Bettinger was founded on 3 August 1767 by colonists who had been recruited by Baron Caneau de Beauregard. It received its name from Karl Christoph Bettinger, the first mayor (Vorsteher) of the colony.
Due to poor soil, the colony was moved from its original location along the banks of the Malenkiy Karaman (Little Karaman) River to a new location along the Volga River in 1770.
Today, the former colony of Bettinger is known as Vorotayevka.
In 1780, Bettinger became the lead parish for the surrounding Lutheran congregations in Schaffhausen, Basel, Biberstein, and Zürich. A new church building made of wood was built in 1871. It was called Peter & Paul Lutheran Church.
In 2000, the skeletal remains of the Bettinger Lutheran Church were still standing, but in 2009, even those were destroyed by fire. All that remains today are the remants of the foundation.
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
35
|
74*
|
46
|
28
|
| 1769 |
40
|
116
|
60
|
56
|
| 1773 |
42
|
139
|
66
|
73
|
| 1788 |
42
|
210
|
117
|
93
|
| 1798 |
46
|
284
|
141
|
143
|
| 1816 |
93
|
560
|
286
|
274
|
| 1834 |
136
|
1,006
|
496
|
510
|
| 1850 |
193
|
1,266
|
625
|
641
|
| 1857 |
195
|
1,446
|
730
|
716
|
| 1859 |
182
|
1,409
|
720
|
689
|
| 1883 |
|
2,080
|
|
|
| 1889 |
|
2,146
|
|
|
| 1894 |
|
|
|
|
| 1897 |
|
2,739**
|
1,382
|
1,357
|
| 1905 |
|
4,184
|
|
|
| 1910 |
451
|
4,366
|
2,250
|
2,116
|
| 1912 |
|
4,452
|
|
|
| 1920 |
576***
|
3,381
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
2,759
|
|
|
| 1926**** |
471
|
2,465
|
1,159
|
1,306
|
| 1931 |
|
3,313*****
|
|
|
*Some sources list 82.
**Of whom 2,727 were German.
***Of which 569 households were German.
****Of whom 2,461 (1,157 male & 1,304 female) were German living in 468 households.
*****Of whom 3,307 were German.
- Bettinger (Wolgadeutsche.net) in Russian
- 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): 348.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- 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): 614.
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 1 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 1999): 131-138.
- Preliminary Results of the Soviet Census of 1926 on the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Pokrovsk, 1927): 28-83.
- Reith, Andreas. Bettinger Lutheran Church, 2009 (online - in Russian).
- Report of Conditions of Settlements on the Volga to Catherine II by Count Orlov, 14 February 1769.
- Schnurr, Joseph. Die Kirchen und das religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen – Evangelischer Teil (Stuttgart: AER Verlag Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Rußland, 1978): 196.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 16.
51.923167, 47.260667
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
Map redrawn from one that was created in 1764. It shows the original location planned for the colony of Bettinger (No. 67) on the banks of the Malenkiy Karaman (Little Karaman) River.
Source: Andreas Reith.
Map showing Bettinger on the left (1935).
Peter & Paul Lutheran Church in Bettinger.
Source: Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Rußland, 1972.
Ruins of the Bettinger Church.
Source: A. Korneva (2000).
Only the foundation of the church remains today.
Source: Olga Litzenberger (2009).
Rendering of the Bettinger Church.
Source: "Немцы Поволжья" website.