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GERMANY
On July 22, 1763, Catherine the Great of Russia, A German princess, issued a
manifesto
inviting foreigners to settle
in Russia. This was an old Russian custom. This new manifesto was a skillful propaganda
effort at opportune time. Russian agents spread it far and wide over war-scarred
western Europe.
The success of the Russian emigration agents was extraordinary; hoardes of impoverished
farmers, tradesmen and soldiers signed up for emigration. Although the Russian government
sent agents for the recruiting of foreigners to most states of Europe
the greatest success was in Germany. Germany was in
a very unsettled condition as a result of the Seven Years War. A very small portion
of the colonists were French, Dutch, Italian, Polish, and Swedish.
During the 4 years from 1764 to 1767, seven thousand families, an estimated 25,000
to 27,000 people left Germany for Russia. A large fraction of these came from
Hesse,
but other parts of southwest Germany were well
represented and there were smaller
contributions from other areas of Germany and some neighboring countries.
AHSGR sells
map #7 of Hesse with the locations from which
Volga Germans emigrated (1763-69).
(Karte von Hessen mit den Orten, aus denen die Wolgadeutschen ausgewandert sind (1763-69).
Cartographer: Karl Stumpp. Size: 22" x 17". This map of Hesse,
Germany covers the area from the Neckar River
and Worms in the south, the Rhine River and Koblenz in the west to Kassel in the north
and Eschwege and Thuringia in the east. This map is very detailed and includes the names
of the towns from which many Volga Germans originated.
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One of the challenges to the Volga German researcher is to determine where in Germany
their ancestors came from. This information can be obtained from 2 sources; from the
marriage, birth
and baptism records at the gathering places in Germany
and from the
original settler lists.
The original settler lists are available for about half the Volga villages so far with more
expected to be published.
Before traveling to Russia, the Germans gathered and waited at various locations in which marriages, births,
baptisms and deaths took place.
If the original location in Germany of a Volga German is known,
it is very likely that specific information about them
and their ancestors can be found in old German records. In many cases the ancestors can
be traced back many generations, often to the 1600's or even the 1500's.
Since 1950, about 2.2 million ethnic Germans
(Volga Germans, Black Sea Germans and Germans from other regions)
have left the former Soviet Union
for Germany, in search of better economic and social conditions.
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©2009 Patrice Miller
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