The Volga German colony of Dehler was founded on 1 July 1767 by 55 families recruited by LeRoi & Pictet from the Pfalz, France, and Mainz. The colony was named in honor of its first mayor (Vorsteher), Johannes Dehler. It was located along the Berezovlka River, from which it took its Russian name, about 40 kilometers south of Pokrovsk (Engels).
In 1774, Dehler was plundered by the raiders supporting the Pugachev rebellion.
Between 1912 and 1914, approximately 100 colonists departed for America. During the 1921 famine, 232 residents of Dehler died. In 1929, more than 100 residents were identified by the Bolshevik authorities as kulaks (rich people) and arrested.
Today, what remains of the former Volga German colony of Dehler is known as Berezovka.
The original colonists of Dehler were mostly Roman Catholic by faith practice. The congregation in Dehler originally belonged to the parish of Brabander. Dehler became an independent parish in 1894 when the congregation there received a resident priest of its own.
There were two worship facilities built in Dehler, but the dates of those buildings is not recorded. The third church building was constructed in 1831 and consecrated in the name of St. Matthew. This church burned down. The fourth church building in Dehler was built of brick in 1894 and was located on the southern edge of the original layout of the colony. A wooden bell tower was built next to it.
The church in Dehler was closed on 12 November 1935 by decree of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the ASSR of the Volga Germans. The building was converted into a community center and dance hall. Today, nothing remains of the former church structure.
The parish in Dehler was served by the following priests:
- Gottlieb Beratz (1894-1909)
- Johannes Zimmermann (1913-1918, 1923-1925)
- Robert Glassner (1928-1931)
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
55
|
171
|
85
|
86
|
| 1769 |
36
|
154
|
79
|
75
|
| 1773 |
39
|
150
|
71
|
79
|
| 1788 |
|
190
|
|
|
| 1798 |
|
249
|
|
|
| 1816 |
|
430
|
|
|
| 1834 |
|
756
|
|
|
| 1850 |
|
1,057
|
|
|
| 1857 |
|
|
|
|
| 1859 |
|
1,332
|
|
|
| 1889 |
|
1,488
|
|
|
| 1897 |
|
1,811*
|
961
|
850
|
| 1910 |
|
2,392
|
|
|
| 1912 |
|
3,062
|
|
|
| 1920 |
370
|
2,515
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
2,102
|
|
|
| 1926 |
383
|
2,132**
|
1,011
|
1,121
|
| 1931 |
|
2,214
|
|
|
*Of whom 1,800 were German.
**Of whom 2,127 were German (381 households: 1,010 male & 1,117 women).
- Deller (wolgadeutsche.net) [in Russian]
- Familia Koller [in Spanish]
- Martel Family (James Martel)
- Beratz, Gottieb. 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. Translated by Adam Giesinger (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1991): 349.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- The German Settlements in the USSR before 1941 [in Russian] (Moscow, 2002): 101.
- Hagin, Matthias. "Dehler: Ein Wolgadeutsche Siedlung." Heimatbuch der Landsmannschaft der Deutsche aus Russland (1966): 74-91. [online]
- Pallas, P.S. Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs. Theil 3,2, Reise aus Sibirien zurueck an die Wolga im 1773sten Jahr (St. Petersburg: Kaiserl. Academie der Wissenschaften, 1776): 609.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 267-278.
- Preliminary Results of the Soviet Census of 1926 on the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Pokrovsk, 1927): 28-83.
- Joseph Schnurr, Die Kirchen und das Religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen, Katholischer Teil (Stuttgart, 1980), p. 247.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 16.
51.1815, 45.9195
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
Map showing Dehler (1769).