Erinnerungen an die deutschen Kolonien des Großliebental Rayons bei Odessa: 1803-1944

Book review by Johann Kampen

Mack, Eduard. Erinnerungen an die Deutschen Kolonien des Großliebental Rayons bei Odessa: 1803-1844. Ravensburg, Germany: Self Published, 1998.

Germans from Russia (cataloging in process). (not available on interlibrary loan).

The number of books about the former German colonies in Russia, i.e., the Soviet Union continues to grow. The Hussenbach book Deutsche in Russland by Viktor Volz, Das Dorf Zentral, by Susanne Isaak, etc., were followed by the book about Kandel Entstehung, Entwicklung, und Auflösung der deutschen Kolonien am Schwarzen Meer, by Anton Bosch and Josef Lingor.

The latest are the books about Chortitza Wir vom Dnjepr by Hans Nickel and Erinnerungen an die deutschen Kolonien des Grossliebentaler Rayons bei Odessa by Eduard Mack.

All books of our authors have one thing in common: They were published with a great amount of time and financial sacrifices of the authors. They themselves are from the colonies they described and of course turn first (but not only) to their countrymen of Kandel, Zentral, Chortitza, etc., scattered throughout the whole world.

The same applies with limitations to the 273 pages, large format, plus 195 pictures in the book about Grossliebental by Eduard Mack. The 80-year-old author living today in Ravensburg (Baden-Württemberg) is faced with the delightful situation that especially many people from Grossliebental live in a more or less small area in Germany and are very well organized in the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland. It can even be said that the former colonists and their sons and daughters from Grossliebental, Kleinliebental, Alexanderhilf, Neuburg, Mariental, Josephstal, Peterstal, Freudental, Franzfeld, Lustdorf and other villages by the Black Sea were the nucleus of our Landsmannschaft. Eduard Mack dedicated his book to them, has given up important commentaries and instead had names, numbers, village maps and pictures speak for themselves. The most important events in the existence of the German villages between 1803 and 1945 are recorded in tabular form as are the lists of the first settlers and the repressed, those shot to death and saved men and women of Mack's homeland in a closer sense of the word.