“german immigration to russia and where immigrants are today”

            Throughout centuries Germans have prevailed, immigrating from place to place in order to survive while staying in close-knit societies to endure the hardships placed upon them by wars, governments and the settling of new lands.  Enemy military advances, religious oppression and starvation were the primary reasons many Germans picked up all their belongings and began their long journey to Russia.  There they could be free from military service and choose their own religion, so they settled there and began thriving off the land.  Soon after they were again subject to the previous hardships their ancestors had experienced, so once again many of them picked up their belongings and began the long trek to the Americas.  Those who left thrived off the land just as their ancestors had in Russia, although those who stayed were put through unbearable treatment and many did not survive.  The Germans remaining in Russia have lost ties to much of their culture but a few individuals, mostly through religion, are slowly reviving it. Even though it has been more than 200 years, the culture is still persevering wherever it goes. 

            The mass waves of immigration stem back to Martin Luther, when his reforms split many Germans into Lutherans and Catholics.  The Peace of Augsburg of 1555 settled the religious split by granting the ruler of the state the ability to choose the religion of his land.  Those living on the land were okay with this decision and became accustomed to their religion.  Later on, in 1804 in hopes of bringing about a more unified German nation, the Diet of Regensburg brought together the 314 states into 30 nations.  This raised problems among the different religious areas because they were still held under the laws of The Peace of Augsburg; the ruler of the large state was able to choose the new religion.  This caused a desire within many in the Württemberg region to migrate.

            The Germans had always been wanted by the Russians to move onto the land and make it flourish.  “Already under Czar Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584) German officers, technicians, craftsmen, merchants and scholars were invited to build up the city” (Stumpp 1967, 6).  The first significant number of immigrants was in 1679, when Peter the Great succeeded in bringing in over a thousand technicians and military scientists.  In later years, the Russians realized two benefits of bringing farmers to the area.  “On the one hand, it was necessary to cultivate vast areas of untilled land and introduce agriculture; on the other hand, the German colonists were to provide a protective wall against the Asiatic tribes and serve as a model for the Russian peasants” (Stumpp 1967, 9).  This is the reason that Catherine the Great issued her first invitation to all Germans, except Jews, on December 4, 1762.  She did not have much success for two reasons; the Seven Years War (1756-1763) was still in progress, and she did not include personal or religious freedoms in her agreement.  Being German herself, Catherine realized her mistakes, so she issued her second Manifesto on July 22, 1763.  The main points summarized by Stumpp, included in the invitation are:

1.      We grant to all foreigners coming into our Empire the unhindered and free practice of religion according to the precepts and customs of their church...

2.      The settlers who have come to settle in Russia shall not be obliged to pay taxes to our treasury, nor to perform ordinary or extraordinary services.

3.      The settlers established in Russia shall not be liable, against their will, to any military or civil service.

In regard to the acquisition of land and land tenure:

4.      All the lands allotted for the settlement of the colonists are to given to them for eternal time as an inalienable and hereditary possession; not, however, as the personal property of anyone, but as the communal property of each colony. 

5.      The colonists are permitted, in order to increase and improve their farms, to buy areas of land from private individuals and indeed to acquire them as their property.

6.      The areas of land allotted by the Crown are, as a rule, to be inherited by the youngest son.

And finally, one more important regulation:

7.      If any of the foreigners who have settled here and become subject to our rule should decide to depart again from our country, we will of course grant them the freedom to do so at any time, on condition, however, that they will be obliged to pay into our treasury a portion of the assets they have acquired in our Empire.  After that, each one will be permitted to travel, without hindrance, wherever he pleases. (Stumpp 1967, 10)

This invitation was timed perfectly.  Political, economic, religious, and personal reasons all contributed to the wave of immigration.  The war had left land, crops, and villages destroyed and French occupation on the eastern bank of the Rhine proved to be “oppressive and arbitrary” (Arends, 11).  They were heavily taxed and the men were drafted to fight in Napoleon’s armies.   The Germans were not able to keep up food production for the troops and themselves.  This was the primary reason for emigration from the southwestern corner of present day Germany. 

            Beginning as early as 1764, Germans immigrated to the new land.  The first immigrants came from Hessen, the Rhinelands, and Palatinate, settling in the Volga Region.  These were the Germans intended to create a border against the Asiatic tribes.  Large groups of colonists settled this region until 1767.  After that, it was only friends and family of the colonists, contacted through letters, that joined them after hearing about the vast amounts of fertile soil.  The Black Sea Colonies were the second region to be settled.  The colonists had continued to immigrate along or near the front lines of a six-year war between Turkey and Russia.  The first settlers were subject to raids by Turkish war parties.  During Catherine’s reign, Russia acquired new land they had previously been cut off from through the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji, and later the Treaty of Jassay.  The land here had never been cultivated and there were very few inhabitants living in the area.  After the treaties were signed, Russia wanted to populate the land so it would not be possible for the Turks to reconquer it.  It was impossible for Russian peasants to do so because they “were still serfs who as such were not allowed to migrate.  Nor did these serfs know how to colonize such large tracts of land” (Arends, 18).  Catherine died in 1796, and in 1801 her grandson, Alexander I, took the throne, following closely in his grandmother’s footsteps.  In 1804, he issued an invitation to the Germans, granting free transportation and passports to those Germans who were considered honest, industrious, and in possession of no less than 300 rubles in cash or property.  After this invitation, more Germans came from the Baden, Rhine Palatinate, Württemberg, Baden, Alsace, and Hessen areas, marking the beginning of the great migration (1804-1807).  They settled closer to the Black Sea, fanning out around the city of Odessa. 

            The Germans, being hard workers, survived the 2,000 mile trip, living in makeshift homes during the first winter, and the first tilling of the land.  They quickly adapted to the new surroundings and developed new techniques of farming still used today.  They planted wheat in the fall rather than in the spring, thus inventing winter wheat, and they introduced the three (or four) field crop rotation method.  This is when one field is left fallow, or unplanted, and tilled while the others are planted in a succession of crops.  The crops consisted mainly of wheat, barley, oats, rye, and maize.  This practice of leaving a field fallow every few years is still used in the United States today instead of using the new chemicals to fertilize the land.  The Germans prospered off the land, buying new farm equipment nearly every year.  They were able to buy more farm land or build better houses with the proceeds.  The practice of buying land differed between the Volga region and the Black Sea Region.  In the Volga Region they were permitted to divide the land, granted to them by the Crown, into smaller and smaller pieces, in order to give an equal share to each son.  In the Black Sea Region they were not permitted to divide the land, but rather had to bequeath it to the youngest son.  In this region, the father was expected to buy extra land for their other sons to inherit, creating extensive purchases of land.  The Volga Germans, on the other hand, had divided the land so many times that the inhabitants were merely able to exist off the land.  The Russian government did not want to deprive themselves of the farming capabilities of the Germans, so in turn, they granted two additional plots of land for them to expand on.  At the peak of land purchases, the Volga Germans had bought about 2,700,000 acres, whereas the Black Sea Germans had bought about 11,340,000 acres.  These purchases and the land grants from the government gave the German Russians more grainland than was available in the German Federal Republic (Stumpp 1967, 24-25). 

            The colonists had done so well for themselves that they began to run out of space in the villages for new families.  This resulted in the purchase of nearby tracts of lands to form new villages, creating many daughter colonies, often with the prefix Neu- (New) attached to it.  After the nearby tracts of land were all purchased, they had to travel east, towards Siberia, or overseas, to the Americas, to find land at a reasonable price.  The original 300 mother colonies expanded to a total of 3,300 German colonies by 1940, reflecting the population growth from 100,000 immigrants to 1.7 million German inhabitants by 1914. 

            The lifestyles of the Germans followed them to Russia.  They designed their towns according to the landscape; the Volga region laid the towns out in a checkerboard pattern with one-storied houses, while the villages in the Black Sea region were designed so all gable ends of the house faced the straight village street, and the barns, granaries, and house were all under one roof.  “In all German settlements, the small flower garden in front of the house was never missing.  In the center of the village stood the church, or if this was lacking, the school which would then serve as the house of prayer” (Stumpp 1967, 21-23).  Every village was centered on religion, and one religion only.  Not a single German village in Russia consisted of more than one religion.  Even if the colonists settled from different states into one village, they all maintained the same faith.  Because of this strong faith, they were very well educated.  The schools in German villages were controlled by the church and students were not allowed into confirmation classes until they were able read and write German.  The 1897 census of Russia claims 78% of all Russian people were still illiterate, whereas everyone in the German villages was able to read and write.  Education and religion were two things the Germans could not live without; even after Russian was implemented as the primary language in schools, the importance never declined. 

            Times changed since the Germans had immigrated to Russia.  “A hundred years had passed and the time had come, so Russians felt, to ring out the old century and to ring in a new one, one in which Russia was for the Russians” (Scholz, 7).  In 1861, Alexander II had given all Russian serfs their freedom and only a meager amount of land, creating competition between the Germans and the newly liberated Russians.  In order to create a more equal society, Alexander III created a new law in which “military service became a personal obligation of every male, regardless of social status” (Arends, 38).  Germans had flourished up until June 4, 1871, when Alexander III and his anti-German wife abolished the Codex of the Colonists that had given them so many freedoms before.  They annulled the law, eliminating the phrase “for all time.”  “Russia was determined to Russify all that was foreign.  German colonists however harmless and beneficial, were feared like a cancerous foreign matter in the body of the awakening giant Russia.  This matter had to be purged, if it could not be cured and assimilated.”  These new anti-German policies gave the Germans three options.  The first would be to stay on the land and be prosecuted or try and gain citizenship to blend in with the Russians.  The second option they had would be to stay in Russia, but move to Siberia, where land could be obtained at a low cost and the new laws were not strictly enforced.  Russia itself was trying to settle these lands and the German farmers were more experienced and educated in the process than the Russian peasants.  The final, very popular option was to immigrate to the Americas.  The United States had designed the Homestead Act of 1862, which allowed a settler to receive 160 acres of land for as little as ten dollars and they could obtain up to 480 acres by filing for a ‘preemptive claim’ for 160 more acres and purchasing the final 160 acres.  Much of the land had not been settled until the Germans from Russia appeared because of the open plains, lack of trees, and lack of water; but the new settlers were already practiced in this environment, which was very similar to their homes in Russia.  Canada, Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay had similar offers to try and settle the new found lands. 

            The great emigration movement of the Germans from Russia began in 1873 and lasted until the beginning of WWII.  Those who stayed in Russia went through many difficult years with a very low chance of survival.  As WWI approached, the hatred for the Germans increased and the German language was banned from use in public, school, the press, and for the most part of a church service.  The Laws of Liquidation enacted on February 2 and December 15, 1915, meant the removal and destruction of the Germans in Russia.  Originally all colonists with German or Austrian background were not allowed to acquire land.  Those within 95 miles of the border had their land confiscated and they were resettled elsewhere.  In the summer of 1915 these citizens were transported to the eastern regions of Russia, some even to Siberia.  During the journey, almost half lost their lives (Stumpp 1967, 32).  They were not able to return home until after the war, only to find remains of what they had left behind. 

            The Germans who had been spared and allowed to stay on the land were not allowed to acquire any land unless they obtained Russian citizenship, which was very rarely granted.  Many sold whatever they had left and went back to Germany, Siberia, or the Americas.  Because of the new laws, two crop failures resulted in famine amongst the German and Russian populations.  1921 and 1922 were the first famines in 150 years that any German had starved during.  In previous crop failures they had stored enough surpluses to survive, but this time they did not have the land to make such accommodations to feed both the Russians and themselves.  After this tragedy, the government, so dependent on the German farmer, tried to restore the land to the individuals.  This created a small upswing in the economy, especially amongst the Germans, but starting in 1928, Stalin began placing the farmers onto collective farms, or a kolkhoz.  Those who were expected to rebel were banished to Siberia or placed in purely Russian cities, but many just simply disappeared to escape persecution.  The result of all the farmers being managed on a kolkhoz was another widespread famine in which millions of people died, including 350,000 Germans. 

            With the threat of a second world war on Russians’ minds, the Germans remaining in Russia continued to be persecuted.  “During the years 1936-1938 the leaders and intellectuals were destroyed and many of the men were sent away.  By 1940, one-third of the German families were left without a father” (Arends, 39-40).  During the war and the constant shifting of land occupation, many of the German-Russian citizens became pawns in the game of war.  Under Hitler and Stalin’s commands, the 93,000 Germans in Bessarabia were forcefully relocated to the German Reich, where the men were drafted into the German Army, and the women, children, and older men were sent to Poland to work in the fields.  In 1941, Hitler’s armies invaded the Soviet Union and 379,000 Volga Germans were banished for the reason stated: 

According to trustworthy reports of the military authorities, there exist among the German populace of the Volga region thousands and tens of thousands of diversionists and spies who, at a signal from Germany, are supposed to carry out acts of sabotage in the areas inhabited by the Volga Germans. In order, therefore, to prevent undesirable incidents of this kind and to prevent bloodshed, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviets of the USSR has found it necessary to resettle the entire German population of the Volga region to other regions (Stumpp 1967, 34). 

The only Germans spared from immigration and invasions were those in the villages west of the Urals, the Altai region, and in the Kulunda Steppe.  Around 350,000 Germans had managed to escape to Germany during the war during the German Army’s retreat in 1945; but the Soviets recaptured about 250,000 of them and sent them to Siberia.  About 25% of the remaining Germans immigrated to the Americas and the rest stayed in Germany. 

            During these years of turmoil, the families that had been separated from one another were not able to keep in contact, so after the war, Germany was flooded with letters of lost loved ones in search of hope.  On December 13, 1955, the proclamation of the “Amnesty of Soviet citizens who had collaborated with the forces of occupation during the great war of the Fatherland from 1941 to 1945”  gave Germans in Russia some sigh of relief.  Although they were not able to regain the land they lost or even relocate to the places they were expelled from, they were able to try to find each other. They quickly found, though, that everything they had once owned or knew were gone.  Cemeteries, churches, and schools were destroyed and all records were lost. 

            The religion and language of the first settlers was destroyed in years of oppression, but in recent years Catholicism is being rejuvenated.  The older generations remember and are trying to teach the importance of religion to the younger generations.  Services are held in Russian, German, and Polish but the old language is mostly forgotten.  Every year about 200,000 Germans in Russia immigrate to Germany, but for those who do not, Germany has a few support programs for those remaining in Russia in order to keep the number of immigrants down.  Life is difficult for those left in Russia; they still suffer from persecution, even though they are granted the same liberties as fellow Russians, and they are still trying to renew the life they used to have on the western front. 

            Everywhere Germans have gone, they have kept their heritage and made no false claims against being German.  Most are proud of the reputation Germans have for being hardworking, prevalent, and determined people.  No matter the distance traveled or the hardships put through, the culture of Germans from over 200 years ago can still be seen today, whether it is in the way crops are planted or in how a church sermon is preached.  Germans have adapted to new lifestyles, holding on to one another for support during the hardest, most life threatening periods of their generations, by maintaining their ability to survive, no matter the situation. 

Works Cited (APA format)

Arends, Shirley Fischer Ph.D. (1989) The Central Dakota Germans:  Their History,

            Language, and Culture.  Washington, D.C.:  Georgetown University Press.

Boardman, Edna (1997) All Things Decently and In Order and Other Writing on a

Germans from Russia Heritage.  Minot, ND:  North American Heritage Press

Giesinger, Adam (1974) from Catherine to Khrushchev:  The Story of Russia’s Germans.

Winnepeg, Manitoba:  Marian Press.

Shelton, Anita (2002) History of Germans in Russia.  Retrieved on November 2, 2005

from http://ar.essortment.com/germansinruss_rjwg.htm.

Schmaltz, Eric J. (1996) The Church and the Russian Germans in the Siberian Homeland

            Today:  A Personal Interview with His Excellency, The Most Rev. Joseph Werth,

Bishop of Siberia.  Fargo:  Germans from Russia Heritage Collection. 

Scholz, Harry G. (1969) The German Colonists of Russia:  The Repeal of Russia’s Law

of the Colonists in 1871 and Its Effects on the German Colonist Population (Maters Thesis, Chapmen College, 1969).

Stumpp, Karl (1967) The German-Russians:  Two Centuries of Pioneering (3^rd Ed.)

Munich:  Simhart & Co.

Stumpp, Karl (1973) The Emigration from Germany to Russia in the years 1763 to 1862

(pages 14-30).  Lincoln, NE:  American Historical Society of Germans from Russia.  

German 409

Martina Wolf

December 13, 2005