[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] German citizenship

[Richard Benert]

Thank you for the thanks, Richard.  I should probably add a footnote to what
I wrote.  While it is very true that our people left Russia for some very
good reasons, and that among these reasons were the measures the Russian
government took to make life difficult for the German colonists--indeed, to
force them out if possible--, there lurks in the back of my mind the fact
that so many Germans remained there, and that the Russians were still
complaining about growing German population and land-ownership right up to
1914.  I wonder whether, when the full story is told (unlikely as this
possibility is), we'll learn that these anti-German measures were perhaps
enforced only sporadically, unevenly and/or inefficiently.  I wonder whether
some Germans might have benefitted from the inattention or even--perish the
thought--the sympathy of some local officials, or from their ability to work
out deals with local officials.  I hasten to say that these are just
possibilities, in my mind, not anything I have made decisions about.  There
is no doubt that the general attitude of the government, from the 1880s to
1917 (I arbitrarily avoid the Soviet period), was anything but sympathetic
to the Germans, especially those in the western provinces who appeared to
fevered Russian minds to be there for suspicious strategic reasons.  But
within that overall atmosphere, many of our ancestors managed to stay there
and raise families.  Short of exhaustive research in Volhynian archives,
family stories could shed light on such questions as these--if we only knew
them!

Dick Benert
----- Original Message -----
From: "rrohn at mts.net" <rrohn at mb.sympatico.ca>
To: " Richard Benert" <benovich at montanadsl.net>;
<ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 4:43 AM
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] German citizenship


> Hi Richard,
>
> Thank you for the description of the political climate and events that
> existed when our ancestors left for America. I am sure these laws and
their
> effects played a large part in their decisions. We can study history,
dates
> and events, however an analysis such as yours pulls it all together and
> provides a good understanding of the results we see.
>
> My grandparents have been gone for some time and I did not have the
> opportunity to get this information from them when I was younger.
>
>
>
> Keep up the good work.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> Richard Rohn
>
>
>
> Researching: ROHN, FREITAG, WALTA, PLATZ, BRINGAR, DRILLING.
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: " Richard Benert" <benovich at montanadsl.net>
> To: <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
> Sent: Sunday, February 02, 2003 10:05 PM
> Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] German citizenship
>
>
> > A few days ago the question of ethnic Germans in Russia with German
> > citizenship came up.  I think I'm one of the people Dave Obee referred
to
> > when he mentioned that having German citizenship seems to have made it
> > easier to get out of Russia.  This, at least, is the story told of my
> uncle,