Michael M. Miller

Director and Bibliographer, M.Ed., M.S.
Germans from Russia Heritage Collection
North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo

Executive Producer, Germans from Russia Documentary Series, Prairie Public Broadcasting

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North Dakota 2010 Heritage Honor Award

2008 Librarian of the Year Recipient

NDSU Libraries’ Germans from Russia Heritage Collection receives 2011 national awards

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Biography

Michael Miller is the Director and Bibliographer of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection as well as a member of the faculty and staff at the North Dakota State University Libraries since 1967.

Miller's higher education degrees are Bachelor of Science, (English, Journalism, Library Science) Valley City State University, Valley City, ND; Master of Science and Master of Education, (Library/ Media Education, Secondary Education) University of North Dakota, Grand Forks. Miller attended elementary and secondary schools in Strasburg, in south central North Dakota.

At the Valley City State University homecoming events in October 2002, Miller received the Award of Merit from the Alumni Association. In April 2003, Miller donated to the Allen Memorial Library, Valley City State University, a special collection of learning resources about the Germans from Russia including books, maps, and videotapes. In 1990, the Mountain Plains Library Association presented Miller with the Distinguished Service Award

The Johannes Baumgartner Story and Genealogy: Bicentennial Editon: 1774 - 1974 compiled by John J. Baumgartner, Jr., was published in 1974.

Michael Miller at the home of Leopoldo Bach with his accordion at Johannesdorf, near Lapa in southern Brazil, February 11, 2012. Leopoldo Bach was born on September 1, 1927. He will be interviewed in 2013 for the South American Germans from Russia television documentary.

Marriage photo of Peter and Mary Baumgartner Miller, Strasburg, North Dakota.	Peter & Mary (Baumgartner) Miller Family: (l-r, back row): Donald (deceased); Ramona (deceased); Harold & Oswald (deceased); (l-r, front row): Pearl, Mary & Peter (deceased) & Michael. Circa late 1940s.

Ancestry of Michael's parents, Peter P. Miller & Mary M. Baumgartner, Strasburg, North Dakota

Peter P. Miller is the son of Peter & Agnes (Schreiner) Miller (Müller), born at the Catholic German village of Krasna, Bessarabia, South Russia (today Krasnoe, Ukraine). Peter & Agnes Miller immigrated from Bessarabia to Emmons County, ND, in 1894, settling in the Krasna area, west of Strasburg, ND. Mary Baumgartner is the daughter of Michael & Otillia (Wolf) Baumgartner. Michael & Otillia were born in the Black Sea Catholic village of Strassburg (Kutschurgan District), South Russia (today Kutschurgan, near Odessa, Ukraine), immigrating to Strasburg, ND, in 1889. The Peter Miller (Müller) Genealogy compiled by Michael M. Miller and Linda M. Haag, was published in 2008.

 

Family Heritage of Michael M. Miller Michael son of Johannes Baumgartner, born September 5, 1874, died November 11, 1942; married on April 29, 1892, Otillia [nee Wolf], born on December 25, 1872, died on March 7, 1954, Strasburg, North Dakota Children: Eva Wikenheiser, April 29, 1893 - October 7, 1970 Michael, Jr., March 7, 1895 - January 23, 1969 Barbara Wikenheiser, May 17, 1897 - July 16, 1955 Margaret Klein, October 10, 1898 - deceased Frank, July 22, 1902 - March 1, 1952 John, October 2, 1904 - January 13, 1974 Mary Miller, born August 28, 1907 - July 17, 1970 Philippine Berglund, March 23, 1910 - November 5, 2005 Agnes Wudtke, January 25, 1914 - February 10, 1975 Odelia Davis, June 11, 1917, - October 5, 1979 _____________________________ Peter P., son of Peter and Agnes [nee Schreiner] Miller, born on June 4, 1904, died on August 1, 1984; married Mary Baumgartner, born on August 28, 1907, died on July 17, 1970 Strasburg, North Dakota Children: Oswald, September 18, 1927 - March 8, 2006 Harold, September 21, 1929 Donald, April 3, 1936 - October 10, 1998 Pearl, June 15,1940 - November 7, 2003 Ramona Becker, December 22, 1937 - February 14, 1978 Michael, July 3, 1943

Growing up in a North Dakota German-Russian Community

Michael Miller's hometown of Strasburg was settled primarily by Catholic Black Sea German immigrants who came to south-central North Dakota in the 1880s from the former German villages near Odessa, Ukraine. His Müller grandparents immigrated to North Dakota in 1889 from the Catholic village of Krasna, Bessarabia. His Baumgartner grandparents immigrated to North Dakota from the Catholic village of Strassburg, Kutschurgan District, South Russia (today near Odessa, Ukraine).

Miller grew up speaking both English and German and became interested in the heritage, culture and history of his ancestors. An important focus throughout Miller's life and career has been the preservation and documentation of the rich heritage within the German-Russian community in North America.

Baumgartner Family Circa late 1910s/early 1920s. My grandparents, Michael & Otillia (Wolf) Baumgartner. Michael was born in 1874 and died in 1942. Otillia was born in 1872 and died in 1954. Married in 1892 at Strasburg, ND. For complete information, see the Johannes Baumgartner Story and Genealogy. Front row (l-r): Michael, Jr., Michael, Sr., Agnes, Philippine, Tillie, Odelia and Eva. Back row: Frank, Margaret, Barbara, John and Mary. Another County Pioneer Passes: Michael Baumgartner, 68, Strasburg

The Michael and Otillia Wolf Baumgartner Family, Strasburg, ND, circa 1950s. Front row (l-r): Philippine, Odelia, Michael (father), Odellia (mother), Agnes, and Mary; Back row (l-r): Frank, Barbara, Michael, Margaret, John, and Eva.

Miller's hometown on the Dakota prairies became well-known, due to one of North Dakota's most famous native sons. Bandleader Lawrence Welk was born in a sod house on a farmstead near Strasburg homesteaded by his Catholic Black Sea German-Russian parents. Mr. Welk conducted America's most famous television orchestra, with The Lawrence Welk Show entertaining North American television audiences for 27 years. Miller's friendship with the Welk family in Strasburg led to locating the musical archives of Lawrence Welk, being donated to NDSU in 1993.

The Lawrence Welk Collection is housed at the NDSU Archives, North Dakota State University Libraries, Fargo. For further information, contact: ndsu.library.archives@ndsu.edu or 701-231-8914.

Journey to the Homeland: Odessa, Ukraine and Stuttgart, Germany, 1996 - 2013

He has directed 19 annual tours for educating Americans and Canadians of German-Russian heritage to their former ancestral German villages in Ukraine and Moldova beginning in May, 1996 to May 2013. The 1997 tour also included viewing cultural treasures of Russia in St. Petersburg.

Producing the Germans from Russia Award-Winning Documentaries

In March, 2000, Prairie Public TV premiered a television documentary on the foodways and recipes of the Germans from Russia culture brought to the central and northern plains of North America: Schmeckfest: Food Traditions of the Germans from Russia.

In September, 2002, Prairie Public Television premiered Prairie Crosses, Prairie Voices: Iron Crosses of the Great Plains. Miller was pleased to be an executive producer of the third videotape documentary of the Germans from Russia Series. For filming and interviews, the crew traveled in the Dakotas, western Kansas, and southern Saskatchewan.

In April, 2005, Prairie Public Television premiered the a documentary A Soulful Sound: Music of the Germans from Russia. This is the fourth in the "Germans from Russia" documentary series. The concert choirs of the University of Mary, Bismarck, ND, and Jamestown College, Jamestown, ND, were cooperating partners with the music documentary.

In July, 2006, the 30-minute documentary premiered, We'll Meet Again in Heaven. This program is a searing chronicle of a forgotten genocide and a lost people. The lost people are the ethnic German minority living in Soviet Ukraine, who wrote their American relatives about the starvation, forced labor, and execution that were almost daily fare in Soviet Ukraine during this period of 1928 to 1938.

In July, 2010, It's All Earth and Sky, premiered. It's All Earth and Sky was the reaction of one German-Russian immigrant when she arrived on the plains of the midwest. Like many others who came to the region seeking a land of promise and opportunity, she and her family endured...and prevailed...on this rich, expansive landscape.

In this documentary, five representative Germans from Russia, who have attained success and stability, share their insights on the process of becoming American. Arthur E. Flegel is the founder of a successful furniture store in Menlo Park, California; Debra Marquart is a creative writer and a professor at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa; Al Neuharth lives in Cocoa Beach, Florida, and is a journalist and founder of USA Today; Henry S. Schmick of Cheyenne, Wyoming, is a cattle raiser, beet farmer, helicopter mechanic, and a member of the National Guard; and Brian Schweitzer is a rancher, soil scientist, and governor of the state of Montana.

In February, 2012, Bob Dambach, director of television, Prairie Public Broadcasting, and Michael Miller, traveled to Argentina and Brazil to begin work on a new television documentary on the story of the Germans from Russia in South America. Prairie Public videographers, Bob Dambach and Michael Miller, will return to Brazil in April 2013 and Argentina in October 2013 for filming and interviews. The documentary will premiere in 2014 or 2015. For further information, go to http://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/outreach/documentaries/sadocumentary.html.

Michael Miller shared: “The days in Argentina and Brazil in February, 2012, were truly amazing and unforgettable. I was impressed how I could speak in the German language with many people. There are wonderful comparisons of the German-Russian foods and recipes including Kuchen. The cemeteries featured the beautiful wrought-iron crosses similar to what we see in central North Dakota.”

In July, 2012 premiered At Home in Russia, at Home on the Prairie telling the story of the Kutchurganers. The life they led in South Russia and their life after journeying to the prairies of North America. The stories are told by the descendants of these pioneers. Msgr. Joseph Senger, Christina Gross Jundt, Helen Fiest Krumm, Adam Giesinger, Fr. Thomas Welk, Theresa Kuntz Bachmeier, Barbara Schneider Risling, Ron Yolk, Colleen Zeiler, Debra Marquart, Mary Ebach, Clara Ebach.

Family members are not just forces in life but take their shape through historical time and in geographical place. Prairie Public and the NDSU Libraries’ Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, place one’s own family story in a wider human narrative of what it means to be a German from Russia today. The documentary as an audible and visual museum of one emotional and intellectual place, the Kutschurgan Valley in Russia, as the intersection of memory and place, a foundation of many shared and common memories for those of us in the Northern Plains and western Canadian prairie provinces.

The documentary, “At Home in Russia, at Home on the Prairie”, received the Platinum Best of Show Award from the Aurora Awards in the Historical Category. This is the highest award for a television documentary presented by the Aurora Awards and is one of twenty-seven to receive this award in 2012 in the USA.

Dakota Memories Oral History Interview Project

The Dakota Memories Oral History Interview Project (2005-2009) began in the spring of 2005 in cooperation with the Department of History at North Dakota State University. For further information, visit: www.ndsu.edu/grhc/dakotamemories

Photographer

Michael Miller's photography interests have developed into a rewarding experience that has enriched his life. He has developed many global friendships by traveling to do photography in North America and other international locations.

His olympic and photographic experiences include the following Olympic Games: 1984 Los Angeles, California; 1988 Seoul, Korea; 1988 Calgary, Alberta; 1992 Albertville, France; 1992 Barcelona, Spain; 1994 Lillehammer, Norway; 1996 Atlanta, Georgia; and 2002 Salt Lake City, Utah. Miller has photographed at these World Wrestling Championships: Edmonton, Alberta; Skopje, Yugoslavia; and Atlanta and San Diego, California. His photographs from the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics were included in a 1986 calendar published by Knight Printing, Fargo, North Dakota.

Michael M. Miller and Bob Dambach, standing in a wheat field near the former German village of Elsass, Kutschurgan District (today Kherbanka), June 2, 1999. Miller and Dambach are co-producers of the documentary, "The Germans from Russia: Children of the Steppe, Children of the Prairie."

Bob Dambach, director of television, Prairie Public Broadcasting, and Michael Miller, standing by wrought-iron cross at the Catholic Cemetery near San Jose (St. Joseph), one of the three Volga German settlements near Coronel Suarez, south of Buenos Aires, Argentina, February 18, 2012. They were in Argentina and Brazil to begin work on a new television documentary on the story of the Germans from Russia in South America to premiere in 2014.

Professional Memberships