[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] proverb

[Richard Benert]

Thanks to Detlef and to Otto for refreshing my memory about this proverb. 
The reason I asked the question was that a seemingly corrupted version of it 
appeared in a booklet published in 1911 by the German Group of the Union of 
17 October (the Germans in the Octobrist party) in defense of the German 
colonists in Volhynia.   Stolypin had recently submitted a bill to the Duma 
to restrict German land-buying, and the book (which has just been translated 
by Kate Wertmiller in Kiev) was intended to counter his bill by arguing that 
the colonists were no threat to Russia and had in fact done it much good in 
spite of the labors and hardships they had gone through.  Accordingly, their 
version of the proverb was, "The first one dies of too much work, the second 
one dies of too much hunger, and the third one still has no bread." So I 
suppose the next question is whether there had in fact been another, much 
bleaker, version of the proverb (perhaps perpetuated by people who never got 
past the "Not" stage?), or the men of the Union made this version up for the 
occasion.

Dick B.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Detlef Gutzmann" <Detlef.Gutzmann at tu-clausthal.de>
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2012 3:26 AM
To: <ger-poland-volhynia at eclipse.sggee.org>
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] proverb

>
> Approximate wording of the proverb
>
> Die Eltern haben den Tod
> Die Kinder haben Not
> Die Enkel haben Brot
>
>
> Certainly a bad translation, perhaps someon could do it better:
>
> The parents got death
> The children got [need / poverty]
> The grandchildren got bread [normal life]
>
>
> Am 23.04.2012 06:59, schrieb Richard Benert:
>> Could someone with a better memory than mine please give me at least the 
>> approximate wording of the German/Russian proverb ( or was it 
>> specifically Volhynian German?) that compared the horrid existence of the 
>> first generation to settle in Russia with the somewhat better life of the 
>> second generation, and finally with the third generation which could 
>> finally benefit from all the work of the first two?  I wish I could offer 
>> a prize to the first person with the correct answer, but you'll just have 
>> to settle for my sincere thanks.
>>
>> Dick Benert
>> _______________________________________________
>> Ger-Poland-Volhynia Mailing List hosted by
>> Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe http://www.sggee.org
>> Mailing list info at http://www.sggee.org/communicate/mailing_list
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ger-Poland-Volhynia Mailing List hosted by
> Society for German Genealogy in Eastern Europe http://www.sggee.org
> Mailing list info at http://www.sggee.org/communicate/mailing_list
>
>
>
> -----
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 2012.0.1913 / Virus Database: 2411/4954 - Release Date: 04/23/12
>