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From:
Subject: Re: [G-T] Re: The Germans in "Russia"
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 10:09:27 EST



Hello and some additional thoughts from Germany !

< Many Germans had fled to Russia and had established "colonies" as far <east
as the Volga River to escape the military conscription and wars <
(Schleswig-Holstein conflict, 1864; Seven Weeks War, 1866; and
<Franco-Prussian War, 1870-71)

Already in 1764 the so-called "Wolgadeutschen" = Wolga Germans, settled in
Russia, invited by Czar Katharina II.(she was a German princess, married the
Czar and took over government) Most of them came from the Rhine area,
Hessia, Palatin, Netherlands and Switzerland, also from Bavaria, Swabia and
Saxony. Before WW I there lived about 700 000 with German roots and they kept
their German language and customs.
So called "Volksdeutsche" resettled in Germany after WW I, and even today
every year hundredthousands so called "Aussiedler"-families come to Germany
from the Russian republics. Often they have German names, but speak no single
word German. ( especially some boys make a lot of problems here).

In the 1660er (after the 30year war) there was a lot of emigration already,
(for ex. from Palatin to Prussia ) because there were some areas with few
men, killed by Swedish or Emperors landsquenets and by pestilence. They
recieved land and could earn their living. Nearly all emigration had
economical reasons. Only rather few emigrated for their believe. The American
word "Wanderlust" ( it is not in use in Germany, or only has the meaning
:"fun during a walk" !) is not the main reason for emigration, but escape
from poverty.
Intellectual emigration took place around the disappointing 1848 revolution,
and the Texan Latin Colony is well known to you, but they were not very
noumerous.

Before WW II the Emperor Wilhelm II indeed had military dreams His new fleet
was his 'favourit toy', and it was a fashion to dress all kids like marine
sailors. But it was a time full with possibilities for educated persons, arts
and sciences, and the academic youth was filled with enthusiasm and marched
into war as volunteers.

<Germany had taken the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine away from the
<French during the Franco-Prussian War.
European history is much more complicated, and there is no "Germany" before
1871. Until 1815 there were more then 150 rulers in the German speaking
countries . Alliances changed very often and areas changed their owners.
Sometimes by war, sometimes by marriage.
All European kings and rulers were cousins ! !

<The "German Confederation" under Bismarck also inluded Posen, actually <
formerly a good chunk of Poland, and the Baltic provinces of East Prussia <
and West Prussia, which were, in effect, Russian.

....areas changed their owners. Only for example : Poland belonged to Saxony
for some time . The first occupator of Alsace-Lorraine already was CAESAR in
58 BC, then it changed at least (! !) 10 times until it was taken by French
Emperor Napoleon about 1800 - it became German - French- German - French.
Hannover, Italy, Netherlands etc. became French in some time, Northern Italy
was Austrian, and so on.....
East-Prussia originally was the homeland of the Prussian rulers, later the
Prussians even owned areas in the Rhine area.

> <One of Bismarck’s first moves to ensure peace in
> Germany had been to resurrect the old "Holy Alliance" of Germany’s past;
> through his League of Emperors, he rejoined Austria, Germany, and Russia
>

Modern historians believe that perhaps (?) Bismarck could have avoided WW I
with these pacts.Would have saved a lot of crying widows....
>
> Poland began to flex its own muscles and gain representation in the
> German parliament, Bismarck forced through a law that expelled all Poles
> from inside the boundaries of the former German Confederation. Ethnic
> Poles were replaced in the easternmost provinces of Germany (primarily
>

History always seem to repeat. After WW II it were the Polish and the Russian
who drove out the German inhabitants from all land east of the river Oder. 7
Millions had to fled westwards under terrible conditions in 1945, more then 1
Million died.

> Academic freedom suffered in the process, and the German
> public turned away from politics more drastically than it had even after
> the breakdown of the 1848 revolution. In effect, philosophy, poetry,
> romanticism, and musical expression stagnated and fell victim to a
>

That was only within the early years after the 1848 revolution. After
founding the German Empire 1871 there was a big booming economy !!!!

> ...... hopes for reform blazed a new as Crown Prince
>

He called himself Emperor Friedrich III. I think it must have been he, who
was member of the "stock company" Adelsverein, and gave the name for
Friedrichsburg = Fredericksburg, although he was a little boy in that time,
but the highest ranked person.

>
> <He immediately began increasing the size of the German military – again
> <

Of course, there was universal conscription, like in most European countries
until today !! It was investigated by the Prussians in about 1810.

> < Educated and working class Germans, with a view of a probable future <
> filled with war and bereft of personal
> <freedoms, again began to exit the country on a scale comparable to that
> <of 1846 and 1847 and after the purge of 1848 and 1849. Once again,
> <during the late 1800s and early 1900s, young and educated Germans fled
> <

see above ! And : Of course, no German would come to Texas in the years of
Civil War and reconstruction. After 1871 came increasing economy for Germans
and nearly 50 years without war. Never forget the overpopulation as a reason
for emigration.
>
> <........already had "cousins" in Texas, and those cousins had always
> <been profuse in praise of their "New Fatherland."
>

Yes, many came because of family connections. It is not so well known that
plenty of US-immigrants returned home after their big disappointment, when
they could effort. There were some special clubs to support disappointed
immigrants and kept them from starving in the Eastern US countries.
Most people, of course, stayed here in Germany and live quite happy like my
family and me.

Gisela Laudi, from Kiel at the Baltic Sea / Northern Germany
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Visit my website: www.GiselaLaudi.de

About my genealogical/historical fiction novel "I am Justina Tubbe".
She was a weavers wife in the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1855 she immigrated to
Nacogdoches/Texas in the age of 60 years.

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