Monument Dedication in Moldova Remembering the Germans from Russia

May 2, 2002

Glückstal Memorial Monument Dedication

The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection (GRHC), NDSU Libraries, Fargo, and the Glueckstal Colonies Research Association (GCRA) are pleased to announce the dedication program of the Glueckstal Colonies Memorial Monument for May 24, 2002, at the village of Glinnoje, Moldova (former Black Sea German village of Glueckstal, South Russia, founded in 1804), today located near Odessa, Ukraine. Other Glueckstal mother colonies are Bergdorf, Kassel and Neudorf.

Margaret Aman Freeman states: "The monument is dedicated to those who once lived in Glueckstal and endured, and to their descendants wherever they are now scattered. May they always carry with them the good fortune of this valley - the best virtues of the people known as the Glueckstalers."

Leading the Glueckstal Memorial Dedication Tour group will be Michael M. Miller, Germans from Russia Bibliographer; Margaret Aman Freeman, coordinator of GCRA, Redondo Beach, CA; and Janice Huber Stangl, co-author of the book, "Marienberg: Fate of a Village," published by GRHC in 2000. Marienberg is a daughter colony of the Glueckstal District villages, today located in Ukraine.

Miller will also head a tour group in Odessa, Ukraine, from May 27 - June 3 visiting the former Bessarabian, Black Sea and Crimean German villages.

Other Americans attending the dedication program will be Thomas Stangl, Dr. Kenneth and Catherine Kempf Vogele, Dr. Harley Roth, Bernadine Lang Kuhn, Bob Freeman, Bob Dambach, and Gwen Pritzkau.

Oskar and Helma Seefried Eberle of Weissach, Germany, will join the group and visit their homeland villages of Marienberg and Eigenheim which they left in 1944 in their youth, returning now for the first time.

Between 1872 to 1914, one of four Germans from the Glueckstal villages immigrated to North America, many settling in south-central North Dakota and north-central South Dakota. Later many moved to the Lodi/Sacramento area of central California, Oregon, and Washington.

The dedication program can be found at the website page: library.ndsu.edu/grhc/outreach/journey/photographs/memorialdedication.html.

Further information about GCRA be found at this website: www.glueckstal.net.