Beratz, Gottlieb
Father Beratz was born in 1871 in Göbel and was executed in 1921 in Herzog. He was ordained 24 August 1894. He served the newly created parish of Dehler from 17 May 1894 to 1909. He served for a time at the seminary in Saratov. Due to poor health, he moved to Herzog to assist the priest there. There he became associated with the peasant revolts against the Bolshevik government, was arrested and sentenced to death and executed. According to an account by Bishop Kessler, he was shot on a cliff overlooking the Volga River, with his arms and eyes lifted toward heaven, and his corpse was sent crashing down the embankment following the execution.
While in prison, Father Beratz wrote Deutschen Kolonien an der unteren Wolga in ihrer Entstehung und ersten Entwickelung which was translated in 1991 into English and published by the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia under the title The German colonies on the Lower Volga, their origin and early development : a memorial for the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first German settlers on the Volga, 29 June 1764.
- Beratz Gottlieb (wolgadeutsche.ru) [Online]
- Reinelt, Kurt. Lebensbilder russlanddeutscher Märtyrer: Bischöfe und Priester; posted by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection, North Dakota State University Libraries.
- Schnurr, Joseph. Die Kirchen und das Religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen, Katholischer Teil (Stuttgart, 1980): 351.
Father Beratz as a new priest in the parish of Dehler.
Father Gottlieb Beratz (seated) with visitors in his garden at Herzog in the summer of 1912. The clerics visiting him were vacationing seminary students: Joh. Schamne, Josef Paul, Nikolaus Liesl, and Peter Weigel, whom he knew from his service in the seminary. The layman (right) was the sexton of Herzog parish, H. Baron.
Source: Beratz, Gottlieb. The German Colonies on the Lower Volga (Lincoln, NE: AHSGR, 1991).
A group of Catholic priests serving the German-speaking populations of Russia. Father Beratz is standing, far right.
Source: Germans from Russia Heritage Collection of North Dakota State University.