persuade them to stoop and slide through 18. Uncle John means a horse had to be ridden in the the small tunnel under the barn wall. After the shots were gooey mass to mix the straw and clay thoroughly. This task fired which panicked the cattle, the Tatars themselves cut was usually given to a youngster and Uncle John was one the ropes between the horns to save the man who had been of the riders. in the middle of the herd and who became entangled when 19. Kutter is the Germanized version of a Russian word the cattle bolted, khutor, which means "farm settlement." 14. Uncle Herman was able to supplement this tale. He 20. Uncle John describes the threshing operation as said Grandfather shouted a taunt to the attacking Tatars, a follows: Ground was prepared for threshing by clearing all common enough ploy of the time and place. He shouted debris and overburden, then smoothing and wetting the that if the assailants were women, they would attack the exposed surface thoroughly to bake hard in the sun. When woman and horses by the wagon, but if they were men, the ground was prepared, the shocks were brought up, they would fight him. Thus the shots fired at him only forked into the circle and the threshing stone dragged over proved the ploy worked. them. Periodically the farmers would check the stalks to 15. It is doubtful the family could afford the time or see that the grain was being broken loose. When they had the need to shop once a week. Uncle John probably Judged the grain to be entirely threshed, they forked the misspoke himself. Every few weeks is more likely. straw onto a pile and put new shocks in for threshing. The 16. This was a Russian version of a singleshot rifle grain was removed and put into large sacks, some of which developed by Col. Hiram Berdan of the U.S. Army Ord- the family kept for its own use as seed or to be ground into nance Department during the American Civil War. The flour. The bulk of the grain was sold. The threshing rifles were provided to discharged soldiers who lived in the cylinder used at Tokhlonov was three feet long and fitted Caucasian Region, both as a defense against raids and to with "feet" to hammer the heads of grain as it rolled over facilitate rapid mobilization in the event of larger scale them. Uncle John reported that they were a "modern" hostilities with the Turkish or Persian governments. Dis- operation and used a hand-cranked fanning mill to separate charged soldiers were obliged to serve several additional the chaff from the grain. years in the reserves following completion of active duty. 17. Uncle Herman added this to the story of Grand- 21. Uncle Herman reports the story his father told him father's dog; of a man who accidently killed a Tatar friend. The man had a loaded flintlock pistol stuck in his belt, and the Tatar ... the name of the dog that mangled John was Barbos. friend grabbed him around the waist in horseplay. The man Dad told the story often of how John would plead, warned his friend to be careful because the pistol "Shiess der Barbos!" Barbos met his end as they were discharged easily. The Tatar persisted, the pistol was moving into Tokhlonov Kutter. Probably because of somehow discharged, and the Tatar was killed. Even his dangerous nature he was not permitted to ride in though witnesses agreed that the Tatar's death was acci- the wagon, so they tied him to the back where he was dental, the widow was not satisfied. Since she had no sons, to tag along. It seems that because of his old age, she charged her only daughter with remembering the Barbos had become exhausted and was dragged by the necessity of avenging her father's death. The daughter grew neck for miles. He was, of course, dead. It hurt Dad up and had a son, whom she constantly reminded of the very much, partly because of the dog's faithful service blood debt owed. When the son became eighteen years old, and friendship, but also because of his love for all he killed the man who was involved in the death of his animals. grandfather.

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