Germans From Russia Just another NDSU Library weblog

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

23 May 2009
Chorne More Hotel
Odessa, Ukraine

Warmest regards from the lobby of the Chorne More Hotel where I am using my small laptop I purchased in Berlin, Germany, before arrival in Odessa.

Our 15th Journey to the Homeland tour group arrived on 22 May with an evening welcome dinner at a Ukrainian ethnic cafe. Tour members are all doing well.

Today tour members traveled to various locations including Bessarabia, Kutschurgan and to villages near Kischinev, Moldova. You should be receiving comments from tour members of their memories visiting the villages upon their return to Odessa with a later email. Some of the tour members are staying overnight in Tarutino, Bessarabia (today in Ukraine) and in Kischinev.

On 18 May in Berlin, there was a gathering of the local Germans from Russia – primarily Spat Aussiedler and some Aussiedler. Some of the tour members and I who traveled earlier to Berlin before the beginning of the tour, had a memorable experience at this event. The gathering was organized by Alexander Rupp, who attended the AHSGR/GRHS Convention in Casper, Wyoming in July 2008.

With best wishes from Odessa, Ukraine

Michael M. Miller

Organizers of the Dakota Memories Oral History Project are coming to Richardton, N.D., to conduct a workshop that will teach participants how to conduct their own oral histories. The event is set for Saturday, May 30, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Sacred Heart Monastery, 8969 Highway 10 West, Richardton.

Acacia (Jonas) Stuckle, special collections associate, will provide information about the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection as well as the Dakota Memories Oral History Project.

Jessica Clark, project coordinator and recipient of the Germans from Russia History Doctoral Fellowship, will present the methodology of oral history from literature to application. She will teach participants how to find materials, narrators and places and how to manage oral histories. The workshops also will provide circuit training on digital recording devices, digital processing equipment and interviewing techniques.

Andrea Mott, 2009 Dakota Memories Oral History project interviewer, will assist with the workshops.

Public interest in documenting and preserving German-Russian ethnic identity inspired the launch of the oral history 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. Michael Miller serves as director of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and the project.

“Our project only focuses on Germans from Russia, yet there are plenty of other groups out there with rich histories – histories that should be documented and preserved,” Clark said. “So, we are hoping by sharing our techniques and our methodology, individuals will be able to conduct their own histories regardless of their ethnicity.”

Workshops are free and open to the public. Cookies and refreshments will be provided. Lunch is not included in the cost, but it will be available on-site for a fee. If you wish to register for lunch on-site, call Stuckle by May 25.

The workshop is sponsored by the Dakota Memories Oral History Project, Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, NDSU Libraries, NDSU Extension Service and NDSU Extension Service Center for Community Vitality.

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 on the collection or the project, contact the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at (701) 231-6596 or www.ndsu.edu/grhc/dakotamemories.

Michael M. Miller, director and bibliographer of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at the NDSU Libraries, will lead the 15th Journey to the Homeland Tour from May 20-30 to Odessa, Ukraine and Stuttgart, Germany. Tour members will visit their ancestral former German villages near Odessa and nearby Moldova. While in Stuttgart, tour members will visit the Germans from Russia organization’s museums and take day trip to visit Alsace, France. Six members of the Volk family with Devils Lake roots are included with the tour group. Miller will stay additional days in Germany for work in Berlin, Freiburg, Stuttgart and Augsburg and Strasbourg, France.

While in Berlin, he will meet with Dr. Ute Schmidt, author of Bessarabien: Deutsche Kolonisten am Schwarzen Meer. Plans are to translate this book to English to be a Germans from Russia Heritage publication.

The 16th Journey to the Homeland Tour is scheduled for May 20-30, 2010.For further information, go to http://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/outreach/journey/index.html.

Watch for email messages sent from the internet cafes in Odessa, Ukraine and Stuttgart, Germany.

Organizers of the Dakota Memories Oral History Project are coming to Napoleon, N.D., to conduct a workshop that will teach participants how to conduct their own oral histories. The event is set for Saturday, May 16, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Downtowner Bar & Steakhouse, 310 Main Avenue, Napoleon.

Acacia (Jonas) Stuckle, special collections associate, will provide information about the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection as well as the Dakota Memories Oral History Project.

Jessica Clark, project coordinator and recipient of the Germans from Russia History Doctoral Fellowship, will present the methodology of oral history from literature to application. She will teach participants how to find materials, narrators and places and how to manage oral histories. The workshops also will provide circuit training on digital recording devices, digital processing equipment and interviewing techniques.

Andrea Mott, 2009 Dakota Memories Oral History project interviewer, will assist with the workshops.

Public interest in documenting and preserving German-Russian ethnic identity inspired the launch of the oral history 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. Michael Miller serves as director of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and the project.

“Our project only focuses on Germans from Russia, yet there are plenty of other groups out there with rich histories – histories that should be documented and preserved,” Clark said. “So, we are hoping by sharing our techniques and our methodology, individuals will be able to conduct their own histories regardless of their ethnicity.”

Workshops are free and open to the public. Cookies and refreshments will be provided. Lunch is not included in the cost, but it will be available on-site for a fee. If you wish to register for lunch on-site, call Stuckle by May 11.

The workshop is sponsored by the Dakota Memories Oral History Project, Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, NDSU Libraries, NDSU Extension Service and NDSU Extension Service Center for Community Vitality.

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 on the collection or the project, contact the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at (701) 231-6596 or www.ndsu.edu/grhc/dakotamemories.