VGI Updates

Helene Fischer, daughter of Peter & Maria Fischer, is a German pop singer and entertainer. She is the recipient of two Echo Awards and has many No. 1 hits on German and Austrian charts.

Helene was born 5 August 1984 in the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. Her grandparents had been deported in 1941 from the Volga German Republic.

She and her family immigrated to Germany in 1988 when she was 4, and settled in Wöllstein in Rhineland-Palatinate. She has an older sister, Erica.

Gustav Otto Richard Reusch ("Richard") was born 31 October 1891 in Bettinger. He was the brother of Pastor Emil Reusch.

His father Gustav was a teacher, and the family moved to Pyatigorsk in the Northern Caucasus in 1897 where they lived among the Terek Cossacks. In 1904 the family moved to Vladikavkas and Richard was sent to live at the Imperial Cadet Corps and enrolled in a military high school. In 1911 he became mountaineer, graduating first in his class, and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant.

Georg "George" Eichler, son of Johann Jakob Eichler & Anna Elisabeth Rutz, was born 9 October 1875 in Dönhof. He married there to Maria Katharina Gomer on 25 February 1897. He immigrated with his family on 24 September 1902 aboard the SS Neckar to Baltimore, Maryland. They settled first in Burlington, Iowa.

He was ordained in 1916 in Fort Collins, Colorado, and served parishes in Paul, Idaho; Lamar, Colorado; Walla Walla, Washington; Follett, Texas; Berthoud & Crook, Colorado; and Yoder, Wyoming.

Johnny Hopp was an American baseball player, with a 14-year career (1939-1952) in the big leagues at outfielder and first base. He appeared in five World Series, winning two of them with the St. Louis Cardinals and two with the New York Yankees. Following his playing career, Hopp was a Detroit Tigers coach and part of the St. Louis Cardinals staff.

Florentina Seitz, better known as "Sister Bernarda," was born in General Acha, La Pampa Prov., Argentina, on 19 June 1927. She was daughter of Heinrich and Barbara (Staub) Seitz. She entered a convent of the Holy Cross at age 16.

Frederick V (31 March 1723 – 14 January 1766) ruled Denmark from 1746 until his death. Under his invitation, about 4,000 German colonists immigrated from southern and southwestern Germany between 1759 and 1762 to the duchy of Schleswig Holstein, which was at that time under his control. Many of these colonists did not like their new homes in Schleswig-Holstein and returned to Germany. Others deserted the Danish colonies and joined the migration to Russia that began in 1764.

Father Johannes Fix was born in 1864 in Franzfeld in the Odessa District. He graduated from the Saratov Seminary and was ordained 6 September 1887. He served in the following parishes: Rosental (1901-1903), Neu-Kolonie (1903-1905), Pfeifer (1905-1911), Mariental - Odessa District (1911-1915), Kleinliebental - Odessa District (1915-1928), and Baden in Germany (1928-1930). He went into hiding in 1921 for some time following the "Clergy Uprising" in which he participated. He was arrested in 1931 during the sweep of Catholic clergy.

Emmanuel Bader (1881-1938) served as the last deacon in the colonies of Louis and Mariental beginning in 1928.

Peter Weigel, son of Johannes Weigel, was born 12 July 1892 in the Volga German colony of Herzog.

He studied theology at the Saratov Roman Catholic Theological Seminary and was ordained in 1916. He also studied at the University of Göttingen and also the Gregorian University in Rome. He served as a missionary in Africa, Paraguay, Brazil, and Peru.

He served in the parish of the Volga German colony of Herzog. In 1921, he became the vicar of the Mariental parish (serving along with Dean Nikolaus Kraft).

Father Nikolaus Kraft was born 6 December 1875 in the German colony of Kleinliebental in the Odessa District. He studied theology at the Catholic Seminary in Saratov and was ordained 2 May 1899.

He served his home parish of Kleinliebental and later in the colony of Christina in Ukraine. From 1907-1921 he served the Volga German parish of Mariental.