Germans From Russia Just another NDSU Library weblog

The 125th Anniversary at Leola, South Dakota with the GRHC displays for July 3-4, 2009, was a wonderful and rewarding outreach experience. We were most impressed with the response and the wonderful reception we received from the organizers of this outstanding event. Leola, South Dakota can be very proud of their excellent 125th celebration.

Please visit these links to view more photographs from the festivities.

• Leola, SD 125th Anniversary including the McPherson County Courthouse
• Leola, SD 125th Anniversary Parade
• GRHC Displays at Leola, SD

Selma Job Lapp, Eureka, SD, autographing the book, “Researcher’s Guide to McPherson County, South Dakota Cemeteries.” Selma is a compiler of this book.

Float of Die Deutsche Freiheit Chapter, Eureka, SD, of the Germans from Russia Heritage Society. The float was a second place winner.

Organizers of the Dakota Memories Oral History Project, in cooperation with Prairie Public Broadcasting, will air a new radio program titled “Red, White and Blue: German Russians Remember Independence Day.”

The program will air on Friday, July 3, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. and features stories about community celebrations, firecrackers, foot races and accidents from narrators of the Dakota Memories Oral History Project. The narrators grew up on the Northern Plains including agricultural regions of South Dakota, North Dakota and Saskatchewan.

Jessica Clark, child historian and project coordinator, has added scholarly commentary. She discusses the childhood memories of holiday traditions in a larger historical framework.

Public interest in documenting and preserving German-Russian ethnic identity inspired the launch of the project in 2005. Since then, organizers have been traveling the Northern Plains, gathering stories and documenting family relationships and childhood memories of second and third generation Germans from Russia. Jessica Clark, recipient of the Germans from Russia History Doctoral Fellowship, coordinates the project and Michael Miller serves as director of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and the project.

The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and Prairie Public provide major funding for the program. A CD of the radio program will be available for $15. To pre-order the CD, contact Acacia Stuckle, special collections associate, at 1-6596 or acacia.stuckle@ndsu.edu.

The program can be heard on 90.5 FM in Bismarck, 89.9 FM in Dickinson, 91.5 FM in Devils Lake, 91.9 FM in Fargo, 89.3 FM in Grand Forks, 91.5 FM in Jamestown, 88.9 FM in Minot and 89.5 FM in Williston.

The Dakota Memories Oral History Project is a privately funded project sponsored by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at the NDSU Libraries. For more information, contact the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at 1-6596 or visit www.ndsu.edu/grhc/dakotamemories.

The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at the NDSU Libraries, Fargo, will feature its display and information tables at Leola, South Dakota, for their 125th Anniversary. The display will be featured at the Municipal Building on main street on Friday, July 3, 10 am to 6 pm and on Saturday, July 4, 10 am to 4 pm.

The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, NDSU Libraries, Fargo, was pleased to be part of the impressive celebration of Napoleon’s 125th Anniversary.

Burgad family in the parade

Wald family in the parade

Acacia Stuckle assisting visitors at the GRHC booth.

Debra Marquart, Michael Miller and Acacia Stuckle
(Photo Courtesy of Larry Gauper)

The Germans from Russia: Children of the Steppe, Children of the Prairie and Prairie Crosses, Prairie Voices: Iron Crosses of the Great Plains recently won “Classic” Telly Awards. These “Classic” Telly awards were given in celebration of the 30th anniversary of these awards. Congratulations to the staff at Prairie Public, the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and everyone else involved in producing these wonderful documentaries.

Please click here for more information about the documentaries or to order a copy.

The GRHC will have displays and information tables at the 125th Anniversary Quasquicentennial at Napoleon, ND on Friday, June 12 (10 am-6 pm) and Saturday, June 13 (10 am-4 pm) at the Fire Hall. Debra Marquart, a Napoleon native, and well known author of the book, The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere, will be autographing her book at the GRHC tables.

Jessica Clark, Andrea Mott and Acacia Stuckle conducted oral history workshops in Napoleon and Richardton, North Dakota this past May. The purpose of the workshops were to teach participants how to conduct their own oral histories.

Click here to view some of the information in the educational handouts and comments from workshop participants.

Andrea Mott training participants on equipment during the oral history workshop circuit training session.

Participants registering for the oral history workshop  in Richardton, ND.

Hotel Astoria
Stuttgart, Germany
27 May 2009

We arrived safely to Stuttgart evening of 26 May with cool weather and rainfall. All tour members are in good health.

This morning we visited the Germans from Russia societies in Stuttgart -Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland and the Bessarabiendeutscher Verein. At the Verein, we were greeted by Ingo Isert, head of the Verein, and by Mr. Schaefer, President. Also joining us for greetings with Edwin Kelm, who was for many years president. Mr. Schaefer mentioned he will travel to Tripp, South Dakota to visit relatives this summer.

On 28 May, we travel to Alsace, France with bus tour. We will have lunch in Sessenheim, Alsace, France, tasting the famous Alsatian Flammkuchen.

On 30 May, most of the tour members depart Stuttgart for Amsterdam and on to the USA.

With best regards from Stuttgart,

Michael M. Miller

Chorne More (Black Sea) Hotel
Odessa, Ukraine
25 May 2009

15th Journey to the Homeland Tour: Odessa, Ukraine & Stuttgart, Germany Sponsored by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo

I write thís message upon returning from the Kutschurgan District villages of Elsass, Strassburg and Selz about one hour from Odessa near the Moldovan border. Today some tour members and I visited the school at Elsass including classrooms with students and teachers. We talked to the 11th grade English class about the Germans from Russia who once lived in these villages.

On 26 May, we depart on Czech Airlines from Odessa to Prague to Stuttgart for 26 to 30 May. We will be visiting on 27 May the Germans from Russia society offices in Stuttgart – Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland and the Heimatmuseum der Bessarabiendeutschen. On 28 May, we take a day trip to Alsace, France from Stuttgart.

For most of the tour members, they depart Stuttgart, Germany for USA on 30 May. I will return back to Fargo, North Dakota, on 8 June.

Sharon Dobler Vegas of Idaho and her sisiter, Carol Dobler Harris of North Carolina, share this message: “In 1884, Christian Dobler left southern Ukraine (Bessarabia) hoping to find a better life for his family. In 2009, two great-granddaughters returned to Teplitz, Bessarabia, his birthplace.

We were surprised to find the town looking much the same as described in records from the 19th Century. People we met with the help of our interpreter, Galina, and driver, Vladimir, remembered German times. They
helped us locate plots of land that had belonged to the Doblers. In the cemetery, we found two headstones with the Dobler name. The inscriptions were badly deteriorated but one seems to be that of Georg Adam Dobler, the father of Christian.

It is exciting and moving for us who have lived the good life they sought to see where is all began.”

We will be sharing more messages from tour members with an email message later likely after I have returned North Dakota.

With best wishes from Odessa, Ukraine,

Michael M. Miller

24 May 2009
Chorne More (Black Sea) Hotel
Odessa, Ukraine

Journey to the Homeland Tour: Odessa, Ukraine & Stuttgart, Germany
Sponsored by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo

Our family travelled with Michael Miller and Elvira (translator/tour guide) to the villages of Mannheim, Selz and Kandel about one our north of Odessa.

We passed beautiful fields of wheat and barley and experienced rural life in this land of our ancestors.  We arrived in the villages and were moved as we walked across the same soil that earlier Volks walked, visited churches where they were baptized and married–churches now mere ghosts of their earlier grandieur–mostly in ruin. We were saddened by the level of poverty that we saw and the poor prospects for further development in these rural communities.  People still gather their water from wells, still have outhouses for bathrooms, and transportation is mostly by foot or horse.  The people are subsistence farmers today with just enough land to grow crops to feed their families and a few goats and cows to provide milk and cheese.  We wondered how different the villages might be today had the Germans not left the area when they did.  We were moved by the friendliness of the people and inspired by the spirit of Frau Reisling with whom we had lunch and heard stories of her return to her ancestral village where she has restored the home her grandfather built.  Her path to return included time in Siberia, Latvia and Austria.  Frau Reisling knew personally Msgr. Singer–a relative of Wanda and Kay–and told stories of his visit to the village.  We also sensed a sense of envy of the achievements of the Germans who left the Ukriane and came to America. We were reminded of the debt we owe to the courage of our ancestors who had the courage to pack up their families and venture into the unknown of the promise of the new land in America.

Mary Anne Ingenthron
Davis, California