OCTOBER 2002

JOSEF HEIGHT Born in 1909, Saskatchewan, Canada Died in 1979, Franklin, Indiana, USA Historian, Researcher of Culture, Writer

"Everything is transitory, but nobody can take away from us our memories and our history!" (Georg Marquardt)

Holidays: Tag der dt. Einheit, Day of German Unity
_________Erntedankfest, Harvest Thanksgiving Celebration
_________Reformationstag, Reformation Day

DR. JOSEPH S. HEIGHT

In each area of research there are always outstanding figures that distinguish themselves from the others. As a researcher and author of several books on the history and culture of the German-Russians, Dr. Joseph Height was a giant and a leading historian among those authors who wrote about this topic in English and in the German mother tongue (dialect). He dedicated himself fully and completely to the study and promotion of knowledge about the more than 200 year history of the Germans in Russia, a chief task that he intensively pursued as a writer and translator for 25 years. The results of his research activities on German-Russian heritage are vividly preserved in his books for thousands of readers in the New World and for all German-Russians worldwide. The fruit of his efforts will win him the affection of all those who are interested in their ancestry and who cherish their own heritage. Who was Joseph Height?

He was the son of true pioneers. His ancestors immigrated to South Russia at the beginning of the 19th century and settled there as colonists. Among them was his ancestor, Konstantin Heidt of Kaidenburg, Alsace, who along with his mother Katharina, settled in Mannheim, Kutschurgan district (volost), at the age of 23. A few generations later Joseph Height's grandfather, Lambert Heidt, joined the exodus out of Russia, emigrated to the United States of America and settled in the state of North Dakota.

Since the soil and climatic conditions were not especially suited for growing grain, the settlers had to look around for better land. The prairie land in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, which was released for cultivation in 1905, seemed more suitable for agriculture so a mass emigration to this region set in. In spring 1906, 34 colonist families from the Kutschurgan area, among them Height's grandfather, Lambert Heidt, set off with "bag and baggage" and their livestock. First they traveled on a railroad car, made especially available to them, to the province of Saskatchewan in western Canada, which they reached after a long train journey. From the station they traveled four more days with a caravan consisting of 45 teams of oxen and horses until they reached their destination in the middle of the prairie, where they founded the village of Tramping.

Joseph S. Height was born there on 23 December 1909, the oldest child of the family of Balthasar and Appolonia Heidt. After he completed elementary school in Tramping Lake, Joseph Height was a student at St. John's College in Edmonton in the province of Alberta from 1923 to 1929. Afterward he completed his education in philosophy and history during three years in Germany. After his return to Canada, Height taught Latin and German for several years at St. Paul's College in the city of Winnipeg, the capital of the province of Manitoba. During WW II he gave lessons in private schools in Victoria and Vancouver near the Pacific Ocean. At the same time he completed his knowledge at the University of Vancouver, province of British Columbia, where he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1944 and was awarded the Master of Arts in the fields of German and philosophy. Afterward he did further study at the University of California in Berkeley, USA, where he received his doctoral degree in philosophy in 1948. Following this, he taught as professor of German in various universities in the USA and Canada over a period of 28 years.

After his retirement he received the title "Professor Emeritus" for his services. Height wrote several books on the history and culture of the German-Russians: Paradise on the Steppe (1975) about 17 Catholic colonies, and Homesteaders on the Steppe (1975) about 16 Evangelical-Lutheran mother colonies near Odessa, Folksongs of our Forefathers (1977), A Treasury of Songs, with Collected Notes (1978), Memories of the Black Sea Germans (1979). His unpublished booklet, Die Muddersproch (the Mother Tongue, 1975) is invaluable for the study of German-Russian dialects.

Joseph Height (Heidt) died on 12 April 1979, and was buried in Franklin, Indiana, USA.

German text by Anneliese Height