![Bessarabisches Bauernpaar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Bessarabisches_Bauernpaar.jpg)
The Bessarabia Germans (german: Bessarabiendeutsche, ro, Germani basarabeni, uk, Бессарабські німці) were an
ethnic group
An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
who lived in
Bessarabia
Bessarabia (; Gagauz: ''Besarabiya''; Romanian: ''Basarabia''; Ukrainian: ''Бессара́бія'') is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Be ...
(today part of the
Republic of Moldova
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
and south-western Ukraine) between 1814 and 1940.
From 1814 to 1842, 9,000 of them immigrated from the German areas
Baden
Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine.
History
The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden is ...
,
Württemberg
Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart.
Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...
,
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
, some
Prussian
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
areas of modern-day Poland and
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
, France, to the Russian
governorate of Bessarabia at the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
. The area, bordering on the Black Sea, was part of the Russian Empire, in the form of
Novorossiya
Novorossiya, literally "New Russia", is a historical name, used during the era of the Russian Empire for an administrative area that would later become the southern mainland of Ukraine: the region immediately north of the Black Sea and Crimea. ...
; it later became the ''Bessarabia Governorate''.
Throughout their 125-year history, the Bessarabia Germans were an overwhelmingly rural population. Until their
moving to the Greater Germany (
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
, long_name = Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
, image = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27337, Moskau, Stalin und Ribbentrop im Kreml.jpg
, image_width = 200
, caption = Stalin and Ribbentrop shaking ...
), they were a minority consisting of 93,000 people who made up some 3% of the population. They were distinguished from the
Black Sea Germans
The Black Sea Germans (german: Schwarzmeerdeutsche; russian: черноморские немцы; uk, чорноморські німці) are ethnic Germans who left their homelands (starting in the late-18th century, but mainly in the e ...
who settled to the east of
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
, and from the
Dobrujan Germans The Dobrujan Germans (german: Dobrudschadeutsche) were an ethnic German group, within the larger category of Black Sea Germans, for over one hundred years. German-speaking colonists entered the approximately 23,000 km2 area of Dobruja around 18 ...
in
Dobruja
Dobruja or Dobrudja (; bg, Добруджа, Dobrudzha or ''Dobrudža''; ro, Dobrogea, or ; tr, Dobruca) is a historical region in the Balkans that has been divided since the 19th century between the territories of Bulgaria and Romania. I ...
.
The most prominent person of Bessarabian German ancestry is the former
German President Horst Köhler
Horst Köhler (; born 22 February 1943) is a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU (of which he is ...
. Before emigrating in 1940, his parents lived in the German colony of
Rîșcani
Rîșcani (, also spelled ''Râșcani'') is a city in Moldova, the capital of the Rîșcani District. It is located along the Copăceanca river, about 22 kilometres from the station in Drochia. Two villages are administered by the city, Bălanu ...
in northern Bessarabia, being later on moved to
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, which was by that time occupied by Germany, where Köhler was born.
Coat of arms
The
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
of the Bessarabia Germans (created after the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
) symbolises the homeland at the Black Sea, left at 1940. The coat of arms consists of a shield as the main component of the
heraldic
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branc ...
emblem. On four divisions, the crest symbolises the country's colours and other properties.
*
Azure symbolises the blue sky over the steppe;
*
Or stands for the golden fields;
*
Gules
In heraldry, gules () is the tincture with the colour red. It is one of the class of five dark tinctures called "colours", the others being azure (blue), sable (black), vert (green) and purpure (purple).
In engraving, it is sometimes depict ...
is taken out of the Romanian flag – the state whose citizens the Bessarabia Germans were;
* The well symbolises the importance of water;
* The cross is a symbol for the Church and religion;
* The horse symbolises the dearest friend of the farmer.
Anthem
The Bessarabian
anthem
An anthem is a musical composition of celebration, usually used as a symbol for a distinct group, particularly the national anthems of countries. Originally, and in music theory and religious contexts, it also refers more particularly to short ...
''Bessarabisches Heimatlied'' was created in 1922 by
Albert Mauch
Albert may refer to:
Companies
* Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic
* Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands
* Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia
* Albert Productions, a record label
* Albert C ...
, the director of the ''Werner-Seminar'', a German
university
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
in
Sarata
Sarata (Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and ; ) is an urban-type settlement in Odesa Oblast (region) of south-western Ukraine. It is a part of the Bessarabian historic district of Budjak. Population:
History
Ottoman Period
The Sarata river valley and ...
.
Origins
The eastern part of the
Principality of Moldavia
Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Central ...
was conquered by the troops of the Russian Czar Alexander I in the
Russo-Turkish War
The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histo ...
between 1806 and 1812. In this Moldavian region, he established the
Bessarabia Governorate
The Bessarabia Governorate (, ) was a part of the Russian Empire from 1812 to 1917. Initially known as Bessarabia Oblast (Бессарабская область, ''Bessarabskaya oblast'') as well as, following 1871, a governorate, it included ...
, the smallest of the Russian Empire. The capital was the central Bessarabian
Chişinău.
Nomadic
Tatars
The Tatars ()[Tatar]
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different from the southern region of Bessarabia,
Budjak
Budjak or Budzhak (Bulgarian and Ukrainian: Буджак; ro, Bugeac; Gagauz and Turkish: ''Bucak''), historically part of Bessarabia until 1812, is a historical region in Ukraine and Moldova. Lying along the Black Sea between the Danube ...
, were banished or emigrated voluntarily after the Russian conquest, leaving the area almost deserted. Russia tried to entice foreign settlers to populate the area and work the farms, since her own farmers were mainly
serfs
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...
. The aim of this was to re-establish agriculture on the rich black soil. Tsar Alexander I issued a
manifesto
A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a ...
on 29 November 1813, in which he promised German settlers the following privileges:
* Land donation;
* Interest-free credit;
* Exemption from
taxes
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or ...
for 10 years;
* Autonomy;
* Freedom of
religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
;
* Exemption from military service.
The agents of the Russian crown went with these promises to
Württemberg
Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart.
Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...
, the northeast German area (
Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg (; nds, label=Low German, Mękel(n)borg ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin ...
) and into the
Duchy of Warsaw
The Duchy of Warsaw ( pl, Księstwo Warszawskie, french: Duché de Varsovie, german: Herzogtum Warschau), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during ...
, where German settlers had established themselves only a few years before.
Emigration
Between 1814 and 1842 over 2,000 families consisting of approximately 9,000 people migrated to the Russian Bessarabia. Most came from the South German areas of
Württemberg
Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart.
Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...
,
Baden
Baden (; ) is a historical territory in South Germany, in earlier times on both sides of the Upper Rhine but since the Napoleonic Wars only East of the Rhine.
History
The margraves of Baden originated from the House of Zähringen. Baden is ...
, the
Palatinate,
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
and
Alsace
Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
, France, the peak occurring in 1817.
After the distribution of passports by German authorities they began the journey in larger groups, known as ''Kolonnen'' (lit. "columns"). The time taken for the 2,000 km journey was between two and six months, depending upon travel route. Many of those emigrating due to religious reasons formed ''Harmonien'' (harmonies).
For the emigrants from South Germany, the journey usually followed the course of the
River Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
, which they followed as far as
Ulm
Ulm () is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Danube on the border with Bavaria. The city, which has an estimated population of more than 126,000 (2018), forms an urban district of its own (german: link=no, ...
(about 100 km south-east of
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
and 130 km north-west of
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
). There they boarded ''Ulm boxes'', a sort of one-way boat. Many emigrants fell ill and died while travelling on these boats. The journey carried them downriver to the Danube delta shortly before the
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
. Upon arrival at
Izmail
Izmail (, , translit. ''Izmail,'' formerly Тучков ("Tuchkov"); ro, Ismail or ''Smil''; pl, Izmaił, bg, Исмаил) is a city and municipality on the Danube river in Odesa Oblast in south-western Ukraine. It serves as the administra ...
, the migrants were quarantined for weeks on an island in the delta which claimed further victims. About 10% of the emigrants are thought not to have survived the voyage.
Emigrants from the northern and eastern German regions, as well as from Poland, travelled by horse and cart. They were the first Germans to arrive in Bessarabia, in 1814, and were known as ''Warsaw Colonists'' because of their origins.
Reasons for emigration
Reasons for emigration from the
Duchy of Warsaw
The Duchy of Warsaw ( pl, Księstwo Warszawskie, french: Duché de Varsovie, german: Herzogtum Warschau), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during ...
were:
* Objection to
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...
rule;
* A worsening economic situation.
Reasons for emigration from South Germany were:
* Compulsory military service;
*
Serfdom
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which develop ...
;
* The oppressive regime;
* Crop failures and
famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, Demographic trap, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. Th ...
;
* High taxes;
* Land shortages;
* Religious;
**
Pietism
Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christian life, including a social concern for the needy and ...
–
Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
movement for practical
piety
Piety is a virtue which may include religious devotion or spirituality. A common element in most conceptions of piety is a duty of respect. In a religious context piety may be expressed through pious activities or devotions, which may vary among ...
;
**
Millennialism
Millennialism (from millennium, Latin for "a thousand years") or chiliasm (from the Greek equivalent) is a belief advanced by some religious denominations that a Golden Age or Paradise will occur on Earth prior to the final judgment and future ...
– Belief in a
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during ...
where "Christ will reign" for a thousand years.
Colonisation under Russian rule
Settlement
![Germans in Bessarabia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Germans_in_Bessarabia.jpg)
Tsarist Russia settled the German migrants in Bessarabia according to plan. They kept land in the southern region, on assigned far, treeless steppe surfaces in the
Southern Bessarabia
Southern Bessarabia or South Bessarabia is a territory of Bessarabia which, as a result of the Crimean War, was returned to the Moldavian Principality in 1856. As a result of the unification of the latter with Wallachia, these lands became part ...
(Budjak; ''germ.'' Budschak). In the first settlement phase, up to 1842, twenty-four main German colonies developed. The settlements were put on usually in a valley with gently sloping hills. The farms were up to 50 m wide, and bordered by
acacias
''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus na ...
. While properties were only 20 metres wide at the roadside, they extended up to 250 metres in depth. The elongated, single-storey houses always stood with the
gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...
facing the road. The whitewashed buildings were built of
loam
Loam (in geology and soil science) is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > ), silt (particle size > ), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < ). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand–sil ...
bricks or natural stone. On the farmyard were stables, threshing-rooms and a stockroom and wine cellar. In the rear part of an estate lay fruit and vegetable gardens and vineyards.
Autonomy
The autonomy of the German settlers promised by the Tsar during the recruitment took place via a Russian special authority by the name of ''Fürsorgekomitee'' (Welfare Service Committee), previously ''Vormundschaftskontor''. It was concerned with the settlement of all German settlers in south Russia, with its location initially in
Chişinău, later in
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
. The official language of the department, to which belonged one president and approximately 20 co-workers (an official translator, a physician, a veterinary surgeon, a land measurer and so on), was German. Their presidents were:
The Committee protected the rights of the settlers and supervised their obligations with regard to the Russian government. Underneath the ''Fürsorgekomitee'' there were seventeen offices for those approximately 150 German municipalities, with one selected area chief (''Oberschulz''). Its tasks, among other things, included the administration of the fire service.
Place names
Originally, the plots of land given to the settlers carried only numbers, e.g. "Steppe 9". In the early years of the settlement, the ''Fürsorgekomitee'' began renaming the villages. These designations were reminders of the places of victorious battles against
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
such as
Tarutino,
Borodino
The Battle of Borodino (). took place near the village of Borodino on during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The ' won the battle against the Imperial Russian Army but failed to gain a decisive victory and suffered tremendous losses. Napoleon ...
,
Beresina,
Dennewitz
Dennewitz is a village of Germany, in the federal state and old Prussian province of Brandenburg, near Jüterbog, 40 km. S.W. from Berlin. It is part of the municipality of Niedergörsdorf, Teltow-Fläming district.
History
It is memorable a ...
,
Arzis,
Brienne
The County of Brienne was a medieval county in France centered on Brienne-le-Château.
Counts of Brienne
* Engelbert I
* Engelbert II
* Engelbert III
* Engelbert IV
* Walter I (? – c. 1090)
* Erard I (c. 1090 – c. 1120?)
* Walter II ...
,
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
,
Katzbach and Teplitz, where the
Triple Alliance was signed. Later, after 1842, the settlers began naming their own villages after their own aspirations – ''Hoffnungstal'' (hope valley), ''Friedenstal'' (peace valley) – or religious motives – ''Gnadental'' (grace valley), ''Lichtental'' (light valley). Numerous German establishments of village took on
Romanian
Romanian may refer to:
*anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania
**Romanians, an ethnic group
**Romanian language, a Romance language
*** Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language
** Romanian cuisine, tradition ...
or
Turkish-Tatar origins, such as ''Albota'' (white horse), ''
Basyrjamka'' (salt hole) ''
Kurudschika'' (drying), and ''
Sarata
Sarata (Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and ; ) is an urban-type settlement in Odesa Oblast (region) of south-western Ukraine. It is a part of the Bessarabian historic district of Budjak. Population:
History
Ottoman Period
The Sarata river valley and ...
'' (salty).
Settlement development
Despite the incentives granted early on, the living conditions in the colonies were tough. Unusual climate and diseases extinguished whole families. Cattle disease,
floods, epidemic diseases such as
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pes ...
and
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
, crop failures and swarms of
grasshopper
Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago.
Grasshopp ...
s obstructed reconstruction work. The early dwellings were usually earth houses with reed roofs. Only in later generations a regulated and independent life in economic, cultural and religious areas prevailed in the German settlements. The colloquial language was German, the official language was Russian. Characteristic of the settlers were diligence, religious devotion, large families and thriftiness.
The first twenty-four villages of German emigrants were called "mother colonies". They still developed in the context of the national Russian Colonisation. Those settlements developed after 1842 developed were called "daughter colonies". They were mainly due to the private settlement of native Bessarabians already living in the country. The first 24 colonies were:
Agriculture
![Pudelmützen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Pudelm%C3%BCtzen.jpg)
As ordered by the Tsar during his recruitment, almost all newcomers worked as farmers. Each German family received 60
desyatinas (about 65 hectares) from the state. The settlement area lay in the Bessarabian
black earth belt, whose earth is considered among the best farming land in Europe. As such, fertilisation was not needed. The main crops grown were
wheat
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
and
corn
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
. In some colonies wide
viticulture
Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...
was operated (see
Moldovan wine
Moldova has a well-established wine industry. With a production of around 2 million hectolitres of wine (as of 2018), it is the 11th largest European wine-producing country. Moldova has a vineyard area of of which are used for commercial produ ...
), but most farms only produced enough wine for their own needs.
The Germans operated
animal husbandry
Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starti ...
only to a small extent, because the resulting
dung was not required due to the high soil fertility. Therefore, it was usually dried and used in the winter as fuel.
Shepherd
A shepherd or sheepherder is a person who tends, herds, feeds, or guards flocks of sheep. ''Shepherd'' derives from Old English ''sceaphierde (''sceap'' 'sheep' + ''hierde'' 'herder'). ''Shepherding is one of the world's oldest occupations, i ...
ing was more widespread, especially the fine-wooled
Karakul sheep
Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...
. The men's traditional black skin caps were made from the wool.
Poultry
Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, a ...
farming for self-sufficiency was a matter of course on each individual farm. Unlike other farming people, the Germans used horses instead of oxen for ploughing.
New settlements
![Deutsche Siedlungsgebiete in Osteuropa 1925](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Deutsche_Siedlungsgebiete_in_Osteuropa_1925.jpg)
With the establishment of the last colony (Hoffnungstal) in 1842, the influx of emigrants from Germany ended. Afterwards, a self-colonisation began by private settlement within the country. The boundaries of the twenty-four Mutterkolonies had become limited due to increase in the population. Bessarabian Germans bought or leased land from large Russian landowners and created new villages.
In 1920, two years after the
Union of Bessarabia with Romania
The union of Bessarabia with Romania was proclaimed on by Sfatul Țării, the legislative body of the Moldavian Democratic Republic. This state had the same borders of the region of Bessarabia, which was annexed by the Russian Empire following t ...
, began the Romanian agrarian reform, in which large land owners with more than 100 hectares were expropriated of the land in excess of that. Their property was distributed to the peasants, who each received 6 hectares. Hektardörfer, or hectare-towns sprang up on the free land. Approximately 150 German settlements resulted during the presence of the Germans in Bessarabia between 1814 and 1940.
Departure from Bessarabia
A treaty of Nonaggression between the Soviet Union and Germany, also known as the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
, long_name = Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
, image = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27337, Moskau, Stalin und Ribbentrop im Kreml.jpg
, image_width = 200
, caption = Stalin and Ribbentrop shaking ...
(Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop were the foreign ministers of their respective countries)—was a ten-year non-aggression pact, signed on August 23, 1939, promising that neither country would attack the other. It effectively divided Eastern Europe between Germany and the Soviet Union. By a secret protocol to this treaty, the two parties agreed to partition Poland. Germany would have a free hand in western Poland. The Soviet Union would have in its sphere of influence eastern Poland, which the Soviets called western Ukraine and western White Russia; Finland and the three Baltic states; and the Romanian provinces of Bessarabia
and Northern Bukovina.
For the Germans living in farming settlements in Bessarabia, the German–Soviet Pact was very bad news. They had lived through the Bolshevik Revolution and the early years of the Soviet regime, before their countries of residence were detached from the Soviet Union and given to Romania. Although they did not want to leave their homes and farms, they had absolutely no desire to be Soviet subjects again.
This compelled Nazi Germany to take action and relocate these ethnic Germans. By a further amendment to the treaty, dated September 28, 1939, agreement was reached between Germany and the Soviet Union for a population exchange. Hitler entrusted Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS (Schutzstaffel, Nazi party paramilitary security service) and police, with the task of their resettlement to territories of western Poland, recently occupied by the Wehrmacht (German Army), and in the process of incorporation into the Reich. The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (often shortened to VoMi), a department of the SS, carried out the relocation and settlement of the ethnic Germans, known in German as Volksdeutsche. In return, any Russian, White Russian, or Ukrainian living in German-occupied Poland had the right to be resettled in the Soviet Union. As this was a voluntary movement, it was all in one westward direction.
Resettlement implementation was carried out by teams made up of SS officers and their Soviet counterparts, who interviewed each family individually to ensure that it was of German origin and wanted to be evacuated. The ethnic Germans greeted these teams with enthusiasm and attempted to document their German heritage by any means. Cooperation of the Soviet officials was sometimes positive and sometimes obstructionist, as many non-German anticommunists also tried to leave, usually without success.
The population transfer began in the Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia, where 66,000 and 20,000 people, respectively, settled in Germany in the late fall of 1939. The Nazi government was disappointed in the quality of these immigrants. They wanted farmers to colonize the newly conquered lands in the Polish West, not urban residents, many of whom were elderly and without children. In winter 1939–1940, about 60,000 ethnic Germans were brought from Volhynia, western Ukraine, first to a transit camp in Lodz in occupied Poland, and because the majority of these settlers were farmers, they were sent to the former Polish provinces of Poznan (Posen), now renamed the German province of Warthegau, or to West Prussia, the region bordering Gdansk (Danzig). The evacuees who were not suitable for farming were settled elsewhere in Germany.
At the end of September 1940, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to transfer Germans living in the Romanian provinces of Bessarabia and Bukovina, now occupied by the Red Army. By the end of October of that year, this resettlement was practically complete, with a total of 124,000 ethnic Germans transferred to the Reich. The total number of ethnic Germans resettled
into the Reich has been estimated by some historians at 500,000. On arrival in the Reich, most of the resettled Germans were given German citizenship, and the young men were drafted into the Wehrmacht. In accordance with Nazi racist theories of Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil),the goal was to settle the annexed eastern lands with German farmers; the majority were placed on farms in the Warthegau, formerly the Polish province of Poznan, and a smaller number in the former Polish territory of West Prussia. In order to accomplish this, the SS and German army began to expel Polish farmers from these lands, and German re-settlers took over their houses and farms. In their place, 332,000 German evacuees, mostly farmers, were settled on these lands.
Escape to West Germany
With the close of the war, most of the resettled Germans in West Prussia and Poznan fled before the approaching Soviet Red Army towards Germany.
Bessarabia German institutions
Church
Church and religion shaped the life of all Bessarabian Germans, because many of their ancestors had once left their German homeland for religious reasons. Abroad they kept the
German language
German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...
in use in the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
and in the Hymn books. In newly founded villages, places of worship were the first communal facilities to be created. In larger municipalities this was a
church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* C ...
for up to 1,000 visitors, in smaller municipalities this was a praying house, in which the dwelling of the
Sexton and the village school were included as well. The colonists paid for the maintenance of the church, school, Sexton and teacher (usually a Sexton-teacher in dual functions).
The majority of the approximately 150 German settlements were organized in 13 ''Kirchspielen'' (
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...
es) and three ''Pfarrgemeinden'' of
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
denomination. Each parish had a minister, who was responsible for several villages within the parish. Besides there was
Reformed
Reform is beneficial change
Reform may also refer to:
Media
* ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang
* Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group
* ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine
*''Reforme'' ("Reforms"), initial name of the ...
parish (Schabo) and a
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
church district with four municipalities (Balmas, Emmental, Krasna, Larga). These belonged to the diocese
Cherson, which was created on July 3, 1848. The name of the
diocese
In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...
was changed to
Tiraspol
Tiraspol or Tirișpolea ( ro, Tiraspol, Moldovan Cyrillic: Тираспол, ; russian: Тира́споль, ; uk, Тирасполь, Tyraspol') is the capital of Transnistria (''de facto''), a breakaway state of Moldova, where it is the th ...
shortly after. The seat of the diocese was relocated to
Saratow
Saratov (, ; rus, Сара́тов, a=Ru-Saratov.ogg, p=sɐˈratəf) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Saratov Oblast, Russia, and a major port on the Volga River upstream (north) of Volgo ...
by the first bishop Ferdinand Helanus, where it remained until 1918. Bishop
Josef Alois Kessler
Joseph Aloysius Kessler (german: Josef Alois Kessler, russian: Иосиф Алоиз Кесслер; August 12, 1862 – December 10, 1933) was the last bishop of the Diocese of Tiraspol (Russia) and the last Volga German bishop till Bishop Joseph ...
relocated the seat to
Odessa
Odesa (also spelled Odessa) is the third most populous city and municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The city is also the administrativ ...
to escape the
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
, but after their victory he fled to Germany in 1921 and the diocese was disbanded in the
Soviet Republic.
Educational facilities
On the lowest level there were elementary schools in the German villages. In the first years usually someone from the village taught the school children, until 1892, when only graduate teachers were allowed to teach. A gymnasium (grammar school) for boys and girls was located in
Tarutino. In
Sarata
Sarata (Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and ; ) is an urban-type settlement in Odesa Oblast (region) of south-western Ukraine. It is a part of the Bessarabian historic district of Budjak. Population:
History
Ottoman Period
The Sarata river valley and ...
the Werner school for teacher training was located.
People
*
Horst Köhler
Horst Köhler (; born 22 February 1943) is a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU (of which he is ...
(born 1943)
*
Heinrich Lhotzky
Heinrich Lhotzky otski(April 21, 1859 in Klausnitz/ Claußnitz – November 24, 1930 in Ludwigshafen am Bodensee) was a German-born Protestant author (''religiöser Schriftsteller'').
He acted as a pastor for German settlers in Bessarabia
...
(1859–1930)
*
Immanuel Winkler Adolf Immanuel Mathäus Winkler (June 3, 1886 in Sarata – June 18, 1932 in Winnipeg) was a pastor in Hoffnungstal (now Tsebrykove, Ukraine) and author. During World War I, Winkler worked for the rights of Germans in Russia.
Life
Immanuel Winkler ...
(1886–1932), official representative of Bessarabia Germans
[PA AA R 10591 (Telegram from April 23, 1918)]
See also
*
Black Sea Germans
The Black Sea Germans (german: Schwarzmeerdeutsche; russian: черноморские немцы; uk, чорноморські німці) are ethnic Germans who left their homelands (starting in the late-18th century, but mainly in the e ...
*
Germans of Romania
The Germans of Romania (german: Rumäniendeutsche; ro, Germanii din România) represent one of the most significant historical Minorities of Romania, ethnic minorities of Romania. During Kingdom of Romania#The interbellum years, the interwar pe ...
References
External links
mein-bessarabien.deColonization policy in BessarabiaBessarabia & Dobrudscha Germansat grhs.org
Germans from Russia Heritage Collectionat library.ndsu.edu
American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, LIncoln, Nebraska
Germans from Russia Settlement Locations Google Map
{{Authority control
*
German diaspora in Europe
Germans
, native_name_lang = de
, region1 =
, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
Ethnic German groups in Romania
Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina
Ethnic German people from the Russian Empire