Establishing the Collection & Collecting Policy

The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection (GRHC) was established at the Institute for Regional Studies, North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo, in July, 1978. The late Dr. Karl Stumpp of Germany, Honorary President of GRHS, visited the NDSU Libraries in July 1998, and donated valuable materials for the establishment of Germans from Russia Heritage Collection.

The collection was established to gather and preserve publications, photographs, maps, audio-visual materials, oral histories, and other materials documenting the history and culture of the Germans from Russia in North Dakota and the Northern Plains. Today the specialized collection is one of the most comprehensive resources in North America.

Since 1978, the Collection has increased in scope and priorities:
1) To encourage scholarly knowledge through new research and discoveries,
2) To mentor further information and documentation toward great public accessibility, and
3) To enhance interpretation of both common and distinctive cultural experiences, with focus towards visionary authority and reference status.

Formats include books, journals, manuscripts, newspapers, photographs, microfilm, theses, dissertations, oral history tapes and transcriptions, electronic archives, maps, cassette tapes, videotapes, and phonograph records. The collection constitutes a solid and impressive resource of materials on the Germans from Russia, particularly concentrating on Bessarabian Germans, Black Sea Germans, Crimean Germans, Dobrudscha Germans, and Volhynian Germans. The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection is recognized regionally, nationally and internationally as one of the primary research collections in North America and the world.

In addition to primary materials on North American experiences impacted by immigration, settlement, emigration and assimilation, research resources are being gathered to further document the South Russian experience of 1760 to 1945, as well as today's existence of historic village sites, historic archival records, and ethnic German re-settlement polices of the 1990s.

In recent years, GRHC has expanded its activities and projects to include outreach programs, traveling exhibits, heritage tours to Germany and Ukraine, photo archives, publications, translations, textiles and clothing, oral histories, electronic discussion groups and website development.

Open to anyone interested in researching the heritage, culture and folklore about the Germans from Russia, the collection is located on the main level of the NDSU Libraries and is open 8 am to 4 pm Monday through Friday. We invite inquiries about the collection. The collection does not circulate on inter-library loan and is available at the NDSU Libraries.