Stahl am Karaman was founded on 9 July 1766 by the Government as a Lutheran colony along the Karaman River. According to Christian August Tornow, for the first couple of years after its founding, the colony was called Träger. On 26 February 1768, the colony received its official Russian name of Zvonarev-Kut. Colonists and their descendants often called the colony just Stahl (but this should not be confused with another colony called Stahl am Tarlyk which was also sometimes called just Stahl).
Following the 28 August 1941 Decree which abolished the Volga German Republic, the residents of Stahl am Karaman were deported to Siberia on 15 September 1941.
Today, what remains of the former colony of Stahl am Karaman is known as Zvonarevka.
The Lutheran parish in Stahl was originally part of the parish headquartered in Rosenheim which had been established in 1767.
The first church building was constructed of wood in 1808. It burned in 1842 and was reconstructed with seating for 816. This church was renovated in 1912.
The congregation in Stahl am Karaman was served by the following pastors:
- 1767-1785 Ludwig Helm
- 1786-1788 Laurentius Ahlbaum
- 1788-1792 Klaus Peter Lundberg
- 1792-1815 Christian Friedrich Jäger
- 1816-1820 Franz Hölz
- 1820-1831 Johann Heinrich Buck
- 1831-1866 Alexander Karl August Allendorf
- 1867-1879 Friedrich Wilhelm Meyer
- 1881-1894 Karl Julius Hölz
- 1894-1901 Karl Ernst Theodor David
- 1901-1909 Emil Friedrich Busch
- 1912-1922 Alexander Rothermel
- 1929-1933 Jakob Scharf
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
49
|
154
|
78
|
76
|
| 1769 |
44
|
152
|
76
|
76
|
| 1773 |
43
|
171
|
91
|
80
|
| 1788 |
44
|
203
|
95
|
108
|
| 1798 |
42
|
256
|
124
|
132
|
| 1816 |
53
|
360
|
183
|
177
|
| 1834 |
80
|
703
|
346
|
357
|
| 1850 |
113
|
1,036
|
501
|
535
|
| 1857 |
120
|
1,341
|
686
|
697
|
| 1865 |
|
1,305
|
|
|
| 1867 |
|
2,027
|
|
|
| 1890 |
305
|
2,431
|
|
|
| 1897 |
|
2,693*
|
1,302
|
1,391
|
| 1904 |
|
3,538
|
|
|
| 1908 |
350
|
3,767
|
|
|
| 1910 |
320
|
3,704
|
|
|
| 1912 |
|
3,940
|
|
|
| 1920 |
401**
|
2,638
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
2,067
|
|
|
| 1923 |
|
1,988
|
|
|
| 1926*** |
371
|
1,890
|
892
|
998
|
| 1931 |
|
2,228
|
|
|
*Of whom 2,671 were German.
**Of which 400 households were German.
***Of whom 1,886 were German (367 households: 888 male & 998 female).
Stahl am Karaman (wolgadeutsche.net)
Stahl am Karaman
Stahl-am-Karaman (Dick Kraus)
List of those deported from Stahl in 1941
- Amburger, Erik. Die Pastoren der evangelischen Kirchen Rußlands. Martin-Luther-Verlag, 1998.
- 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): 353.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- Erbes, Johannes. Deutsche Volkszeitung (23 August 1906).
- Mai, Brent Alan, 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga: Economy, Population, and Agriculture (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999), v.1: 216-217.
- 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): 612.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 11, 191-204.
- 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.
- Report of Conditions of Settlements on the Volga to Catherine II by Count Orlov, 14 February 1769.
- Schmidt, David F. "An Early Volga German Settlement List from the Wiesenseite." AHSGR Journal (Spring 1991): 15-27.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 16.
51.624667, 46.521167
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
Map showing Stahl am Karaman (1935).
Church in Stahl am Karaman, renovated in 1912.
Source: Alexander Schneider.
A slightly different photo of the church in Stahl am Karaman.
Source: Justus Family via Jorge Bohn.
Map of Stahl am Karaman as of 1941 by Jacob Kämpf & Irma Justus (1978).
Originally posted here.
Zmestvo School in Stahl am Karaman, built in 1879.
Source: stahl-am-karaman.jimdo.com