Heinrich Bretter, son of Johann Heinrich & Anna Maria Bretter, was baptized 27 February 1735 in Wolfenhausen. He married Maria Julianna. The baptisms of two of their sons are recorded in the parish register of Wolfenhausen: (1) Johann Georg, baptized 8 August 1759; and (2) Philipp Heinrich, baptized 11 April 1761.
Heinrich Bretter, a farmer, his wife Maria Julianna, and children (Johann Georg, age 8; Philipp Heinrich, age 6; Philipp Jakob, age 2½) arrived from Lübeck at the port of Oranienbaum on 14 June 1766 aboard a ship named Die Neue Fortuna (The New Fortune) under the command of Skipper Ahrens Steingraber.
Henrich Brether [sic] is recorded on a list of colonists being transported from St. Petersburg to Saratov in 1767.
Heinrich Bretter, his wife Maria Julianna, and sons (Johann, age 8; Philipp Heinrich, age 6) settled in the Volga German colony of Warenburg on 12 May 1767 and are recorded there on the 1767 census in Household No. 162.
Widow Margaretha Breder [sic] is recorded on the 1798 census of Warenburg in Household No. Wr104.
The Oranienbaum passenger list records that Heinrich Bretter came from the German region of Runkel. The 1767 census records that he came from the German village of Wolfenhausen in the region of Runkel.
There are no known surviving male lines of this Bretter family among the Volga German colonies.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Auswanderung deutscher Kolonisten nach Russland im Jahre 1766 (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2019): 30.
- Idt, Andreas and Georg Rauschenbach. Deutsche Kolonisten im Jahr 1766 in Oranienbaum und in den Siedlungsorten: Die Kuhlberg-Listen (Moscow: Idt & Rauschenbach, 2024): 277.
- 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): Wr104.
- Parish register of Wolfenhausen (LDS Film No. 1195145).
- Pleve, Igor. Einwanderung in das Wolgagebiet, 1764-1767 Band 4 (Göttingen: Der Göttinger Arbeitskreis, 2008): 346.
- Pleve, Igor. Lists of Colonists to Russia in 1766: Reports by Ivan Kulberg (Saratov: Saratov State Technical University, 2010): #2015.
- Rauschenbach, Georg. Deutsche Kolonisten auf dem Weg von St. Petersburg nach Saratow: Transportlisten von 1766-1767 (Moscow: G.V. Rauschenbach, 2017): #1778.
Wayne Bonner
Brent Mai