Germans From Russia Just another NDSU Library weblog

The GRHC now offers Family Recipes from German Tradition. The cookbook is available for $20.00 plus shipping and handling. Click here to find out more about this cookbook.

The GRHC now offers The Volga Germans: The Volga Flows Forever, Book Two by Sigrid Weidenweber available for purchase. The price is $30.00 plus shipping & handling. Click here for more information about this book.

Organizers of the Dakota Memories Oral History Project, in cooperation with Prairie Public Broadcasting, will air “A Holiday Special: German-Russian Childhood Memories,” on Wednesday, Dec. 10, and Thursday, Dec. 25, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

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, North Dakota State University doctoral candidate and 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 Christian holiday special includes interviews from each season of the project and scholarly commentary from Clark. The program features 21 narrators from the Northern Plains. Listeners will learn about memories such as William Adam Merkel Jr.’s recollection of real candles on Christmas trees and Elda (Schultz) Rasch’s first experience with Christmas lights.

The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and Prairie Public provide major funding for the program. A CD of the holiday special is available for $20. Contact Acacia Stuckle at (701) 231-6596 or acacia.stuckle@ndsu.edu to order the CD.

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.

Click here to view a complete listing of narrators featured on the radio program.

The Peter Miller (Mueller) Genealogy is the newest publication of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection. My deepest appreciation is extended to Linda M. Haag, co-compiler and data entry, and to Marcie Franklund, photographs and design, for this family history. Peter and Agnes (Schreiner) Miller immigrated in 1894 from the Catholic village of Krasna, Bessarabia, to the Krasna area west of Strasburg, Emmons County, south central North Dakota. This publication includes 130 pages of color photographs and 65 pages of genealogy. A 71 page supplement to this publication is also available for purchase, the Müller Genealogy from Germany.

For more information about Krasna, Bessarabia, visit The Krasna Project website: http://14ushop.com/krasna (English language) and Infoportal für Krasna: http://krasna.info/home.htm (German language).

GRHC’s newest publication is Strasburg, Emmons Co., N.Dak.: Celebratory Publication on the 25th Jubilee of St. Peter and Paul’s Parish, 1914. This work was printed in old German Gothic text. We are most appreciative of the translation from German to English for publication by Father Jonathan Fischer, O.S.B. of St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota. My grandfather, Michael Baumgartner, is pictured in the publication. He was one of the builders of Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church at Strasburg. Michael immigrated with his family in 1889 to Strasburg from the Catholic German village of Strassburg, Kutschurgan District, South Russia (today near Odessa, Ukraine).

The Foreword shares: “This year is the jubilee year [1914] for the Strasburg community since this community was founded. For this reason this blossoming community looks back with interest, joy, and gratitude on the 25 years which were so rich in suffering and joy, in privations and successes. Today, after 25 years, the first settlers look back with satisfaction and pride on all the difficulties more richly repaid for all they went through when they see how the community of Strasburg, seen from any point of view, has developed into a blooming parish, which can rightly be numbered among the better parishes in the Diocese of Bismarck, perhaps even in the whole state of North Dakota. The following pages are intended to give a glimpse of these 25 years which now belong to the past. And in particular they are to show our young people what must be done to make something of oneself, but also what one must do to build up a community and to establish and maintain in it a peaceful and orderly relationship.”

Please click here for ordering information.

–Michael M. Miller

Organizers of the Dakota Memory Oral History Project released a CD set titled “Growing Up German Russian: A Radio Series, Part I and Part II.” Also sponsored by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection and Prairie Public Broadcasting, the dual disk special contains the radio series that aired from March 24 through May 17on Prairie Public Radio, as well as the series that aired in spring 2007.

Focusing on memories from German-Russians living on the Northern Plains, the radio series is a collection of narratives from participants of the Dakota Memories Oral History Project. The CD set also includes commentaries by Jessica Clark, Dr. Gordon Iseminger, Dr. Tom Isern, Marvin Hartman, Michael Miller, Cassie Ptacek, and Dr. Kimberly Porter.

Public interest in documenting and preserving German-Russian ethnic identity inspired the launch of the project in 2005. Since then, organizers have been 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 at NDSU, coordinates the project.

The CD costs $30 and is available by contacting Acacia Stuckle, special collections associate, at (701) 231-6596 or acacia.stuckle@ndsu.edu.

Click here to view a listing of clips.