Hussenbach
Hussenbach was founded along the Medvyeditsa River on 16 May 1767 by colonists who had been recruited by officials of Catherine the Great's government and was therefore known as a Crown Colony.
The original 118 founding colonists came from the Brandenburg, Saxony, Darmstadt, and Pfalz regions of present-day Germany. Hussenbach was named after Jakob Hussenbach, the colony's first mayor (Vorsteher).
The colony's original name was "немецкая колония у озера Линево" (German colony by the lake Linyevo) - to distinguish it from other Russian villages with the same name.
On the afternoon of 27 July 1896, a group of 7-8 year-old children was playing in the yard of Heinrich Sippel while the adults were working in the fields. At some point a fire was lit in the yard. The high winds fanned the flames which quickly spread to neighboring yards. By the time the fires were extinguished, 273 homes had been destroyed along with the church and numerous businesses.
On 18 March 1918, Sexton Niesen from Hussenbach sent a letter to the United States asking for people to write back. He gave a list of places where people from Hussenbach were living in the United States. Places he listed were Elliot and Lisbon in North Dakota; Minnesota; Rocky Ford, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; and Walla Walla, Washington.
Today, the former colony of Hussenbach is known as Linyevo.
In 1885, a new Lutheran church was constructed in Hussenbach in the Kontor Style. It was destroyed during the fire on 27 July 1896. A new church was constructed (completed in 1904) and was still standing well into the 1960s. Today nothing remains of the church building. A statue of Lenin marks its former place.
In 2017, a sign was erected on the former location of the Lutheran Church indicating that a new Russian Orthodox Church was being planned to be built on the site.
The congregation in Hussenbach was served by the following pastors:
- 1768-1770 Johann Friedrich Mittelstädt
- 1771-1776 Johann Friedrich Heitzig
- 1778-1782 Laurentius Ahlbaum
- 1782-1786 Samuel Traugott Büttner
- 1788-1817 Franz August Flittner
- 1818-1820 David Flittner
- 1820-1837 Franz Hölz
- 1838-1868 Jakob Würthner
- 1868-1878 Ernest Theophil David
- 1879-1882 Samuel Dittrich
- 1884-1901 Karl Rudolph Roos
- 1901-1914 Michael Somelt
- 1917-1920 Arthur Julius Kluck
- 1926-1930 Konrad Staab
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
|
|
|
|
| 1769 |
118
|
438
|
240
|
198
|
| 1773 |
115
|
525
|
282
|
243
|
| 1788 |
109
|
701
|
359
|
342
|
| 1798 |
140
|
910
|
471
|
436
|
| 1816 |
180
|
1,397
|
694
|
703
|
| 1834 |
276
|
2,305
|
1,170
|
1,135
|
| 1850 |
289
|
3,062
|
1,551
|
1,511
|
| 1857 |
358
|
3,578
|
1,757
|
1,821
|
| 1859 |
|
3,678
|
|
|
| 1886 |
562
|
4,380
|
2,241
|
2,139
|
| 1891 |
525
|
6,143
|
3,141
|
3,002
|
| 1894 |
537
|
|
|
|
| 1897 |
|
4,661*
|
2,340
|
2,321
|
| 1905 |
|
7,350
|
|
|
| 1911 |
|
8,198
|
|
|
| 1912 |
|
8,080
|
|
|
| 1920 |
748**
|
6,783
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
6,554
|
|
|
| 1923 |
|
6,400
|
|
|
| 1926*** |
1,036
|
6,774
|
3,309
|
3,465
|
| 1931 |
|
7,287****
|
|
|
| 1939 |
|
7,137
|
|
|
*Of whom 4,657 are German.
**Of which 746 households were German.
***Of whom 6,727 are German (1,017 households: 3,284 male & 3,443 female).
****Of whom 7,274 are German.
Hussenbach (wolgadeutsche.net) in Russian
Hussenbach (Linevo Osero) Village Webpage (Susan Nakaji)
Hussenbach Villages of Russia (Patrice Miller)
Photo gallery of Arthur Staff.
- 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): 350.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- Mink, A.N. Historical and Geographical Dictionary of the Saratov Province [in Russian] (Saratov, Russia, 1898): 569-572.
- Neisen, Sexton. "Who will Write? Who Says 'Yes", Die Welt-Post (Lincoln, NE: 22 April 1926): 5.
- Orlov, Gregorii. Report of Conditions of Settlements on the Volga to Catherine II, 14 February 1769.
- 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): 623.
- Pleve, Igor R. The German Colonies on the Volga: The Second Half of the Eighteenth Century, translated by Richard Rye (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2001): 318.
- Preliminary Results of the Soviet Census of 1926 on the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Pokrovsk, 1927): 28-83.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 18.
- Reconstructed 1767 Census of Hussenbach (Sue Nakaji)
Map showing Hussenbach (1935).
Drawing of the Hussenbach Lutheran Church that was built in 1885 and destroyed by fire in 1896.
Source: Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Russland, 1972.
Lutheran Church (built in 1885).
Source: "Немцы Поволжья" website.
Sketch of the church that was built in Hussenbach in 1904.
Source: Stephan Dmitryev via Wolgadeutsche.net
Hussenbach Church (July 1935).
Source: Familienarchiv of W. Schäfer.
Hussenbach Lutheran Church (ca.1900).
Photo courtesy of Elena Sirotkina.
Photo of the former church in Hussenbach, taken after the Revolution and before the steeple was removed.
Source: Family Archive of Philipp Schwarz via Alexander Baumung.
Hussenbach Lutheran Church (1937).
Ruins of the church in Hussenbach (1950s-1960s).
Source: Alexander Baumung.
Former church in Hussenbach (1950s-1960s).
Source: Alexander Baumung.
Hussenbach Church - used as a Community Center (1960s)
Source: Jorge Bohn.
In the background is Hussenbach's former Lutheran Church (1960s).
Source: Andrei Fetisov.
Map of Hussenbach (1940).
Source: wolgadeutsche.net
Cannery under construction in Hussenbach (1933).
Source: Arthur Staab.
Cannery in Hussenbach with church in the distance (1933). Source: A.K. Staab via wolgadeutsche.net
House in Hussenbach (2009).
Former home of G. Schwarz Family, built in 1902.
Source: Georgi Spach
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