Grasmück, Johannes

Pastor Johannes Grasmück, son of Ludwig Grasmück & Maria Bender, was born 11 June 1883 in the Volga German colony of Lauwe.

He studied theology at the University of Dorpat (Estonia) and was ordained 11 November 1912. He served in Grimm (1912-1913) and Brunnental (1913-1932).

His wife was the daughter of Pastor Johannes Kosciol.

Research by Karl Becker has uncovered that Pastor Grasmück was arrested on 1 January 1931 in Brunnental. On 12 October 1931, he was sentenced to 3 years in prison for anti-Soviet propaganda. After completing his sentence, Pastor Grasmück lived in Saratov. He was arrested a second time on 3 July 1938 by the NKVD and was again accused of anti-Soviet propaganda. On 21 September 1938, he was convicted by the NKVD Troika and sentenced to execution by firing squad. The sentence was carried out the following day (22 September 1938) in the Saratov prison.

He was officially "rehabilitated" on 10 June 1989 and his conviction overturned due to a lack of evidence.