Germans From Russia Just another NDSU Library weblog

Please click her to view the February 2008 In Touch with Prairie Living column.

Rev. Leland Elhard of Bismarck donated valuable historical German language documents. These documents printed in old German script are Geschichte Russlands [Russian history] of the years 1814 to 1831. These years are important in the immigration of Germans coming from central Europe to settle in villages of the Black Sea, Crimea and Bessarabia [today southern Ukraine and Moldova].

According to Jay Gage, the GRHC curator, “Theodor von Bernardi compiled four volumes of Geschichte Russlands from 1863 through 1875, with S. Hirzel of Leipzig, Germany, as publisher. Inscripted provenance identifies Rev. A.W. Werder, Wheeling, West Virginia, 1870-1878, and Liberty University Library, Bexley, Ohio.”

“Bernardi’s concisely written political history and culture commentary, also, briefly mentions German former colonists arriving in 1906-1816 for Glueckstal Colonies near Odessa.”

Cover of one of the donated books

Please click here to view the January 2008 In Touch with Prairie Living.