[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Leaving Volhynia

[Richard Benert]

This has gotten a bit removed from Eduardo's original question, but the question raised by Mauricio and Richard about the invitation to resettle in Prussia and Posen is answerable with some reading.  This offer of land in Posen by the German government is a matter that seems to be not very well known.  I stumbled across it years ago when doing research on some families that moved there about 1906 from Volhynia.  It's a sorry chapter in German history in which some of our people became unwitting  participants. You can get a pretty good overview on Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Eastern_Marches_Society.<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Eastern_Marches_Society>  The only book on it in English that I know of is Richard Tims, Germanizing Prussian Poland.  The H-K-T Society and the Struggle for the Eastern Marches in the German Empire, 1894-1919 (New York, 1941).  This Society represented the worst side of this episode.  It didn't have the ear of everyone in the German government.  The work of the Königlich Preußische Ansiedlungskommission in den Provinzen Westpreußen und Posen (The Royal Prussian Settlement Commission in the Provinces of West Prussia and Posen--founded in 1894) can also be found on Wikipedia and elsewhere.

Dick

On 1/1/2017 8:08 PM, Richard J Flanagan wrote:

Dick,

        I have the same experience in our family group.  My wife's
great-grandfather, his eldest and youngest sons and all the unmarried girls
went to Prussia while all the other sons (four of them) came to Canada to
homestead - all in 1905 from Volhynia.   I have always assumed that the
Russo-Japanese War had something to do with it.  It was in full swing in
1905.  I have the impression that because they were tenant farmers and not
landowners they were more susceptible to conscription.  I have seen plenty
of printed posters in Russian from the Canadian Government of the time
offering land for homesteading in Canada but I have never heard of Germany
inviting Volhynian settlers back to Prussia.

        My wife's great-grandfather did well in Prussia and he and his son
both owned farms near Graduenz (now Grudziądz) - all of which was lost in
1945.  Half the family survived the trek back to Germany in 1945 and then
came to Canada as refugees.  The others simply disappeared and we continue
to look for them and their descendants.

        Richard

-----Original Message-----
From: Ger-Poland-Volhynia [mailto:ger-poland-volhynia-bounces at sggee.org] On
Behalf Of Mauricio Norenberg
Sent: 21 December, 2016 3:13 PM
To: Richard Benert <benovich at live.com><mailto:benovich at live.com>
Cc: ger-poland-volhynia at sggee.org<mailto:ger-poland-volhynia at sggee.org>
Subject: Re: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Leaving Volhynia

I have the same theory with my ancestors. They "disappeared" from Volhynia
from 1905 to 1908 (the year they left Europe) Much later in 1914 I found
another family branch exiting Europe declaring Pommern as their residence.

Are there any records or sources of research for these invitations from the
German government?

Thanks


On 22 December 2016 at 07:47, Richard Benert <benovich at live.com><mailto:benovich at live.com> wrote:



Eduardo,

What is that "short period" in which they appeared in West Prussia?
If it was in or around 1906-07, they probably had responded to the
invitation sent out by the German government to acquire land in that
area in hopes of increasing its percentage of German population.

Dick Benert


On 12/21/2016 10:14 AM, Eduardo Kommers wrote:


Dear friends,

What is known until now in terms of period/range and exit routes
related


to


Germans when they left Volhynia?

I'm asking it for a better understanding about what happened to my


ancetors


when they left Europe. After they lived for almost 30 years in
Volhynia (Zhitomir region) they appeared for a short period in the
West Prussia (Strasburg), now Poland, and than 6 months later they
left Europe through Marseille, France to go to Brazil.

Thanks for sharing your experience or anyother information.

Eduardo Kommers
_______________________________________________
Ger-Poland-Volhynia site list
Ger-Poland-Volhynia at sggee.org<mailto:Ger-Poland-Volhynia at sggee.org>
https://www.sggee.org/mailman/listinfo/ger-poland-volhynia
.





---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

_______________________________________________
Ger-Poland-Volhynia site list
Ger-Poland-Volhynia at sggee.org<mailto:Ger-Poland-Volhynia at sggee.org>
https://www.sggee.org/mailman/listinfo/ger-poland-volhynia



_______________________________________________
Ger-Poland-Volhynia site list
Ger-Poland-Volhynia at sggee.org<mailto:Ger-Poland-Volhynia at sggee.org>
https://www.sggee.org/mailman/listinfo/ger-poland-volhynia

.





________________________________
[Avast logo] <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient>

This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
www.avast.com<https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient>