​55 Years at NDSU: the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection

By Michael M. Miller

michael.miller@ndsu.edu

My deepest appreciation to our Germans from Russia group for the playing cards and emails, in addition to monetary items to honor my retirement for GRHC’s Germans from Russia Fund. My lifelong dream has been to protect, doc, and enrich the heritage and tradition of our Germans from Russia group – and it doesn’t finish with my retirement. I’ll volunteer at GRHC with particular tasks and work with Prairie Public to provide the Germans from Russia Documentary Collection.

Jeremy shared, “Michael has had a powerful private affect on my life and profession by his help, mentorship, and friendship since 2010. He has linked me to the Germans from Russia group and colleagues all through the world. His legacy of creating and fostering relationships is only one of many issues I hope to hold ahead on the GRHC and the NDSU Libraries.”

Longtime buddy and NDSU colleague Dr. Thomas Isern, College Distinguished Professor of Historical past, stated, “Michael Miller is a person with a mission. He has devoted his working life to the definition, documentation, examine, and group of his individuals, the Germans from Russia. He has created a world-class repository right here at NDSU and has led numerous expeditions overseas for prairie folks to find their old-country roots. He exemplifies what it means to be German-Russian: arduous work, dedication, religion. With NDSU as his platform and base, he has develop into the consummate Bison, excited about all college affairs, absorbed along with his accomplishments in lab and discipline. He’s a paragon in public service.”

Reflecting on my 55 years at North Dakota State College from 1967 to 2022, I wish to share a few of my highlights.

Working with Bob Dambach at Prairie Public as an govt producer, we accomplished ten documentaries of the award-winning Germans from Russia Documentary Collection: The Germans from Russia: Kids of the Steppe, Kids of the Prairie (1999); Schmeckfest: Meals Traditions of the Germans from Russia (2000); Prairie Crosses, Prairie Roses: Iron Crosses of the Nice Plains (2002); A Soulful Sound: Music of the Germans from Russia (2005); Heaven Is Our Homeland: The Glückstalers of New Russia & North America (2005); It’s All Earth and Sky (2010); At House in Russia, At House on the Prairie (2012); We (By no means) Don’t Neglect: Germans from Russia in South America (2015); Gutes Essen: Good Consuming in German-Russian Nation (2017); Ladies Behind the Plow (2019).

Some superb shining stars within the documentaries embody: Theresa (Kuntz) Bachmeier, Rugby, ND, making Cheese Buttons (Kase Knoephla); Anne (Roesch) Larson, Aberdeen, SD, making ready Easter Buns (Kranz); Barbara (Riesling) Schneider, Scott, SK, singing; Theresa (Meier) Eissinger, Napoleon, ND, making Fleischkuechle; Mary Ann (Werre), Lehr, ND, making ready Strudels; Dr. Adam Giesinger, Winnipeg, MB, rising up close to Holdfast, SK; Carolyn (Kuhn) Sperle, age 101, Napoleon, ND, making Borscht Soup; Dr. Paul Wiens, Witmarsum, Brazil, telling the story of Mennonite Germans; Roberto Racho, sharing the Volhynian German settlement in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; Christina (Gross) Jundt, Rugby, ND, sharing about rising up in Balta; Msgr. Joseph Senger recalling rising up on a farm close to Orrin, ND; Ron Volk, Harvey, ND, sharing about wedding ceremony traditions; and Sergio Keiner, Parana, Argentina, about rising up Volga German.

The twenty-three Journey to the Homeland Excursions from 1996 to 2019 to Germany and Ukraine introduced greater than 700 individuals to stroll the steps of their ancestors within the former Bessarabian, Black Sea, and Crimean German villages: Baden, Beresina, Bergdorf, Grossliebental, Hoffnungstal, Kandel, Kassel, Karlsruhe, Katharinental, Kulm, Leipzig, Neudorf, Rastatt, Rosental, Sarata, Selz, Speyer, Strassburg, Tarutino, Worms, Zurichtal, and lots of others.

The Dakota Recollections Oral Historical past Challenge from 2005 to 2009 included 199 interviews of German-Russians in central and western North Dakota, north central South Dakota, and southern Saskatchewan, all obtainable at www.digitalhornizonsonline.org. Many of those interviewees are not dwelling, however their life tales and legacy are shared by the Dakota Recollections Oral Historical past Challenge.

The Father William C. Sherman {Photograph} Assortment contains greater than 13,000 black and white photographs, slides, and negatives of homesteads in central and western North Dakota. Fr. Sherman primarily centered his analysis and images on East European immigrants to North Dakota – Germans from Russia, Hungarian Germans, and Ukrainians. Greater than 4,000 of those photographs can be found at www.digitalhorizonsonline.org.

To have fun and honor this landmark work of Father William Sherman, GRHC employees developed a brand new touring exhibit, “Constructing Life and House on the Prairie.” The exhibit highlights the fabric tradition of early German-Russian settlers and is a celebration of their distinctive tradition, structure, and expertise constructing a life and group on the huge prairie. The exhibit helps maintain the recollections of early homesteads and the households that constructed them. Keep tuned for extra details about an upcoming occasion associated to this venture on April 18, 2023, in Fargo.

For extra details about donating household histories and pictures, or find out how to financially help the GRHC, contact Jeremy Kopp, at jeremy.kopp@ndsu.edu or 701-231-6596; mail to: NDSU Libraries, Dept. 2080, PO Field 6050, Fargo, ND 58108-6050; or go to www.ndsu.edu/grhc. You may additionally contact me immediately at michael.miller@ndsu.edu or 701-231-8416.