The village of Dovsunskaya, located about 153 kilometers east of Stavropol, was founded 19 June 1879 [some sources record 1880] by Volga Germans from the Saratov & Samara Provinces and Black Sea Germans from the Tauride, Yekaterinoslav, & Kherson Provinces.
Pastor Treifeldt was an early leader of this community which consisted of 4 hamlets: Wilhelmshöhe, Hermannsburg, Johannesheim, and Karlsruhe. These were originally independent villages, but were unified in the 1920s.
As of 1889, there were 2 Lutheran churches [Bethaus] located in these 4 hamlets along with a parochial school. By 1898, there were 3 churches and 3 parochial schools.
A survey of 1903 reported 3 Lutheran schools, 5 mills (1 steam, 1 horse-drawn, and 3 windmills), an oil mill, and 10 shops. As of 1909, there were 4 churches and 3 schools among the hamlets.
During the 1880s and 1890s there several locust attacks and one crop wiped out by hail. In 1892, there was acholera epidemic in the village which killed 75 people.
During the Soviet Era, collective farms were created in this area, four of which were inhabited by Germans.
In September 1941, the German population of Dovsunskaya was deported to Siberia and Kazakhstan.
In 1966, this village was officially disbanded and what little remains of it is known today as Progress.
Population:
| Year |
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1880 |
10
|
62 |
|
|
| 1889 | 311 | 1,697 | ||
| 1893 | 210 | 1,176 | ||
| 1897 | 227 | 1,974* | ||
| 1898 | 284 | 2,091 | ||
| 1902 | 2,849 | |||
| 1903 | 374 | 2,294 | ||
| 1909 | 468 | 4,527 | ||
| 1915 | 3,964 | |||
| 1920 | 3,437 | |||
| 1925 | 546 | 3,069 | ||
| 1926 | 2,927** | |||
| 1929 | 3,434*** | |||
*Of whom 1,891 were Germans.
**Of whom 2,700 were Germans.
***Of whom 3,156 were Germans.
The following Volga German families settled in and around Karlsruhe:
Freund from Philippsfeld
Lesser from Frank
Schander from Basel
Schilling from Hussenbach
Simon from Warenburg
Widicke from Philippsfeld
A list of German families who were living in Karlsruhe from 1908-1916 was posted to the forum on Wolgadeutsche.net. Some of these families are from the German colonies in the Black Sea region rather than the Volga German colonies, but they are posted here for consideration. This list was translated from Russian, so there are undoubtely mistakes that need to be corrected.
Abig
Albach
Arnold
Axt
Bahl
Bauer
Baumbach
Baun
Bechstedt(er)
Bechtold
Beck
Becker
Betger / Boetscher
Biehn
Bischel
Block
Bohl
Bolke
Brauer
Braun
Brenning
Bretthauer
Brunner
Bublitz
Buchau
Bueschel
Burke
Buschman
Christoph
Dabbert
Dahmer
Damme
Demler
Deont
Dermer
Derner
Dietrich
Dilk
Ditte
Dreith
Dume
Ebel
Ebert
Edel
Egef
Ehlert
Ellrich
Engel
Erstein
Fabert
Fang
Fast
Ferber
Ferner
Fink
Flake
Foos
Freiman
Freund
Fritz
Funkner
Gabriel
Geier
Geiger
Geiman
Gerlach
Gickshaus
Gies
Giltz
Gitt
Glick
Gottfried
Grabinsky
Grams
Grechman
Gross
Haag
Hahn
Hahr
Hansel
Hartwig
Hauk
Heck
Heil
Heimbichner
Helmut
Herdt
Hermann
Hersch
Hertz
Hiller
Hoffmann
Homer
Horn
Horst
Huber
Hubert
Huck
Jacque
Joachim
Karst
Keil
Kelbhorn
Kelborn
Keller
Kelm
Kibke
Kister
Klein
Kleinschmidt
Kling
Kloksin
Knaus
Kneuter
Knippel
Koch
Koenig
Kohl
Kommer
Kraus
Krause
Kreiter
Krieger
Kron
Krongard
Krug
Kruger
Kubau
Kuhne
Kulau
Kunz
Kuster
Kuxhaus
Lais
Lauer
Lazarus
Legler
Lehmann
Lemp
Lenz
Lesser
Lieder
Lingenau
Littau
Loss
Luft
Lutz
Lutzi
Maas
Mahler
Makarov
Mandelkau
Maurer
Meier
Merz
Metzger
Miller / Müller
Moos
Neumann
Nikolai
Ockel
Ohl(d)enburger
Paul
Pfaffenhut
Pidde
Pischel
Prenz
Preuss
Rau
Reimhe
Reiswig / Reiswich
Relke
Reschke
Retzer
Richter
Riedel
Ring
Roeder
Rogalsky
Rudolf
Saam
Schack
Schäfer
Schaffron
Schander
Schatz
Scheck
Schenke
Schetel
Schetzel
Schild
Schirmer
Schitz
Schlichtenmeyer
Schmalovsky
Schman
Schmidtgal
Schneider
Schnurr
Schoen(e)berg
Schroth
Schultz
Schutz
Schwab
Schwartz
Schweigert
Schwindt
Seibel
Seibel
Seidel
Senger
Sommer
Sommerfeld
Späth
Spies
Stoller
Strauch
Strock
Stroh
Stumpf
Sukowski
Sutheimer
Sutheimer
Tabert
Titz
Traudt
Trautwein
Treit
Tribus
Trinz
Triol
Tromelschlager
Trout
Turner
Vogel
Volberg
Wachtel
Wagner
Walter
Weber
Wedler
Werle
Wiederspahn
Wilhelm
Wirth
Witt
Wolf
Wulf
Wunderlich
Würst
Zeiss
Zell
Zider
Zviken
- Giesinger, Adam. From Catherine to Khruschev (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1974): 136.
- "Приобщавшиеся Св. Тайнъ Ставропольскаго евангелическо-лютеранскаго прихода" ГАСК Ф.303 Оп.1.
- Довсунское (Russian Wikipedia)
Map of the village of Dovsknskaya. The 4 blocks indicate the 4 hamlets of
Wilhelmshöhe, Hermannsburg, Johannesheim, and Karlsruhe. (1889)
Source: Wikipedia Commons.