Caucasus Germans
Encyclopedia
Caucasus Germans are part of the German minority in Russia and the Soviet Union
. They migrated to the Caucasus
largely in the first half of the 19th century and settled in the North Caucasus
, Georgia
, Azerbaijan
, Armenia
, and in the region of Kars
(present-day Turkey
). In 1941, the majority of them were subject to deportation to Central Asia
and Siberia
during the Stalinist population transfer in the Soviet Union
.
. However poor infrastructure
, lack of organization of the officials responsible for the settlement, and the refusal of the military personnel to have these lands populated by non-Russians were an obstacle to steady and constant migration of the Germans. By the late 1840s there were 5 German colonies in the North Caucasus. The migration waves (especially to Don Voisko Province
) grew beginning in the second half of the 19th century with the capitalist influence on farming in Russia. Germans would immigrate not only from the regions adjacent to the Volga River
but also from the Black Sea region
and Germany
. By the time of the October Revolution
, there were over 200 German colonies in the North Caucasus; of those over 100 were in Rostov Oblast
, 60 in Stavropol Krai
and around 20 in Krasnodar Krai
. In 1942 more than 160,000 Germans were deported from these entities as well as from elsewhere in the North Caucasus and the Don region (Kabardino-Balkaria
, Kalmykia
, North Ossetia, Dagestan
, and Checheno-Ingushetia
).
The majority of the Germans of this region adhered to various branches of Protestantism
, most commonly Lutheranism
, Mennonitism and Baptism
. Roman Catholics formed a minority and lived in 6 colonies.
In 1815, while participating in the Congress of Vienna
, Russian emperor Alexander I
visited Stuttgart
, a city in his mother's native Kingdom of Württemberg
. Upon witnessing the oppression that local peasants were undergoing either due to belonging to different non-Lutheran Protestant sects or to their participation in separatist movements, he arranged for their settlement in Tiflis suburbs in order to form agricultural colonies. On September 21, 1818 the first German settlement in the South Caucasus
, Marienfeld, was established by a group of Swabia
n Germans. Two months later another group of colonists founded another settlement on the bank of the Asureti River and named it Elisabethtal, after the Emperor's wife Elisabeth Alexeievna. Within the next year 5 more colonies were established: New Tiflis (now part of Tbilisi
), Alexandersdorf, Petersdorf and Katharinenfeld
. Three more colonies were founded in Abkhazia
: Neudorf, Gnadenberg and Lindau.
From 1906 to 1922 Kurt von Kutschenbach published the German-language newspaper Kaukasische Post
, that called itself the "only German newspaper in the Caucasus". Editor-in-chief was the writer and journalist Arthur Leist
.
In the later years the number of German colonies increased; by 1918 Germans lived in over 20 towns. Most of them had German names and were renamed between the 1920s and the 1940s. By the time of the deportation there were more than 24,000 Germans living in Georgia. From October 1941 to April 1942, most of Georgia’s German families, in total 19,186 people, were deported by the Soviet authorities from the republic.
In the winter of 1818–1819, 194 Swabian German
families arrived to Elisabethpol (official name for Ganja
in 1805–1918) from Tiflis. They were granted land 6 kilometres to the west of the city and founded the town of Helenendorf (present-day Goygol
) in the summer of 1819. Another German settlement, the town of Annenfeld (later merged with the city of Shamkir
) was founded almost simultaneously 40 kilometres away from Helenendorf. Beginning in the 1880s six more German colonies were established throughout Elisabethpol Governorate
: Georgsfeld
in 1888, Alexejewka
in 1902, Grünfeld and Eichenfeld in 1906, Traubenfeld
in 1912, and Jelisawetinka
in 1914. They became populated mostly by the descendents of the Germans from the two older colonies. By 1918 according to the German consul in Constantinople
, there were 6,000 Germans living in the colonies overall.
Commonly referred to as nemsə (from the Russian немец – "German") by the local Azeri population, Germans in Elisabethpol Governorate were traditionally engaged in farming, however starting from 1860 viticulture
was becoming more and more important in the life of the German agricultural communities. By the end of the 19th century 58% of the region's wine production was manufactured
by the Vohrer Brothers and the Hummel Brothers of Helenendorf.
Helenendorf became the primary spiritual centre for the Germans of the 8 colonies. The oldest Lutheran church in Azerbaijan, St. John's Church was built in this town in 1857. Other Lutheran churches were built in Gadabay
, Shamakhi
, Baku
and Annenfeld in 1868, 1869, 1897 and 1911 respectively. The ceremony of laying the first stone of Baku's German Church of the Saviour
was attended by Emanuel Nobel
, brother of Alfred Nobel
, and other members of the city's elite.
Germans became an active and well-integrated community in Azerbaijan
. Azeri
was often spoken as a second or third language among them. During the brief of Azerbaijan
's independence in 1918–1920 the centenary of Helenendorf was marked by public celebration within the community. The German community was also represented in the parliament of the republic
by Lorenz Kuhn, a Helenendorf-born oil industry businessman. With the establishment of the Soviet power in Azerbaijan, the Communist government seated in Moscow
gradually ordered to rename all German-sounding place-names by the mid-1930s. By the time of the deportation in 1941, there were over 23,000 Germans living in Azerbaijan.
Richard Sorge
, the famous ethnic German Soviet spy
, was born in the suburb of Baku in 1895. His father was a German mining engineer who worked for the Caucasian Oil Company. Sorge is considered to have been one of the best Soviet spies in Japan
before and during World War II
and he was posthumously awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union
. The city of Baku dedicated to him a monument and a park.
. Although Caucasus Germans did indeed move to Armenia and had a presence there, most settlements were scattered and no German colonies were firmly established in the region. Most maintained their own schools, churches and cultural institutions in Soviet Armenia
. In 1926, the German community in Armenia numbered 104 persons. By 1939, this numbered increased to 433 (still low compared to its neighboring regions).
Similarly, during World War II, Armenia's 212 Germans were deported to Kazakhstan on the pretext that their loyalties were with Germany, even though this was not the case. Thus Armenia's German population never exceeded 500 people in the following decades; that number has been on constant decline since 1970. This decrease was accelerated by Armenia's independence in 1991.
(Kars Province) by resettling fellow Orthodox Pontic Greeks as well as non-Orthodox Armenians, Germans, and Estonians in the area. In 1891 a further number of German families were resettled in Kars from around Tiflis and established the village of Petrowka. Its population remained relatively low and consisted of about 200 people by 1911. Another two colonies in the province, Wladikars and Estonka, were founded between 1911 and 1914. Their population was mostly engaged in milk production, while other Caucasus German communities were engaged in mining. These settlements were short-lived as with the Russian-Ottoman military confrontation in 1914 (following the outbreak of World War I
), most of the remaining German settlers from Kars Oblast were evacuated to Eichenfeld (see History in Azerbaijan. Small numbers of Caucasus Germans had, however, assimilated through intermarriage with other local Christian communities, while a few of those intent on remaining in Kars province during and after the war are even said to have converted to Islam (in common with some Pontic Greeks and Armenians of the area) and assimilated into the indigenous Muslim communities.
of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia in 1920–1921, the Soviet government pursued the goal of eliminating the German cultural presence in the region by closing down German schools and changing German-souding names of virtually all the colonies. After the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, it was a matter of one week that almost 200,000 Caucasus Germans got deported to remote regions of Kazakhstan
and Siberia. The only ones not subject to deportation were German women who were married to non-Germans. Even though soon after Joseph Stalin's death in 1953 the ban for the majority of the deported peoples to return to Europe was lifted, relatively few returned. In 1979 there were only 46,979 Germans living in both North and South Caucasus.
beliefs, so as a result the New Apostolic Church
works intensively with these young people as part of its regular youth programs.
The German community of Armenia, though heavily Russified
and numbering less than 100 families, has been working closely with the German Educational and Cultural Center of Armenia to help organize German language schools, cultural events, etc.
In Azerbaijan, the remaining Germans are concentrated in the capital city of Baku, and many belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Community restored and officially registered in the early 1990s. The last German resident of Goygol (Helenendorf), Viktor Klein, died in 2007. In 2009, the non-functioning Lutheran church in Shamkir (Annenfeld) used as a community centre
in the Soviet times was renovated and turned into a museum.
History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union
The German minority in Russia and the Soviet Union was created from several sources and in several waves. The 1914 census puts the number of Germans living in Russian Empire at 2,416,290. In 1989, the German population of the Soviet Union was roughly 2 million. In the 2002 Russian census, 597,212...
. They migrated to the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
largely in the first half of the 19th century and settled in the North Caucasus
North Caucasus
The North Caucasus is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Black and Caspian Seas and within European Russia. The term is also used as a synonym for the North Caucasus economic region of Russia....
, Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
, Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
, and in the region of Kars
Kars
Kars is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. The population of the city is 73,826 as of 2010.-Etymology:As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography as part of ancient Armenia...
(present-day Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
). In 1941, the majority of them were subject to deportation to Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
and Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
during the Stalinist population transfer in the Soviet Union
Population transfer in the Soviet Union
Population transfer in the Soviet Union may be classified into the following broad categories: deportations of "anti-Soviet" categories of population, often classified as "enemies of workers," deportations of entire nationalities, labor force transfer, and organized migrations in opposite...
.
North Caucasus
The end of the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) ensured Russia's expansion into the Caucasus and created a need in populating these lands with Russian subjects in order to hasten its exploration. In the late 18th century the government permitted families of Volga Germans to settle in KubanKuban
Kuban is a geographic region of Southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, Volga Delta and the Caucasus...
. However poor infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
, lack of organization of the officials responsible for the settlement, and the refusal of the military personnel to have these lands populated by non-Russians were an obstacle to steady and constant migration of the Germans. By the late 1840s there were 5 German colonies in the North Caucasus. The migration waves (especially to Don Voisko Province
Don Voisko Province
Don Voisko Province of Imperial Russia was the official name of the territory of Don Cossacks, roughly coinciding with today's Rostov Oblast of Russia. Its center was Cherkassk, later Novocherkassk....
) grew beginning in the second half of the 19th century with the capitalist influence on farming in Russia. Germans would immigrate not only from the regions adjacent to the Volga River
Volga River
The Volga is the largest river in Europe in terms of length, discharge, and watershed. It flows through central Russia, and is widely viewed as the national river of Russia. Out of the twenty largest cities of Russia, eleven, including the capital Moscow, are situated in the Volga's drainage...
but also from the Black Sea region
Black Sea Germans
The Black Sea Germans are ethnic Germans who left their homeland in the 18th and 19th centuries, and settled in territories off the north coast of the Black Sea, mostly in southern Ukraine...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. By the time of the October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, there were over 200 German colonies in the North Caucasus; of those over 100 were in Rostov Oblast
Rostov Oblast
Rostov Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , located in the Southern Federal District. Rostov Oblast has an area of and a population of making it the sixth most populous federal subject in Russia...
, 60 in Stavropol Krai
Stavropol Krai
Stavropol Krai is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Stavropol. Population: -Geography:Stavropol Krai encompasses the central part of the Fore-Caucasus and most of the northern slopes of Caucasus Major...
and around 20 in Krasnodar Krai
Krasnodar Krai
-External links:* **...
. In 1942 more than 160,000 Germans were deported from these entities as well as from elsewhere in the North Caucasus and the Don region (Kabardino-Balkaria
Kabardino-Balkaria
The Kabardino-Balkar Republic , or Kabardino-Balkaria , is a federal subject of Russia located in the North Caucasus. Population: -Geography:The republic is situated in the North Caucasus mountains, with plains in the northern part....
, Kalmykia
Kalmykia
The Republic of Kalmykia is a federal subject of Russia . Population: It is the only Buddhist region in Europe. It has also become well-known as an international chess mecca because its former President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, is the head of the International Chess Federation .-Geography:*Area:...
, North Ossetia, Dagestan
Dagestan
The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...
, and Checheno-Ingushetia
Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
The Chechen–Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, or Chechen–Ingush ASSR ;) was an autonomous republic within the Russian SFSR...
).
The majority of the Germans of this region adhered to various branches of Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
, most commonly Lutheranism
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
, Mennonitism and Baptism
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
. Roman Catholics formed a minority and lived in 6 colonies.
Georgia
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
, Russian emperor Alexander I
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
visited Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, a city in his mother's native Kingdom of Württemberg
Kingdom of Württemberg
The Kingdom of Württemberg was a state that existed from 1806 to 1918, located in present-day Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It was a continuation of the Duchy of Württemberg, which came into existence in 1495...
. Upon witnessing the oppression that local peasants were undergoing either due to belonging to different non-Lutheran Protestant sects or to their participation in separatist movements, he arranged for their settlement in Tiflis suburbs in order to form agricultural colonies. On September 21, 1818 the first German settlement in the South Caucasus
South Caucasus
The South Caucasus is a geopolitical region located on the border of Eastern Europe and Southwest Asia also referred to as Transcaucasia, or The Trans-Caucasus...
, Marienfeld, was established by a group of Swabia
Swabia
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...
n Germans. Two months later another group of colonists founded another settlement on the bank of the Asureti River and named it Elisabethtal, after the Emperor's wife Elisabeth Alexeievna. Within the next year 5 more colonies were established: New Tiflis (now part of Tbilisi
Tbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
), Alexandersdorf, Petersdorf and Katharinenfeld
Bolnisi
Bolnisi , is a city in the country of Georgia, located in the Kvemo Kartli region and capital of the Bolnisi district. Currently has an estimated 13,800 inhabitants....
. Three more colonies were founded in Abkhazia
Abkhazia
Abkhazia is a disputed political entity on the eastern coast of the Black Sea and the south-western flank of the Caucasus.Abkhazia considers itself an independent state, called the Republic of Abkhazia or Apsny...
: Neudorf, Gnadenberg and Lindau.
From 1906 to 1922 Kurt von Kutschenbach published the German-language newspaper Kaukasische Post
Kaukasische Post
The Kaukasische Post is a bi-monthly German language newspaper in Georgia in the Caucasus. The first issue was published on 18 June 1906 by Kurt von Kutschenbach and edited by the writer and journalist Arthur Leist in Tbilisi...
, that called itself the "only German newspaper in the Caucasus". Editor-in-chief was the writer and journalist Arthur Leist
Arthur Leist
Arthur Leist was a German writer, journalist and translator of Georgian and Armenian literature.He was born and educated at Breslau. During the Russo-Turkish War , he got interested in the Caucasus. After his three visits to Georgia between 1884 and 1892, Leist decided to permanently settle in...
.
In the later years the number of German colonies increased; by 1918 Germans lived in over 20 towns. Most of them had German names and were renamed between the 1920s and the 1940s. By the time of the deportation there were more than 24,000 Germans living in Georgia. From October 1941 to April 1942, most of Georgia’s German families, in total 19,186 people, were deported by the Soviet authorities from the republic.
Azerbaijan
Swabian German
Swabian is one of the Alemannic dialects of High German. It is spoken in Swabia, a region which covers much of Germany's southwestern state Baden-Württemberg, including its capital Stuttgart, the rural area known as the Swabian Alb, and Bavaria...
families arrived to Elisabethpol (official name for Ganja
Ganja, Azerbaijan
Ganja is Azerbaijan's second-largest city with a population of around 313,300. It was named Yelizavetpol in the Russian Empire period. The city regained its original name—Ganja—from 1920–1935 during the first part of its incorporation into the Soviet Union. However, its name was changed again and...
in 1805–1918) from Tiflis. They were granted land 6 kilometres to the west of the city and founded the town of Helenendorf (present-day Goygol
Goygol (city)
Goygol is a city and municipality in and the capital of the Goygol Rayon in northwestern Azerbaijan. It is about 10 km south of Ganja, Azerbaijan's second largest city. The city of Goygol has a population of 19,000...
) in the summer of 1819. Another German settlement, the town of Annenfeld (later merged with the city of Shamkir
Shamkir
Shamkir is a rayon in Azerbaijan. It is located in the northwestern part of the Azerbaijan Republic. The rayon was previously called "Shamkhor" during the Soviet rule and was renamed to Shamkir only in 1991 after restoration of independence of Azerbaijan. The district was established in 1930...
) was founded almost simultaneously 40 kilometres away from Helenendorf. Beginning in the 1880s six more German colonies were established throughout Elisabethpol Governorate
Elisabethpol Governorate
Elisabethpol Governorate or Elizavetpol Governorate was one of the guberniyas of the Russian Empire, with its centre in Elisabethpol . Its area was 44,136 sq. kilometres, and it had 878,415 inhabitants by 1897....
: Georgsfeld
Irmasli
İrmaşlı is a village and municipality in the Shamkir Rayon of Azerbaijan. It has a population of 4,001....
in 1888, Alexejewka
Alekseyevka, Agstafa
Alekseyevka is a village in the Agstafa Rayon of Azerbaijan....
in 1902, Grünfeld and Eichenfeld in 1906, Traubenfeld
Tovuz, Azerbaijan
Tovuz is the capital of Tovuz in Azerbaijan.-History:The city takes its name from the turkic Oghuz tribe....
in 1912, and Jelisawetinka
Agstafa
-Overview:Agstafa raion was created on 24 January 1939 as an independent administrative unit out of larger Qazakh region of Azerbaijan. On 4 December 1959, the status of the raion was abolished and it was incorporated into Qazakh Rayon...
in 1914. They became populated mostly by the descendents of the Germans from the two older colonies. By 1918 according to the German consul in Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, there were 6,000 Germans living in the colonies overall.
Commonly referred to as nemsə (from the Russian немец – "German") by the local Azeri population, Germans in Elisabethpol Governorate were traditionally engaged in farming, however starting from 1860 viticulture
Viticulture
Viticulture is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture...
was becoming more and more important in the life of the German agricultural communities. By the end of the 19th century 58% of the region's wine production was manufactured
Azerbaijani wine
Azerbaijani wine is produced in several regions throughout Azerbaijan. Prior to 20th century communist rule, Azerbaijan had a thriving wine industry that dated back to the second millennium BC...
by the Vohrer Brothers and the Hummel Brothers of Helenendorf.
Helenendorf became the primary spiritual centre for the Germans of the 8 colonies. The oldest Lutheran church in Azerbaijan, St. John's Church was built in this town in 1857. Other Lutheran churches were built in Gadabay
Gadabay
Gadabay is a rayon of Azerbaijan renowned for its potatoes and its gold fields. The famous Siemens company worked here in the Tsarist era claiming that they were exporting copper. However it has been recently revealed that in fact they were actually secretly exporting gold...
, Shamakhi
Shamakhi
Shamakhi or Shamakhy is a rayon of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and a town in the rayon. It is the historical center of the region of Shirvan.The town is west of Baku. It has more than 20,000 inhabitants, among them Azerbaijanis and Russians...
, Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
and Annenfeld in 1868, 1869, 1897 and 1911 respectively. The ceremony of laying the first stone of Baku's German Church of the Saviour
Church of the Saviour, Baku
The Church of the Saviour is a Lutheran church in Baku, Azerbaijan , built with donations by parishioner Adolf Eichler and consecrated on March 14, 1899. It is now a Ministry of Culture concert hall. The Gothic style church features a portal crowned with a decorated pediment...
was attended by Emanuel Nobel
Emanuel Nobel
Emanuel Nobel was a Swedish-Russian oil baron, the eldest son of Ludvig Nobel and his first wife, Mina Ahlsell, grandson of Immanuel Nobel and nephew of Alfred Nobel.-Businessman:...
, brother of Alfred Nobel
Alfred Nobel
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. He is the inventor of dynamite. Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments...
, and other members of the city's elite.
Germans became an active and well-integrated community in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
. Azeri
Azerbaijani language
Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
was often spoken as a second or third language among them. During the brief of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
's independence in 1918–1920 the centenary of Helenendorf was marked by public celebration within the community. The German community was also represented in the parliament of the republic
National Assembly of Azerbaijan
The National Assembly , also transliterated as Milli Majlis is the legislative branch of government in Azerbaijan. The unicameral National Assembly has 125 deputies: previously 100 members were elected for five-year terms in single-seat constituencies and 25 were members elected by proportional...
by Lorenz Kuhn, a Helenendorf-born oil industry businessman. With the establishment of the Soviet power in Azerbaijan, the Communist government seated in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
gradually ordered to rename all German-sounding place-names by the mid-1930s. By the time of the deportation in 1941, there were over 23,000 Germans living in Azerbaijan.
Richard Sorge
Richard Sorge
Richard Sorge was a German communist and spy who worked for the Soviet Union. He has gained great fame among espionage enthusiasts for his intelligence gathering during World War II. He worked as a journalist in both Germany and Japan, where he was imprisoned for spying and eventually hanged....
, the famous ethnic German Soviet spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
, was born in the suburb of Baku in 1895. His father was a German mining engineer who worked for the Caucasian Oil Company. Sorge is considered to have been one of the best Soviet spies in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
before and during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and he was posthumously awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union
Hero of the Soviet Union
The title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society.-Overview:...
. The city of Baku dedicated to him a monument and a park.
Armenia
The history of the Germans in Armenia began with their immigration to the Transcaucasus. Settlement of Germans was encouraged by Russian authorities. Those who came from Württemberg were inspired by the concept of meeting the end of the world at the foot of Mount AraratMount Ararat
Mount Ararat is a snow-capped, dormant volcanic cone in Turkey. It has two peaks: Greater Ararat and Lesser Ararat .The Ararat massif is about in diameter...
. Although Caucasus Germans did indeed move to Armenia and had a presence there, most settlements were scattered and no German colonies were firmly established in the region. Most maintained their own schools, churches and cultural institutions in Soviet Armenia
Armenian SSR
The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic The Armenian Soviet...
. In 1926, the German community in Armenia numbered 104 persons. By 1939, this numbered increased to 433 (still low compared to its neighboring regions).
Similarly, during World War II, Armenia's 212 Germans were deported to Kazakhstan on the pretext that their loyalties were with Germany, even though this was not the case. Thus Armenia's German population never exceeded 500 people in the following decades; that number has been on constant decline since 1970. This decrease was accelerated by Armenia's independence in 1991.
Kars
After Kars became part of Russia in 1878, the imperial government launched a campaign to christianize the newly-established Kars OblastKars Oblast
Kars Oblast was one of Transcaucasian governorates of Russian Empire between 1878 and 1917. Its capital was in the city of Kars, presently in the Republic of Turkey. The governorate bordered with the Ottoman Empire, Batum Oblast, Tiflis Governorate, Erivan Governorate, and from 1883 to 1903 with...
(Kars Province) by resettling fellow Orthodox Pontic Greeks as well as non-Orthodox Armenians, Germans, and Estonians in the area. In 1891 a further number of German families were resettled in Kars from around Tiflis and established the village of Petrowka. Its population remained relatively low and consisted of about 200 people by 1911. Another two colonies in the province, Wladikars and Estonka, were founded between 1911 and 1914. Their population was mostly engaged in milk production, while other Caucasus German communities were engaged in mining. These settlements were short-lived as with the Russian-Ottoman military confrontation in 1914 (following the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
), most of the remaining German settlers from Kars Oblast were evacuated to Eichenfeld (see History in Azerbaijan. Small numbers of Caucasus Germans had, however, assimilated through intermarriage with other local Christian communities, while a few of those intent on remaining in Kars province during and after the war are even said to have converted to Islam (in common with some Pontic Greeks and Armenians of the area) and assimilated into the indigenous Muslim communities.
Soviet history
After the 1917 formation of Transcaucasian Federation, the German colonists came together to form the Transcaucasian German National Council (Transkaukasischer Deutscher Nationalrat), with its seat in Tbilisi, Georgia. After the SovietizationSovietization
Sovietization is term that may be used with two distinct meanings:*the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets .*the adoption of a way of life and mentality modelled after the Soviet Union....
of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia in 1920–1921, the Soviet government pursued the goal of eliminating the German cultural presence in the region by closing down German schools and changing German-souding names of virtually all the colonies. After the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, it was a matter of one week that almost 200,000 Caucasus Germans got deported to remote regions of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
and Siberia. The only ones not subject to deportation were German women who were married to non-Germans. Even though soon after Joseph Stalin's death in 1953 the ban for the majority of the deported peoples to return to Europe was lifted, relatively few returned. In 1979 there were only 46,979 Germans living in both North and South Caucasus.
Present status
As of 2002, there are approximately 30 older women of German ancestry left in Bolnisi. The German town cemetery leveled under Stalin is marked today by a memorial honouring the memory of the German colonists. Recently, there has been increasing interest on the part of local youth to find out more about their German heritage. Often this desire is closely related to ProtestantProtestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
beliefs, so as a result the New Apostolic Church
New Apostolic Church
The New Apostolic Church is a chiliastic church, converted to Protestantism as a free church from the Catholic Apostolic Church. The church has existed since 1879 in Germany and since 1897 in the Netherlands...
works intensively with these young people as part of its regular youth programs.
The German community of Armenia, though heavily Russified
Russification
Russification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attributes by non-Russian communities...
and numbering less than 100 families, has been working closely with the German Educational and Cultural Center of Armenia to help organize German language schools, cultural events, etc.
In Azerbaijan, the remaining Germans are concentrated in the capital city of Baku, and many belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Community restored and officially registered in the early 1990s. The last German resident of Goygol (Helenendorf), Viktor Klein, died in 2007. In 2009, the non-functioning Lutheran church in Shamkir (Annenfeld) used as a community centre
Community centre
Community centres or community centers or jumping recreation centers are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole community or for a specialised group within...
in the Soviet times was renovated and turned into a museum.
See also
- History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet UnionHistory of Germans in Russia and the Soviet UnionThe German minority in Russia and the Soviet Union was created from several sources and in several waves. The 1914 census puts the number of Germans living in Russian Empire at 2,416,290. In 1989, the German population of the Soviet Union was roughly 2 million. In the 2002 Russian census, 597,212...
- Ethnic GermanEthnic GermanEthnic Germans historically also ), also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, refers to people who are of German ethnicity. Many are not born in Europe or in the modern-day state of Germany or hold German citizenship...
- VolksdeutscheVolksdeutscheVolksdeutsche - "German in terms of people/folk" -, defined ethnically, is a historical term from the 20th century. The words volk and volkische conveyed in Nazi thinking the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilization and blood...
- Baltic Germans
- Crimea GermansCrimea GermansThe Crimea Germans were ethnic German settlers who were invited to settle in the Crimea as part of the East Colonization.-History:From 1783 onwards, there was a systematic settlement of Russians, Ukrainians, and Germans to the Crimean Peninsula in order to weaken the Crimean Tatar population.The...
- Carpathian GermansCarpathian GermansCarpathian Germans , sometimes simply called Slovak Germans , are a group of German language speakers on the territory of present-day Slovakia...
- Volga GermanVolga GermanThe Volga Germans were ethnic Germans living along the River Volga in the region of southern European Russia around Saratov and to the south. Recruited as immigrants to Russia in the 18th century, they were allowed to maintain German culture, language, traditions and churches: Lutherans, Reformed,...
s
Further reading
- M. Friedrich Schrenk: Geschichte der deutschen Kolonien. In: Geschichte der deutschen Kolonien in Transkaukasien. Tiflis 1869
- Paul Hoffmann: Die deutschen Kolonien in Transkaukasien. Berlin 1905
- Werner Krämer: Grünfeld, ein deutsches Dorf im Südkaukasus. o. O., o. J.
- Max Baumann, Peter Belart: Die Familie Horlacher von Umiken in Katharinenfeld (Georgien)
- Andreas Groß: Missionare und Kolonisten: Die Basler und die Hermannsburger Mission in Georgien am Beispiel der Kolonie Katharinenfeld; 1818–1870. Lit, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-8258-3728-9
- U. Hammel: Die Deutschen von Tiflis. In: Georgica. Bd. 20 (1997), pp 35–43
- Immanuel Walker: Fatma. Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, Stuttgart, 1966 3. Edition
- Mammad Jafarli: Politischer Terror und Schicksale der aserbaidschanischen Deutschen. Baku 1999
External links
- Helenendorf: Azerbaijan's First German Settlement by Jacqueline Grewlich-Suchet. Azerbaijan International. Summer 2004 (12.2). Konkordia Centre for Caucasus German Studies in Azerbaijan.