[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Migrations of people--Germans to Wohlynia

[Jerry Frank]

At 12:53 PM 16/04/2006, rlyster at telusplanet.net wrote:
>Hi Jerry,
>   You seem well informed of many historical things.  And you made reference
>that Catherine the Great was not responsible for German immigration to Russia
>except for Volga Germans.  Do you then know another reason?  I am very
>interested in understanding this.  Can you recommend some reading?
>   Also have you any more information about resettlement issues due 
> to WWII and
>why these things happened?
>   I am trying to understand the movement of relatives from Wohlynia 
> to Siberia
>to Warthegau and finally to Germany and then to Canada.  Also what was the
>impulse that had these folks also come to "America" in the early 1900's (my
>grandfather Ritz came for a couple of years and then went back).
>   I would be very greatful for any information or links to information that
>you could supply.



I have recently changed jobs which is taking a lot of my time so I am 
unable to provide a detailed answer until a few days from now.  I 
promise to do that.

However, I would like to comment on one of the other responses made 
by Richard Schienke.  Parts of the response are certainly 
valid.  However, the part regarding Catherine the Great requires clarification.

Catherine died in 1796.  There was no significant German presence in 
Volhynia until c.1816 when farmers began to move in.  There was no 
major migration until the time of the first Polish rebellion in the 
early 1830s.  In the 1850s there were only about 5000 Germans in all 
of Volhynia.  The really significant German migration into Volhynia 
did not occur until the second Polish rebellion in the 1860s.  It is 
possible in some remote way that some carry over of Catherine's 
political system had a minor influence on this migration but I would 
suggest that it would have been minimal at best and truly believe 
there was absolutely NO connection.

Catherine's policies also had no influence on the German migration 
into Poland.  Most of that migration started while the central part 
of Poland was part of South Prussia over which she had no 
control.  It did not come under Russian rule until the Congress of 
Vienna in 1815.

I will expound further on the actual reasons for the migration in a 
couple of days.




Jerry Frank - Calgary, Alberta
FranklySpeaking at shaw.ca