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200 Years of Mass Immigration of Germans to the
Black Sea Region
Continued from Volk auf dem Weg, December,
2003, pages 28-29
by Anton Bosch, "Historical Research Society of Germans from
Russia"
200 Jahre Massseneinwanderung der Deutschen in das Schwarzmeergebiet
Fortsetzung von Volk auf dem Weg, Dezember, 2003,
Seite 28-29
von Anton Bosch, "Historischer Forschungsverein der
Deustchen aus Russland"
Volk auf dem Weg, Landsmannschaft der Deutschen
aus Russland, Stuttgart, Germany, January, 2004, pages 28-29
Translation from German to English by Alex Herzog,
Boulder, Colorado
The scholar from Dnyepropetrovsk, Bobyleva, commanded a remarkable
degree of attentiveness with her scientifically sound lecture on the
emergence of the cliche-like negative image of "the German"
during the first half of the 19th Century, when Russian Nationalism
was also emerging and Slavophiles began to appear on the scene. The
well-known scientific historian represented the thesis that the basis
for the smear campaign in Russia had already been laid through the
newly emerged Russian nationalism, which later found became arrested
in its own development.
These two controversial directions in research provided the participants
in the conference with an immediate impetus toward delving more deeply
into the phenomenon of the "German-Russians."
All in all, the conference -- despite several cancellations of presentations
that had been announced earlier -- ended up being a successful event.
After all, Germans constitute merely 0.1 percent of the total population
of today's Ukraine, which, between 1929 and 1945, two totalitarian
regimes made an essentially "German-free zone." And the
succeeding regimes did not keep their promises to allow the Germans
to make the Black Sea Region their home once again.
Following the conclusion of the conference, participants had the opportunity
to take a bus trip to the former Kutschurgan area settlements (Strassburg,
Baden, Selz, Kandel, Elsass, and Mannheim). The trip revealed a pathetic
picture of decline and decay. Everywhere, there were ruins, crumbled
homes, pieces of former church walls, and destroyed cemeteries; and
as a crowning image, the village streets that were "seeded"
with deep potholes. The appearance, of former German villages, now
disturbed further by chaotically planted and wildly overgrown poplar
trees, was unrecognizable. In contrast, the entirety of former village
school buildings and deep cellars appear to be in well-maintained
condition! Residents, we were assured, like taking care and making
good use of these buildings.
The villages of Franzfeld (Nadlimanskoye) and Ovidiopol at the estuary
of the Dneypr River presented a similarly depressing image. We were
shown the by now abandoned former German cemetery of Franzfeld, in
the midst of a wildly growing forest at the edge of the settlement.
It was here that, in the summer of 2001, inside a pile of rubble and
refuse, remaining pieces of the grave of Bishop Anton Zerr's parents
had been rediscovered. They were now safe. The current residents,
by the way, freely offered their decidedly sparse information, something
like "In earlier times there were our own local Germans here,"
not realizing that we were in fact the latest representatives of that
"species."
The decay is also demonstrated by buildings that had been erected
during Soviet times, all of them of questionable quality.
We were especially upset over the formerly economically vibrant colony
of Lustdorf, which today is part of the city of Odessa, but at least
via a station of the local tram has preserved its name (Lustdorfskaya!).
In vain was our search for the former church building, until an elderly
man told us that the church had been razed to the very ground about
17 years back, at the behest of the mayor, and that a school had been
built on its site.
The only remaining witnesses of former glory are the hundred-years-old
acacia trees that, now as before, just as in the center of Odessa,
indestructibly adorn the edges of the streets. On the other hand,
dilapidated buildings witness the decay of a formerly glorious settlement.
Unfortunately, photos of older Lustdorf circa 1914, still available
in bookstores, just as the greater number of scientific conferences
held at this time, are of little use when theoretical results are
not followed up with action. A reconstruction effort of the former
Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Odessa has been debated over thirty
years by now, yet any kind of effort at an actual rebuilding project,
any sign of action representing good intentions, remains unrecognized.
When will declarations of intent become practical measures?!
Our appreciation is extended to Alex Herzog for translation
of this article. |
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