Journal 1970s

• Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Spring 1978): Cover: Children of Russian German colony near Eureka, SD, in 1896, is the focus of this issue's Folklore Forum on "Childbirth and Childhood Customs of the Germans From Russia." Exploring his family background and the Ostrog Mennonite settlement in Russia (daily life, religious activities, weddings, funerals, and emigration), Jacob B. Janz provides more insight into the "Mennonite Life in Volhynia, 1800-1874," translated by Agnes Janz Hubert with notes by John B. Toews. The Journal continues with Part II of Lew Malinowski's articles on German colonization of Russia in his "They Did Not Come From Warsaw," translated by Sally S. Arbuckle, and with Adam Giesinger's series of translations of Volga settlers' memoirs, "Reminiscences of August Stahlbaum." Dr. Giesinger also has translated the official account of the repatriation of certain Germans to the Reich from 1939-1940 in "The Trek of the Ethnic Germans From Volhynia, Galicia, and the Narew River Region." An interesting counterpoint to this official version, the personal recollections of Maria Mahlsam, is presented in "At Home Once More," translated by Nancy B. Holland. Lawrence A. Weigel adds to his music series with a story on the song, Die Vertriebenen, and Adam Giesinger deals with the earliest Crimean German villages Rosental, Neusatz, and Zuerichtal in his village series. Other special features include Emma S. Haynes's translation of a letter written by Emilie and Eugen Schwan of Stuttgart in "White Paper on Human Rights of Germans in Eastern Europe"; a report on the 1978 AHSGR tour to South America, "New Friendships in South America," by Barbara Amen; and a chart with accompanying map of the present-day names of the German colonies in Bessarabia, provided by Karl Stumpp. In "A Voice From the Past: Remembering Eighty Years," Andrew Kehrer tells the story of his family from their life in Russia near the Black Sea to their resettlement in Washington. Emma S. Haynes gives a "Progress Report on the Coming of Volga German Protestants to the United States" with accompanying "Passenger Lists," and a genealogy section includes a "Surname Exchange" and "Queries." Completing the issue are book reviews of The Volga German Gemeindeschaft and Political Autonomy Amidst Domestic Turmoil, 1914-1922 by Aleksander Mrdjenovic, The Logan County Ledger, and Hans Brandenburg's The Meek and the Mighty: The Emergence of the Evangelical Movement in Russia.
  
  
• Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Fall 1978): Commemorates the Tenth Anniversary Convention in Lincoln, Nebraska, June 20-25, 1978. The issue commences with an introduction to AHSGR's new International President, Adam Giesinger, and to the convention's opening session with Ruth M. Amen's keynote address, "The First Decade For AHSGR It Is Only the Beginning." Guest speaker Karl Stumpp's address, "The Present Condition of the Russian Germans and the Problems of the Returnees," is translated by Emma S. Haynes. Other major addresses include those given at the Genealogy Sessions: "Researching the First People Who Came to America From Our Ancestral Village" by Pauline and Norman Dudek, and "Who Is Writing Your Family History?" and "Naturalization Records in Genealogical Research" by Gerda S. Walker; plus those presented at the folklore sessions: "Dialects, Dimensions, Folk Music, and Proverbs: Folklore at the 1978 Convention" by Timothy J. Kloberdanz and "Volga German Proverbs, Folk Expressions, and Jingles From the Colony of Dreispitz" by Mary Koch. A record of proceedings is provided with illustrated articles on the Folk Festival, the South American tour panel, the International Foundation, the Lincoln Chapter pageant, "Through the Years With Germans From Russia," University Studies on Germans from Russia, the Tenth Anniversary Banquet, and the Ecumenical Service. Also included are the following AHSGR Committee Reports: Archives, Research and Bibliography, Translations, Religious History, Genealogy, Folklore, and Membership. Additional reports are presented by the International Secretary, Resolutions Committee, and Nominating Committee, along with an account of the Convention Registrations. To complete the issue is a book review of The Wanderers: The Saga of Three Women Who Survived by Ingrid Rimland and a genealogy section with "Queries" and "Surname Exchange."
  
  
• Journal, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Winter 1978): This issue is devoted almost exclusively to the AHSGR "Meet the People" tours to South America in January and February of 1978. A wide variety of articles written by people in the two tour groups covers events, adventures, and impressions of this memorable trip. Included are accounts of visits to Mennonite colonies in Brazil and Paraguay, the celebrations in Argentina of the 100-year anniversary of the arrival of Russian Germans in that country, the finding of relatives and new friends, and subsequent explorations in other South American countries. Of separate interest is Emma S. Haynes's translation of "The Coming of the First Volga German Catholics to America," rewritten from a diary started on February 8, 1887, by Athanasius Karlin. This article is accompanied by a passenger list. Completing the issue is a genealogy section with the "Surname Exchange."
  
  
• Journal, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring 1979): The cover depicts a Mennonite mother and child arriving in China as refugees. An article by John B. Toews, "Flight Across the Amur Into China," discusses the flight between 1929 and 1934 of hundreds of Mennonite, Lutheran, and Catholic colonists from Russia across the Amur River into northern China. Emma S. Haynes provides valuable information in "Researching in the National Archives" and in passenger lists. "A Passenger List From Canada" is provided by Adam Giesinger, who continues the series "Villages in Which Our Forefathers Lived" with translations of the chronicles for the Mariupol colonies of Grunau, Tiegenhof, Kaiserdorf, and Eichwald. Dr. Giesinger also continues his translations of memoirs of Volga settlers in "Early Chroniclers Among the Volga Germans." The series "Passage to Russia: Who Were the Emigrants?" continues with Part III, "The Unequal Settlers," translated by Douglas Austin. Ingrid Rimland gives us greater understanding of her novel with "The Wanderers: What Is Fiction? What Is Fact?" "The 1915 Deportation of the Volhynian Germans" by Alfred Krieger has been translated by Adam Giesinger and "The Homeless: The Tragedy of Volga German Farmers" by Roger Welsch. Lewis R. Marquardt finds beauty and art in the "Metal Grave Markers in German-Russian Cemeteries of Emmons County, North Dakota." Alexander Dupper gives us a short "Note on Catherine's Signature" with a map of early Odessa, and we enjoy "A Voice From the Old Country: The Staerkel Letters," translated by Paul G. Reitzer. Lawrence Weigel continues to provide us with notes on our musical heritage with a discussion of "Herz mein Herz." Folklore Forum includes "Proverbs and Proverbial Expressions Among the Germans From Russia" by Timothy J. Kloberdanz and "Volga German Proverbs and Proverbial Expressions From the Colony of Dreispitz" by Mary Koch. Additions to the Loan Collection reviewed are: The Punished Peoples: The Deportation and Fate of Soviet Minorities at the End of the Second World War by Aleksandr M. Nekrich; Lasst sie selber sprechen (Let Them Speak for Themselves), a collection of stories from Germans from Russia now living in West Germany, edited by Katharina Drotleff; Michael J. Anuta's East Prussians from Russia; Germans from Russia in Colorado, edited by Sidney Heitman; The German-Russians: A Bibliography of Russian Materials with Introductory Essay, Annotations and Locations of Materials in Major American and Soviet Libraries by James Long; "A Survey of English Usage in the Spoken German Language of German Russians in North Dakota," an unpublished thesis by Allen L. Spiker; and Nina Farley Wishek's excellent Along the Trails of Yesterday.
  
  
• Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Fall 1979): The wraparound cover picture is of the farm home of Jacob Wacker, Sr., near Odessa, Washington, taken in 1914. This issue is devoted to the addresses and proceedings of the Tenth International Convention in Seattle, Washington, June 26-July 1, 1979. The keynote address, "Reflections on My Year as President," was given by Adam Giesinger. Other addresses include: "Memories of My Father" by Walter Weigum; "Volga Germans as Pictured in the Wolgadeutsche Monatshefte" by Emma S. Haynes; "The Black Sea Germans in 1941" by Adam Giesinger; "The Volhynian Germans as I Saw Them During the First Decade of the Communist Era" by Emil J. Roleder; "The Russian German Folklore Project in Washington" by Donald A. Messerschmidt; "Cooperation in Endicott, Washington: A Russian German Tradition" by Stephen L. Mikesell; "From Wagon Trails to Iron Rails: Russian- German Immigration to the Pacific Northwest" by Richard D. Scheuerman. Also included are the banquet presentations: "Russia as My Grandparents Remembered It" by Nancy B. Holland; "Russia as My Parents Viewed It" by Peter Pauls; "Russia as I Lived It" by Alexander Dupper. In addition, this issue contains the reports of the various committees of the Board of Directors of AHSGR and the International Foundation of AHSGR. The ecumenical addresses by Emil J. Roleder and Peter Pauls on the theme of "We Honor Our Heritage Through Faith" round out the convention proceedings. Of additional interest is the passenger list prepared by Emma S. Haynes.
  
  
• Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Winter 1979): The intriguing cover portrait is of Luisa Bohn, a German colonist living in Blumental, Volhynia, drawn by Hertha Karasek- Strzygowski in 1942. Other sketches by the same artist and a diary of her experiences in Blumental are found in Wolhynisches Tagebuch, which is reviewed in this Journal and is in the AHSGR Archives. Additional acquisitions reviewed here are Trailblazer for the Brethren by Elizabeth Suderman Klassen and Peopling the High Plains: Wyoming's European Heritage by Gordon Olaf Hendrickson. Articles translated by Adam Giesinger are: "Villages in Which Our Forefathers Lived: German Pioneers in the Ukrainian Province of Chernigov"; "The German Republic on the Volga: A German Visitor's View of the New Republic in 1924"; and "The Wartime Fate of the Germans in Polish Volhynia." Mela M. Lindsay, author of The White Lamb, shares another tale of Germans from Russia in Kansas in her "Papa and die Suppenschuessel." Part IV of Lew Malinowski's "Passage to Russia: Who Were the Emigrants?" is "Golden Soil," translated by Emil Toews. Several articles relate quite different experiences in returning to German colonies in Russia. An anonymous travelogue relates heartwarming experiences in "From Canada to the Caucasus." An entirely different viewpoint is "A Visit Home: A Soviet German Returns to Dehler," translated by Anne M. Corpening. Additional reminiscences of a Soviet German are found in "Romanovka: A Village in the Caucasus," translated by Reinhold Schell. This issue is completed with Weihnacht and Steppe im Winter, two timely poems by George Rath, author of The Black Sea Germans in the Dakotas, as well as Lawrence A. Weigel's discussion of the humorous song Die Jerich's Kattel die hat Fett gestohlen."