Pastor Ludwig Helm was one of a handful of pastors who immigrated from Germany to Russia during the initial migration period (1764-1767).
He had been born in the village of Teschow in the Mecklenburg region. He studied theology in Rostock and was orgained in 1738. He married Anna Sophia, a citizen of Bünsow although originally from Biendorf.
He served the parishes of Biendorf (1738-1751) and Mecklenburg (1751-1766) before joining the migration to Russia.
Pastor Helm, his wife Anna Sophia, and children (Christoph Mathias, Sophia Regina Karolina, Katharina Eleonora, Henrietta, Maria Augusta Christina, and Sophia) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 19 July 1766 aboard the packet-boat Lebed under the command of Lieutenant Timophey Elshin.
Pastor Helm served the congregation in Rosenheim and surrounding parishes from 1767 until his death in 1785, presumably in Rosenheim.
The death of daughter Maria Augusta Christina Schorg née Helm is recorded in the colony of Reinwald on 19 October 1823 (age 64 years, 4 months). She had been born 10 June 1759 in the German region of Mecklenburg.
- Helm Ludwig (Wolgadeutsche.ru) [Online]
- Parish register of Reinwald.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #2680.
- Schnurr, Joseph. Die Kirchen und das religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen – Evangelischer Teil (Stuttgart: AER Verlag Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Rußland, 1978): 142.