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Kautz

Names
Kautz
Kauz
Vershinka
Werschinka
Кауц
Вершинка
Kaus
Daughter Colonies
History

Kautz was founded on 20 May 1767 by colonists recruited by Baron de Boffe. There were 28 founding families, all of whom came from the Pfalz. The colony was named after its first Vorsteher (mayor), Georg Jakob Kautz. By decree on 26 February 1768, the colony received its official Russian name of Vershinka.

In 1973, as part of a Soviet consolidation program for agricultural collectives, the inhabitants of the former colony of Kautz were relocated to the neighboring colony of Dietel, and all structures remaining there were removed. Today, nothing remains of the former colony of Kautz except for mounds of dirt that mark the location of former buildings and a few cellars.

Church

Kautz was a Reformed colony.  The congregation in Kautz was part of the Reformed parish headquartered in Messer. In 1820, it became part of the Lutheran parish headquartered in Dietel where there was a resident pastor.       

A wooden church with a metal roof was constructed in Kautz in 1887.

Pastors & Priests

The congregation in Kautz was served by the following pastors:

  • 1767-1777 Aloysius Jauch
  • 1778-1799 Johannes S. Janet
Immigration
Population
Year
Households
Population
Total
Male
Female
1767
 
107
 
 
1769
28
110
61
49
1773
30
141
74
67
1788
28
179
98
82
1798
36
223
119
104
1816
53
392
185
207
1834
86
672
343
329
1850
87
1,007
491
516
1857
127
1,316
647
669
1862
101
1,360
685
675
1886
180
1,428
722
706
1891
166
1,757
863
894
1894
180
2,089
1,011
1,078
1897
 
1,583*
769
814
1904
 
 
 
 
1911
 
1,559
 
 
1912
 
2,800
 
 
1920
224**
1,695
 
 
1922
 
1,511
 
 
1926***
244
1,657
811
846
1931
 
1,790
 
 

*Of whom 1,556 were German.
**Of which 221 households were German.
***Of whom 1,655 were German (242 households: 809 male & 846 female).

Sources

- 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.
- Erbes, Johannes. Deutsche Volkszeitung (23 August 1906).
- Mink, A.N. Historical and Geographical Dictionary of the Saratov Province [in Russian] (Saratov, Russia, 1898): 120-122.
- 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): 622.
- 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): 319.
- 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.

Resources

1767 Census
1798 Census
1834 Census
1857 Census

50.909167, 45.121667

Migrated From

52.516667, 13.388889

Immigration Locations

45.523062, -122.676482
45.783286, -108.50069
45.669116, -108.771533
45.959962, -108.160954
45.933333, -108.133333
45.732478, -107.612031
45.899401, -108.301517
45.629722, -108.916236
42.136354, -104.345508
40.825763, -96.685198
46.602071, -120.505899
40.466667, -104.9
41.139981, -104.820246
40.4, -104.716667
45.638728, -122.661486
45.391667, -108.908611
45.658889, -110.563611
48.589922, -109.231231
40.397761, -105.07498
47.423333, -120.3252
47.252877, -122.444291
41.080556, -85.139167
40.258137, -103.6321
41.252363, -95.997988
41.216667, -96.616667
45.741667, -108.7086
45.295781, -108.913754
49.9, -97.133333
40.586258, -98.389873
38.949167, -111.86139
45.484444, -108.9713
40.625556, -103.211667
42.054414, -104.95275
44.410278, -103.518611
Images

Map showning Kautz (1935).

Map showing Dietel, Kautz, Kratzke, Rothammel and Sewald.

The building on the left is the Frank Store in Kautz, run by Johann Georg & Maria Barbara (Frickel) Frank, who live next door in the house on the right. The individuals in the photo are unidentified.
Source: Michael Frank.

Kautz Band.
Source: Michael Frank.

The former colony of Kautz (2009).
Source: Georgii Spak.