Germans From Russia Just another NDSU Library weblog

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

Prairie Earth, Prairie Homes is a field school that celebrates, investigates, and encourages the preservation of buildings built of earth on the northern plains. Too often considered a temporary expedient of pioneer times, earth buildings are, we argue, an environmental response and a cultural signature of the people of the plains, fixtures in the prairie way of life. As we come to understand them, we are better able to preserve the buildings themselves and the life ways that invest them. Restoring and preserving earth buildings in a region of continental climate offers challenges both technical and logistical, but those challenges can be met. In this field school, offered by North Dakota State University, we learn how.

Experiential learning is at the heart of Prairie Earth, Prairie Homes. Participants in the field school take part in the restoration of an amazing and significant historic property – the Hutmacher Farmstead, in Dunn County, North Dakota. The Hutmacher house and outbuilding walls are constructed of sandstone mortared with clay, both quarried on the farm. The roof uses ridgepoles and rafters locally cut and covered with successive layers of brush (chokecherry, plum), flax straw, clay, and aggregate. The house was built by the children of German-Russian immigrants and was occupied into the 1970s.

In order to broaden the learning experience, participants also will tour and study examples of the earth building traditions of the various cultures to occupy the West River country of the northern plains:

• Mandan & Hidatsa earth lodges
• Sod houses of Anglo-Americans
• Earth houses of the Germans from Russia

Depending on the enrollment option chosen, students will engage in preparatory readings and study prior to the field experience, write curricular materials adapted from the content of the course, or pursue independent research projects springing from it.

Instructors of the field school are Tom Isern (Professor of History & University Distinguished Professor at NDSU, founding director of the Center for Heritage Renewal (www.ndsu.edu/heritage) and Suzzanne Kelley (historian & editor, PhD candidate at NDSU, president of Preservation North Dakota). Tom is instructor of record for regular undergraduate or graduate credit; Suzzanne (an experienced public-school teacher) is instructor of record for the teacher workshops and coordinator of learning vacation experiences; and they share overall responsibility for organization and management of the field school.

Who will benefit from the field school?

• Degree-seeking undergraduate and graduate students seeking a rich, hands-on learning experience preservation
• Professionals desiring professional development in earth building restoration and interpretation
• Teachers looking for an active option in continuing education with direct curricular applicability
• Vacationers looking for a learning experience at compelling sites in an unforgettable landscape to 6 hours of credit, undergraduate or graduate

Course Bibliography & Online Resources at:
http://www.ndsu.edu/grhc/instruct/isern/earth

Tom Isern

Note:
Additional information regarding the Hutmacher Farmsite is at this GRHC webpage:
http//library.ndsu.edu/grhc/history_culture/arch/index.html.

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.

We are offering a 10% discount on all purchases of $50 or more from November 1 to December 15, 2008. Please visit our website for a complete list of items for sale. To place an order or request a free catalog, call 701-231-6596 or email acacia.stuckle@ndsu.edu.

Here are a few photographs from the NDSU Libraries’ Reception honoring Michael M. Miller as the 2008 NDLA Librarian of the Year. Please click here to view more photographs from the reception.

Michael displaying one of the beautiful flower arrangements he received.

2008 NDLA Librarian of the Year Award

Michael M. Miller and NDSU President Joseph Chapman

Larry Gauper, Joanne Mertz Gauper, Julie Opp Burgum and Michael M. Miller

Several people enjoying kuchen and visiting during the reception.

Visit this KXMB television station (Bismarck, North Dakota) web page for a news story and photo slideshow about German-Russian cheese buttons.

http://www.kxnet.com/getArticle.asp?ArticleId=273314

As we begin another academic year, it brings memories of school days to many people. Each season the Dakota Memories Oral History Project (DMOHP) gathers photographs, certificates and other documents while collecting interviews. Marlene (Kraft) Smith was interviewed by the DMOHP staff during the 2007 season at Penn, ND. Marlene allowed the DMOHP staff to scan several documents relating to her and her father’s (George Kraft) school days. Please click here to view additional documents at Marlene’s narrator profile page at the GRHC website.

Marlene (Kraft) Smith’s Attendance Award
21 June 1948

This summer some of the Dakota Memories Oral History Project web pages have changed layouts. Check out the site to see all the changes. www.ndsu.edu/grhc/dakotamemories

The 2008 International Convention of Germans from Russia takes place this week (July 28 – August 3) in Casper, Wyoming. The theme for the convention is “Celebrating Our Common Heritage.” For more information, please visit the convention website.

Valentina and Alexander Rupp of Berlin, Germany, arrive in Fargo on a Northwest flight at 8 pm this evening. They will be in Fargo for 16-20 and 27-29 July. Their son, Denis Rupp, was an exchange student at Fargo South this past year staying with Bob and Virginia Dambach.

We will be meeting on 17 July with Alexander Rupp at the Library regarding cooperating projects between GRHC and the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, Stuttgart, Germany. Mr. Rupp will represent the Landsmannschaft at the American Historical Society Germans from Russia/Germans from Russia Heritage Society first joint international convention at Casper, Wyoming, 29 July – 3 August. The Rupps and I travel to Casper on 29 July. They are traveling with their son to California for 20-27 July.

We plan to visit the Spring Prairie Hutterite Colony, northeast of Glyndon, MN later this week.