Marienberg
In 1855, Marienberg was founded on the banks of the Bizyuk River by Catholic colonists from Rothammel, Sewald, Husaren, Semenovka, Schuck, Kamenka, and Degott.
According to Volga German historian Jakob Dietz, the naming of the colony had to be rather arbitrary because there are not even hills, let along mountains, in this area that would justify the naming of something as a "berg."
Immigration began in 1876 and from 1876-1878, 79 colonists left for America.
In 1915, Marienberg was renamed into the village Bizyuk.
Marienberg was a Roman Catholic daughter colony. It served the parishners in both Marienberg and Streckerau until 1903 when Streckerau became an independent parish with a resident priest of its own.
In the earliest days, worship services were held in the Bethaus (a building which served as both a church and school). A new Bethaus was built in Marienberg in 1877.
The Bethaus was demolished on 19 July 1898 to make room for a new Gothic-style church building. The new structure, built of brick, was basically completed in 1899, but finishing work continued into 1900.
The church was officially closed by the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the ASSR of the Volga Germans on 7 September 1934. The building was subsequently used as a granary and barn, and it continues to be used as such today. The steeple was removed in the late 1930s.
According to Dr. William Wiest, who visited Marienberg in 1993, the local people tell a story of the church being slammed by trucks and tanks in the Soviet era, but it would not fall.
Today, all that remains of the former colony of Marienberg is the ruin of the former church building.
The parish in Marienberg was served by the following priests:
Georg Dechand (1870-1873)
Johannes Falkenstein (1914-1918)
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1857 |
|
|
|
|
| 1859 |
52
|
403
|
198
|
205
|
| 1883 |
|
1,623
|
|
|
| 1889 |
|
1,908
|
|
|
| 1891 |
|
|
|
|
| 1894 |
|
|
|
|
| 1897 |
|
2,385*
|
1,157
|
1,228
|
| 1905 |
|
3,187
|
|
|
| 1910 |
469
|
3,229
|
1,636
|
1,593
|
| 1912 |
|
3,310
|
|
|
| 1920 |
487
|
2,659
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
1,340
|
|
|
| 1923 |
|
1,500
|
|
|
| 1926** |
392
|
1,891
|
914
|
977
|
| 1931 |
|
2,084***
|
|
|
*Of whom 2,332 were German.
**Of whom 1,882 (906 male & 976 female) were German living in 387 households.
***Of whom 2,059 were German.
Marienberg (wolgadeutsche.net) in Russian
Marienberg (Gary Nevard)
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.Dietz, Jacob E. History of the Volga German Colonists (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2005): 241.
- Klaus, A. Our Colony [in Russian] (St. Petersburg, 1869).
- 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): 17.
Map showing Marienberg (1935).
One of many iron crosses remaining in the German cemetery in Marienberg (2006).
Source: Steve Schreiber.
Church ruins and farmer's home are all that remain of Marienberg (2007).
Source: Valery Taboyakov.
Marienberg Church in 2006.
Photo courtesy of Steve Schreiber.
Front entrance of the Marienberg Church in 2006
Interior of the Marienberg Church in 2006
A fading mural of Joseph leading Mary and baby on a donkey inside the Marienberg Church.
Architectural rendering of the Roman Catholic Church in Marienberg. Source: wolgadeutsche.net
Sketch of the Roman Catholic Church in Marienberg. Source: wolgadeutsche.net
Map of Marienberg.
Source: Gary Nevard.
Satellite view of the former colony of Marienberg with locations identified by Gary & Brenda Nevard.
Source: Jorge Bohn.
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