Neu-Kolonie was founded in 1776 [some sources site 1787] by colonists from Keller and Leitsinger, colonies that were abandoned following their destruction by the Kirghiz in October of 1774. Most of the colonists were Roman Catholic.
Neu-Kolonie was completely inundated by the creation of the Volgograd Reservoir in 1961. Nothing remains of the former colony of Neu-Kolonie.
The original colonists who settled in Neu-Kolonie were Roman Catholic.
The congregation in Neu-Kolonie was first served by the priests from the colony of Preuss. Beginning in 1821, the priests from the parish headquarted in Seelmann began serving the congregation in Neu-Kolonie. In 1858, the Catholic congregation in Neu-Kolonie became an independent parish with a resident priest of its own.
During the first few decades, the colonists worshiped in a Bethaus (a facility that served as both a church and a school). In 1816, a new Bethaus was constructed. In 1839, the colonists built the first wooden church on a stone foundation and dedicated it to St. Francis Seraph. A new church was constructed in 1901 and consecrated on 21 August 1901 by Bishop Zerr.
The Catholic church [old Bethaus?] in Neu-Kolonie was dismantled in 1870 and sold to the colonists resettling to the daughter colony of Streckerau.
The church in Neu-Kolonie was closed by decree of the Central Executive Committee of the ASSR of the Volga Germans dated 10 July 1936.
The parish in Neu-Kolonie was served by the following priests:
- Johannes Vetsch (1884-1887)
- Johannes Fix (1903-1905)
- Josef A. Paul (1916-1924)
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1788 |
|
133
|
|
|
| 1798 |
|
250
|
|
|
| 1816 |
|
368
|
|
|
| 1834 |
|
598
|
|
|
| 1850 |
125
|
1,010
|
522
|
488
|
| 1857 |
141
|
1,166
|
607
|
559
|
| 1859 |
|
1,190
|
|
|
| 1886 |
|
|
|
|
| 1889 |
|
1,992
|
|
|
| 1894 |
|
|
|
|
| 1897 |
|
2,207*
|
1,115
|
1,092
|
| 1905 |
|
3,134
|
|
|
| 1910 |
|
3,307
|
|
|
| 1912 |
|
3,463
|
|
|
| 1920 |
490**
|
2,816
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
1,503
|
|
|
| 1926 |
398
|
1,904***
|
903
|
1,001
|
| 1931 |
|
2,252
|
|
|
*Of whom 2,188 were German.
**Of which 487 households were German.
***Of whom 1,901 were German (396 households: 901 male & 1,000 female).
Neu-Kolonie (Dick Kraus)
Neu-Kolonie (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): 351.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- Mai, Brent Alan, 1798 Census of the German Colonies along the Volga: Economy, Population, and Agriculture (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1999), v.1: 166.
- Preliminary Results of the Soviet Census of 1926 on the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Pokrovsk, 1927): 28-83.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 16.
50.733333, 45.766667
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
Map showing Neu-Kolonie (1935).
Wind orchestra in Neu-Kolonie.
Source: João Vicente Akwa.
Copy of the document transferring the church building to the colonists in Streckerau.
Source: João Vicente Akwa
The new Catholic Church in Neu-Kolonie.
Source: Olga Litzenberger.