Messer was founded on 7 July 1766 along the Zolikha River near its confluence with the Goloi Karamysh by colonists who had been recruited by the Government. The 85 founding colonist families came from the Pfalz, Hessen, and Prussia. A government decree on 26 February 1768 gave Messer its official Russian name of Ust-Zolikha.
Today, what remains of the former colony of Messer is known as Ust-Zolikha.
Originally, Messer was the lead congregation in a group of Reformed parishes that included Moor, Kutter, Kautz, Anton, and Balzer.
A new church building was constructed in an early form of the Kontor Style. It was completed in 1835 and built of wood. A new brick church in the Neo-Classical style was built in Messer in 1912. The ruins of this building stand today.
The following pastors served the congregation in Messer:
1767-1770 Johann Heinrich Fuchs
1770-1778 Johann Georg Herwig
1778-1799 Johannes S. Janet
1797-1804 Aloysius Xaverius Jauch
1804-1818 Josua Graf
1820-1823 Johann Samuel Huber
1823-1850 Immanuel Grunauer
1855-1891 Jakob Friedrich Dettling
1889-1891 Liborius Herbord Behning
1894-1896 Johann Kaminsky
1897-1898 Ernst Althausen
1899-1909 Eduard Seib
1909-1914 Woldemar Lankau
1917-1929 Eduard Hermann Eichhorn
The following served as vicar in the Messer parish:
1897 Johann Romann
Immigrated to the following locations
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
|
1767 |
92
|
308
|
|
|
|
1769 |
85
|
329
|
175
|
154
|
|
1773 |
87
|
397
|
206
|
191
|
|
1788 |
84
|
581
|
287
|
294
|
|
1798 |
86
|
619
|
327
|
292
|
|
1816 |
112
|
960
|
513
|
447
|
|
1834 |
193
|
1,828
|
941
|
887
|
|
1850 |
190
|
2,704
|
1,340
|
1,364
|
|
1857 |
259
|
3,327
|
1,663
|
1,664
|
|
1859 |
198
|
3,403
|
1,712
|
1,691
|
|
1886 |
359
|
3,102
|
1,574
|
1,528
|
|
1891 |
326
|
4,260
|
2,152
|
2,108
|
|
1894 |
348
|
4,627
|
2,305
|
2,322
|
|
1897 |
|
3,403*
|
1,702
|
1,701
|
|
1905 |
|
5,057
|
|
|
|
1910 |
|
5,196
|
|
|
|
1912 |
|
5,295
|
|
|
|
1920 |
611**
|
4,344
|
|
|
|
1922 |
|
3,425
|
|
|
|
1923 |
|
3,200
|
|
|
|
1926*** |
649
|
3,716
|
1,765
|
1,951
|
|
1931 |
|
3,706****
|
|
|
*Of whom 3,375 were German.
**Of which 605 households were German.
***Of whom 3,712 were German (646 households: 1,764 male & 1,948 female).
****Of whom 3,703 were German.
Messer (wolgadeutsche.net) in Russian
- Amburger, Erik. Die Pastoren der evangelischen Kirchen Rußlands (Lüneburg, Germany: Institut Nordostdeutsches Kulturwerk, 1998): 137.
- 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): 351.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- List of Settlements in the Russian Empire in 1859, vol. 38: Saratov Province (St. Petersburg, 1862): 59.
- Mink, A.N. Historical and Geographical Dictionary of the Saratov Province [in Russian] (Saratov, Russia, 1898): 1068-1072.
- Orlov, Gregorii. Report of Conditions of Settlements on the Volga to Catherine II, 14 February 1769.
- 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): 622.
- Pleve, Igor R. The German Colonies on the Volga: The Second Half of the Eighteenth Century, translated by Richard Rye (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2001): 319.
- Preliminary Results of the Soviet Census of 1926 on the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Pokrovsk, 1927): 28-83.
- Schnurr, Joseph, Die Kirchen und das Religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen - Evangelischer Teil (Stuttgart: Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, 1972).
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 19.
50.974667, 45.551333
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
Map showing Messer (1935).
Old Messer Church (built in 1835).
Source: Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Rußland, 1972.
Old Messer Bell Tower.
Source: Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Rußland, 1972.
Architectural renderings of the Reformed Church in Messer.
Source: wolgadeutsche.net via Jorge Bohn.
Messer Reformed Church built in 1912.
Interior of Messer Reformed Church.
Messer church and congregation.
Messer church (ca. 1913).
Source: Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Rußland, 2005.
Ruins of the Messer church.
Ruins of the Messer church.
Messer Volost adminstrative office (ca. 1930).
Messer street scene.