Schönchen was founded as a Roman Catholic colony on 3 August 1767 by Baron Caneau de Beauregard on the banks of the Malenkiy Karaman (Little Karaman) River. The land there was not suitable for farming and in 1770 the colony was relocated to better land on the bank of the Volga River northeast of Katharinenstadt, between the colonies of Zug and Wittmann.
Schönchen received its Russian name after Count N. I. Panin (1718-1783).
The colony of Schönchen no longer exists although its streets are still visible in satellite images.
A new Catholic church was built in Schönchen in the Kontor Style in 1903.
The congregation in Schönchen was served by the following priests:
- 1803-1806 Ferdinand Maitre (Mätr)
- 1806-1807 Franz Cornet (Korne)
- 1808-1814 Joseph Caffasso
- 1814-1820 Georg Schneylin
- 1866-1869 Balthasar Kraft
- 1869-1910 Georg Liebham
- ~1901 Bitkewitsch
- ~1909-1910 Alexander Eberhardt
- 1911 and 1912 Alexander Staub
- 1913-? Georg Dötzel
- 1928 Peter Riedel
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
|
63
|
|
|
| 1769 |
42
|
127
|
64
|
63
|
| 1773 |
54
|
198
|
98
|
100
|
| 1788 |
49
|
150
|
128
|
122
|
| 1798 |
46
|
256
|
137
|
119
|
| 1816 |
76
|
418
|
222
|
196
|
| 1834 |
110
|
786
|
378
|
408
|
| 1850 |
135
|
1,074
|
556
|
518
|
| 1857 |
146
|
1,218
|
627
|
591
|
| 1859 |
|
|
|
|
| 1883 |
|
1,815
|
|
|
| 1889 |
|
1,951
|
|
|
| 1897 |
|
2,419*
|
1,196
|
1,223
|
| 1904 |
|
|
|
|
| 1910 |
490
|
3,000
|
1,502
|
1,498
|
| 1912 |
|
3,132
|
|
|
| 1920 |
470
|
3,016
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
1,155
|
|
|
| 1923 |
|
1,515
|
|
|
| 1926** |
385
|
1,904
|
905
|
999
|
| 1931 |
|
2,523***
|
|
|
*Of whom 2,399 were German.
**Of whom 1,903 (905 male & 998 female) were German living in 384 households.
***Of whom 2,517 were German.
Schönchen (wolgadeutsche.net) in Russian
Schönchen, Russia
Schönchen (Paninskaya) (Webbitt.com)
Schoenchen (Paninskaja), Russia (Kevin Rupp)
- 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): 352.
- 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 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 11, 105-109.
- Pleve, Igor R. The German Colonies on the Volga: The Second Half of the Eighteenth Century (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2001): 316.
- Preliminary Results of the Soviet Census of 1926 on the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Pokrovsk, 1927): 28-83.
- 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, Katholischer Teil (Stuttgart, 1980).
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 17.
51.863333, 47.093667
Migrated From
Immigration Locations
Map redrawn from one that was created in 1764. It shows the original location planned for the colony of Schönchen (No. 58) on the banks of the Malenkiy Karaman (Little Karaman) River.
Source: Andreas Reith.
Map showing Schönchen (1935).
Schönchen Catholic Church.
Source: Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Rußland, 1972.