The first group of German-speaking immigrants arrived in Calgary in 1892 from Yagodnaya Polyana having gone to Endicott, Washington, a few years earlier.
Another group of Volga Germans arrived around the turn of the century from Alexanderdorf (Caucasus), where their ancestors had moved several decades earlier. They settled in an area northeast of downtown Calgary that became known as Riverside but was called Germantown during the early settlement years. This area was annexed to the city of Calgary in 1910.
The following Volga German families settled in and around Calgary:
Abt from Brabander
Behm from Neu-Kolonie
Bineider from Neu-Kolonie
Bisheimer from Köhler
Blehm from Straßburg
Borgens from Alexanderdorf (North Caucasus)
Deines from Norka
Dreser from Kamenka
Eurich from Schöntal
Feser from Volmer
Flahr from Neu-Kolonie
Fritzler from Grimm
Gartner from Volmer
Geier from Yagodnaya Polyana
Gerlitz from Yagodnaya Polyana
Gette from Semenovka
Heddinger from Dietel
Huck from Huck
Kaiser from Yagodnaya Polyana
Kell from Holstein
Kloster from Neu-Kolonie
Kohlman from Schuck
Konschuk from Yagodnaya Polyana
Kromm from Yagodnaya Polyana
Lautenschlager from Yagodnaya Polyana
Litzenberger from Yagodnaya Polyana
Loeb from Bangert
Luft from Yagodnaya Polyana
Maurer from Kaneau
Meier from Kolb
Morasch from Yagodnaya Polyana
Ostwald from Franzosen
Phillips from Neu-Kolonie
Poffenroth from Yagodnaya Polyana
Prediger from Volmer
Reffel from Kana
Reiber from Kolb
Repp from Yagodnaya Polyana
Richelhoff from Neu-Kolonie
Rolheiser from Schuck
Ruhl from Kraft
Schewalje from Brabander
Schick from Galka
Schiebelbein / Sheen from Schuck
Schimpf from Alexanderdorf (North Caucasus)
Schneidmüller from Yagodnaya Polyana
Schulmeister from Kamenka
Seewalt from Seelmann
Sieben from Volmer
Stang from Yagodnaya Polyana
Trippel from Warenburg
Weber from Beideck & Norka
Weitz from Yagodnaya Polyana
Wittig from Pobochnaya
Zubeck from Neu-Laub
- Scheuerman, Richard D. & Clifford E. Trafzer. The Volga Germans: Pioneers of the Northwest (Moscow, ID: University of Idaho Press, 1985): 174.
- Williams, Vicky. Calgary, Then and Now (Calgary: Bodima, 1978): 113.
- Calgary (wikipedia)
- Settlement history of "the Germans" in Calgary between ca. 1900 and 1914 (Univ. of Alberta)
View of Germantown looking east towards Calgary; the Langevin Bridge connecting the village to the rest of Calgary (ca. 1900)
Source: "Calgary, Then and Now," p. 113.