Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia Vol. 16, No. 4 Winter 1993 Acting Editor NANCY BERNHARDT HOLLAND Trinity College, VT Production Editors DAVID BAGBY CHRISTINE CLAYTON Editorial Board IRMGARD HEIN ELLINGSON PETER J. KLASSEN Bukovina Society, Ellis, KS California State University, Fresno ARTHUR E. FLEGEL TIMOTHY KLOBERDANZ Certified Genealogist, Menio Park, CA North Dakota State University, Fargo ADAM GIESINGER GEORGE KUFELDT University of Manitoba, emeritus Anderson University, Indiana, emeritus NANCY BERNHARDT HOLLAND LEONA PFEIPER Trinity College, Burlington, VT Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS WILLIAM KEEL HELMUT SCHMELLER University of Kansas, Lawrence Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS On the cover: The Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia is published quarterly by AHSGR. A class from the German School in Members of the Society receive the Journal, a quarterly Newsletter, and an annual genealogical publication. Odessa, South Russia, 1942. See Clues. Members qualify for discounts on material available for purchase from AHSGR. Membership categories are: Student, $20; Individual, $30; Family, $30; Contributing, $50; Sustaining, $100; Life, $500 (may be paid "Memories" by Helene Dauenhauer in five annual installments). Memberships are based on a calendar year, due each January 1. Dues in excess of Schmitz on page 25. $30 may be tax-deductible as allowed by law. Applications for membership should be sent to AHSGR, 631 D Street, Lincoln, NE 68502-1199. The Journal welcomes the submission of articles, essays, family histories, anecdotes, folklore, book reviews, and items regarding all aspects of the lives of Germans in/from Russia. Manuscripts should be typed double spaced with endnotes. Computer fan-fold paper should be separated before mailing. If written on computer, please include a diskette containing a copy of the computer file. We can accept IBM-compatible ASCII or WordPerfect™ files. Our style guide is the Chicago Manual of Style, 13th ed. revised (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982). Please indicate in your cover letter whether you have photos or illustrations to accompany your article. If you wish your submission returned to you, please include a stamped, self-addressed envelope with adequate postage. Unless you instruct us otherwise, submissions not published in the Journal will be added to the AHSGR archives. The International Foundation of AHSGR is a non-profit organization which seeks funds beyond the annual dues of members of AHSGR to support the needs of the many operations of the Society. The Foundation accepts monetary gifts, bequests, securities, memorial gifts, trusts, and other donations. Gifts to the Foundation may be designated for specific purposes such as promoting the work of the Aussiedler Project gathering information from German-Russian emigrants recently arrived in Germany, the AHSGR/CIS Project of research in Russia, or supporting the Society's library or genealogical work; gifts may also be designated for use where most needed. All contributions help further the goals of AHSGR: to gather, preserve, and make available for research material pertaining to the history of Germans from Russia. For information and to make contributions, contact the International Foundation of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. 631 D Street, Lincoln, NE 68502-1199. Telephone: (402) 474- 3363. Fax: (402) 474-7229. Donations to the International Foundation are tax deductible as allowed by law. Opinions and statements of fact expressed by contributors are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Society, the Foundation, the Editor, or members of the Editorial Board, who assume no responsibility for statements made by contributors. Published by the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia 63 ID Street • Lincoln, NE 68502-1199 • Phone 402-474-3363 © Copyright 1993 by the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. ISSN 0162-8283 CONTENTS BEFORE UKRAINE: THE GERMANS IN POLAND ………………………………………………… 1 Edward Reimer Brandt BACK TO THE BEGINNING A VISIT TO THE VOLGA COLONIES IN 1765 ……………………………………………………… 14 Adam Giesinger MEMORIES ....................................………………………………………………………………………25 Helen Dauenhauer Schmitz Translated by Jo Ann Kuhr ... AND LIFE GOES ON ....................................................................................…………………………………………………….. 39 Dietrich Rempel Translated by Almena Kniss Bernhardt and Nancy Bernhardt Holland AHSGR Journal/Winter 1993 BEFORE UKRAINE: THE GERMANS IN POLAND Edward Reimer Brand! My ancestors, my father-in law's ancestors, and my now in his upper 80s, the leading scholar on the Germans in mother-in-law's ancestors represent three separate streams Central Poland. Die Deutschen in Polen seit der Re- of German-speakers (although some of them spoke Dutch formation: Historisch-Geographische Skizzen (Marburg: or French at the time of the Reformation) who all came to Herder-Institut, 1978) is the most substantial of his many North America from present-day Ukraine and all lived in writings on the subject, and includes several valuable maps, what was Polish territory during one historical period or as well as the Warsaw list of 1,231 German colonies in another, even though Poland did not exist as an indepen- Russian Poland in 1835. dent country at the time of their last eastward migrations Both as a result of following my father-in-law's an- before crossing the Atlantic, cestral trail and as a result of my research in Germany (with I had previously researched my mother-in-law's particular thanks to Dr. Kossmann), I became more fully Lutheran-Reformed line. Most of her ancestors migrated aware of the significant number of immigrants from from Rhineland-Palatinate to Galicia in 1782-86. Her Southern and Central Germany (generally referred to as father's family resided in Birzulla near Kotosov in the "Swabians," although their origin was more diverse than parish of Hoffnungsthal, northwest of Odessa, for eight that implies) to Central Poland, primarily in 1796-1805, years before coming to Canada, where they lived in nu- when this area was under Prussian control. A relatively merous communities in the three Prairie Provinces. (My large number of these lived in this area for only about article "Digging for Roots in Germany," in Clues, 1988 fifteen years before migrating onward, mostly to Edition, Part 2, deals with my early research on this line. Bessarabia, after they discovered that they had not escaped My translation of the "Autobiography of Philip Ott," who the clutches of Napoleon's troops by going to the east. was my wife's grandfather, in the AHSGR Journal, Winter Many of those who stayed longer moved to Volhynia later. 1988, tells the story of this family.) It thus became clear to me that a sizable number of the In 19911 took an East European Mennonite tour, re- Ukrainian Germans had prior roots in Polish soil. In view tracing the footsteps of my Mennonite ancestors in the of both my personal and my intellectual interests, I decided Vistula-Nogat delta near Danzig, where they had lived to review Dr. Adam Giesinger's From Catherine to since the sixteenth century before migrating to the Khrushchev: The Story of Russia's Germans (Lincoln, NE: Molochna colony (most of them in 1804, a few later). AHSGR, 1981) to try to determine just how extensive this These travels and my impressions have been recorded in a phenomenon was, small book, Where Once They Toiled: A Visit to the It makes sense to discuss Ukraine within in its present Former Mennonite Homelands in the Vistula River Valley boundaries, since much of the pertinent historical-genea- (Elverson, PA: Mennonite Family History, 1992). logical information we are seeking obviously rests in In addition, I followed the trail of my Lutheran father-in- Ukrainian archives. law's ancestors from Northern Posen (Polish: However, there are at least eight distinguishable areas Poznari) through various localities in Central Poland, of German settlement in that country, each with a different, where they had lived before moving to Western Volhynia though often intertwined, history. (I have omitted areas like (Polish: Wolyri) and shortly thereafter to Canada. An Central and Northern Ukraine, where there were only a article on "Retracing the Schmidtke Trail in Poland" has handful of German villages.) The extent to which Germans been prepared for publication. from Poland settled there varies enormously from one A third part of my trip involved reviewing books on Ukrainian area to another. German settlements in Eastern Europe at numerous Ger- Therefore, I decided to delineate the following areas man archives and libraries. In Marburg, where the Johann (as shown on Map 1); Gottfried Herder-Institut (the primary German center for (1) Eastern Ukraine (the colonies near or east of the the study of East Central Europe) is located, I had the good Dnepr River) fortune to receive an invitation from Dr. Oskar Kossmann, (2) Western Ukraine (the colonies north of Odessa and AHSGR Journal/Winter 1993 2 Before Ukraine east of the Dnestr River; the westernmost of these colonies The very first colonies in both Western and Eastern are now in Moldova) Ukraine were established by Lutherans from West Prussia, (3) The Crimean Peninsula although the Mennonites represented the first large-scale (4) Southern Bessarabia (west of the Dnestr; Northern immigration. Bessarabia now belongs to Moldova)