In 1828, a colonist named Becker from Kamenka established a khutor (farmstead) where earlier a Russian named Kuptsov had also had a khutor. As additional colonists began settling there, it became known as Beckers Khutor.
The colony of Oberdorf was officially founded in 1852 (1847 per Dietz) by colonists resettling from Norka, Grimm, Kutter, Dönhof, Stephan, Shcherbakovka, Galka, Holstein, Dobrinka, Müller, and Schwab. It was located 25 versts from Rosenberg.
A school was established in the colony in 1852. As of 1890, it had 269 students (126 boys and 143 girls).
As of 1886, there were in the colony 24 cobblers, 8 millers, 4 wheelrights, 4 carpenters, and 4 weavers. By 1890, there were 1 wind- and 4 water-powered flour mills.
In 1866, 4 individuals relocated to the colony of Kanova in the Caucasus. In 1886, 36 colonists (18 male & 18 female making up nine families and two single men who were avoiding service in the Russian Army) immigrated to Kansas.
The Lutheran congregation in Oberdorf was part of the parish headquartered in Rosenberg where the pastor also resided. In 1871, a wooden church building was constructed in Oberdorf.
Immigrated to the following locations
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1857 |
73
|
524
|
272
|
252
|
| 1859 |
51
|
549
|
283
|
266
|
| 1886 |
128
|
1,249
|
618
|
631
|
| 1891 |
|
1,526
|
772
|
754
|
| 1894 |
155
|
1,697
|
844
|
853
|
| 1897 |
|
1,643*
|
838
|
805
|
| 1904 |
|
1,508
|
|
|
| 1911 |
|
1,777
|
|
|
| 1912 |
|
2,400
|
|
|
| 1920 |
262**
|
1,860
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
1,741
|
|
|
| 1923 |
|
1,793
|
|
|
| 1926 |
284
|
1,930
|
921
|
1,009
|
| 1931 |
|
2,050***
|
|
|
| 1939 |
|
2,294
|
|
|
*Of whom 1,615 were German.
**Of which 235 households were German.
***Of whom 2,048 were German.
- The Jauk's of Oberdorf Russia
- Oberdorf (wolgadeutsche.net) in Russian
- 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): 215.
- Klaus, A.A. Our Colonies. Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1869.
- Koch, Fred C. The Volga Germans: In Russia and the Americas, from 1763 to the Present (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977): 311.
- Minkh, A.N. Historical-Geographical Dictionary of the Saratov Province (Saratov, 1898-1903): 696-700.
- Preliminary Results of the Soviet Census of 1926 on the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Pokrovsk, 1927): 28-83.
- Sallet, Richard. Russian-German Settlement in the United States (Fargo, ND: North Dakota Institute for Regional Studies, 1974): 156.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 18.
50.316667, 45.003333
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
Map showing Oberdorf (1935).