Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans From Russia Vol. 4, No. 1 Spring 1981 TABLE OF CONTENTS REDACTIONS: THE EDITOR'S PAGE .............. ...................................... i DROUGHT CHILD A Poem by Edward Reimer Brandt...................................................ii FATHER WENZLER, THE VILLAGE ELDER Hertha Karasek-Strzygowski Translated by Sally Tieszen Hieb. ......................................................................................1 VILLAGES IN WHICH OUR FOREFATHERS LIVED; EARLY DAUGHTER COLONIES NEAR MARIUPOL Adam Giesinger..................................................................7 KAMENNAYA MOGILA William Schroeder............................................................... 13 FOLKLORE FORUM; "WO SCHEINT NIE DIE SONNE HIN? -WHERE DOES THE SUN NEVER SHINE?" RIDDLES OF THE GERMANS FROM RUSSIA Timothy J. Kloberdanz and Contributors ............................................. 16 WE SING OUR HISTORY Lawrence A. Weigel. .............................................................24 GERMANS FROM RUSSIA IN GERMANY IN THE 1950's: THE EARLY YEARS OF THE LANDSMANNSCHAFT Adam Giesinger. ................................................................26 AUS HEIMAT UND LEBEN: ABOUT MY LIFE AND HOMELAND David Weigum Translated by Dona Reeves and Leona Pfeifer.......................................................................................34 WANDERERS ON THE STEPPES IN OLD RUSSIA A. F. Wanner Translated by A. Becker .............................................................................................................................39 THE ORIGINS OF AHSGR: THE ORGANIZATIONAL MEETINGS A History Based on Documents in the Society Files Adam Giesinger. .............................................................................................................................................................44 A VOICE FROM THE PAST: A GERMAN-RUSSIAN LIFE Christian Welsch With an Introduction by Roger L. Welsch..............................................................................................50 (Continued on inside back cover) Published by American Historical Society of Germans from Russia 631 D Street • Lincoln, Nebraska 68502 Nancy Bernhardt Holland, Editor © Copyright 1981 by the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. All rights reserved. REDACTIONS: THE EDITOR'S PAGE This issue of the Journal contains a variety of articles dealing with several phases, periods, and settlement areas in the history of the Germans from Russia. Professor Adam Giesinger continues his series on "Villages in which our Forefathers Lived," focussing on the eleven daughter colonies of the "Jewish Steppe" northwest of Mariupol which were founded between 1832-1852. He provides translations of the village reports for Belowesch, Grosswerder, and Bergtal. AHSGR member William Schroeder adds a description of Kamennaya Mogila, the strange granite rock formation a few kilometers from Grosswerder which he visited in 1976 and again in 1979. This issue draws heavily on personal recollection. The second installment of Dr. Walter Weigum's edition of his father's autobiography, "Aus Heimat und Leben," recreates the idyllic life of the German colonists on the Crimean Steppe during the 1880's. A. F. Wanner describes the motley parades of itinerant craftsmen, peddlers, beggars, and Gypsies that enlivened the Black Sea villages in the pre-revolutionary period. Professor Roger L. Welsch, a widely-published authority on folklore, shares his father's autobiography with members of the Society. Christian Welsch's homely reminiscences typify the experiences of the German-Russian immigrants to the United States who were forced to work as manual laborers and live in the most primitive of accommodations during the early decades of this century. The fate of those Germans who remained in Russia is encapsulated in the sketch of "Father Wenzler, Village Elder," translated by Sally Tieszen Hieb from Wolhynisches Tagebuch, the effecting collection of portraits and biographies of that remnant of victims of war, revolution, and famine Hertha Karasek-Strzygowski discovered living in the Volhynian village of Blumental in 1942. The biographical sketch of Julius Wenzler reads like a hauntingly stoic lay of a last survivor. Several articles deal with current history of the Germans from Russia. Professor Giesinger continues his survey of the origins of AHSGR, drawing on correspondence in the Society's files to clarify events during the formative years of the organization. An interesting companion piece is his study of "The Germans from Russia in Germany in the 1950*s" which describes the origins and aims of the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, AHSGR's "half-sister" in Germany. Poet Edward Reimer Brandt, a descendant of Molotschna Mennonites, makes his first appearance in the pages of the Journal. A new member of AHSGR, Professor Brandt, who teaches at Minneapolis Community College, is president of the Minneapolis Poetry Society and state vice-regent of the Midwest Federation of Chaparral Poets. Reviews of three volumes recently added to the loan collection (each containing contributions by members of the Society) complete this issue. Emma Schwabenland Haynes in reviewing The Volga Germans: Pioneers of the Northwest, notes the discussion of the Protestant religious life of the immigrants but wonders about the fate of the Catholic Volga Germans in Oregon mentioned by Richard Sallet in Russian-German Settlements in the United States. According to Sallet, there were 1,000 Catholic and 3,750 Protestant Volga Germans in Oregon in 1920. Members who know where in Oregon the Catholics settled and what happened to them should contact Mrs. Haynes through Society Headquarters. The special feature of the spring edition of the Journal is the annual Folklore Forum edited by folklorist Timothy J. Kloberdanz (with expert help from Rosalinda A. Kloberdanz). This spring the forum provides amusing examples of riddles traditional among the Germans from Russia. Musicolo- gist Lawrence A. Weigel contributes a riddling song popular among Volga Germans who immigrated to Ellis County, Kansas in 1876. The Folklore Forum scheduled for publication in the spring 1982 issue of the Journal will focus on family stories. The reminiscences of Christian Welsch in this issue of the Journal provide a memorable example of the genre which creates a vivid picture of his life and times of interest not only to his descendants but to all those who share the memory of "the agony felt by the poor and less educated." With earthy candor, Mr. Welsch reveals the ethnocentricity of the German-Russians, their ability to be perpetrators as well as victims of prejudice, but above all, the resilient wit and exuberance that characterizes the German-Russian ability to make the best of the worst of times. The editors urge members of the Society to follow Professor Welsch's exhortation to begin immediately to collect your own family's history since "it is precisely in the common life that the real drama of history can be found." On behalf of all members of AHSGR, the editor wishes to thank the authors, researchers, translators, reviewers, artists, photographers, and all contributors who have made the Journal a vehicle for preserving and perpetuating the history and culture of the Germans from Russia. On her own behalf, she wishes to thank all those persons whose dedication has made her work with the Journal during the past seven years a most pleasurable and rewarding experience. Nancy Bernhardt Holland DROUGHT CHILD The earth is surely drying up. Of that, My genealogy is certain proof. My first known forebears pumped a dammed up vat With windmills, so the marsh would hold a hoof And stay the seawaves level with the roof. They literally built the polderland Which hitherto had been but ocean sand. Then fugitives resettled far out east, Where Flemish-Frisian reclamation skills Won back the delta which the sea had fleeced And flooded during Baltic battle kills. Although they suffered fevers, pains and ills, They dotted Nogat shores, near alder woods, With farmyards and supplies of farmers' goods, With land and freedom insecure, events Made thousands leave two centuries or more Of Prussian homes to found new settlements Upon the arid steppes, where mill pipes tore Into the ground to seek a water store. They found enough to make Molotschna bloom, Soon saturating every verst of room. On freedom's trail, the bisoned plains came next; First Manitoba and Nebraska, light In rain, with homesteads visited and vexed By clouds of jumping longlegs with a bite Whose devastation led to blight; then flight To west of ninety-eight, where I was born Just sunward of a mill one Dust Bowl morn. - Edward Reimer Brandt 11 FATHER WENZLER, THE VILLAGE ELDER Hertha Karasek-Strzygowski Translated by Sally Tieszen Hieb The poignant portrait of Julius Wenzler, village elder of the Volhynian village of Blumental near Zhitomir, is one of the chapters of Wolhynisches Tagebuch published in West Germany in 1979. In the volume, Hertha Karasek-Strzygowski, a Selesian artist provides sketches and biographies of German colonists with whom she visited in 1942. In order to get an accurate picture of the small colony of Blumental, I wanted first of all, to visit the village elder. Father Wenzler. He was one of the few men left in the village, and because of his eighty-two years of age, I assumed he would be able to relate much of the development of this settlement. He had immigrated here with his parents