Katharinenfeld was established in 1818 by Swabian German
settlers and was known as; Luxemburgand Boinisi. The village was located in the District of Tbilisi in the
present country of Georgia as a Mother colony. The Volga German Institute
stated the Volga villagers of Fisher relocated to the Caucasus. It is likely
that many other villagers from the Volga also took advantage of the newly
available land.
Two great maps for Katharinenfeld are; map 13 from AHSGR and
the “Germans from Russia Settlement Locations, hosted by Sandy Schilling Payne
(https://wwww.germansfromrussiasettlementlocations.org).
Latitude/Longitude is listed as 41.4502, 44.5489
My favorite Caucasus gazetteer is, “Atlas of the
Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus” by Arthur Tsutsiev.
The vast area of the Caucasus was controlled by numerous tribes
and countries, conflict was common as each struggled to maintain control of
this resource rich area. The first stage
of Russian colonization of the Caucasus was a period of military absorption of
local groups. Russia instilled their
form of government upon the newly acquired lands. Later German peasants were encouraged to establish
villages in the North and South Caucasus areas.
Life for these newly arrived farmers varied from location to
location, some fared better than others.
August 27, 1826 hundreds of Kurds, Turks, Persians and
Tatars raided Katharinenfeld and murdered a large portion of the population. Surviving
villagers rebuilt Katharinenfeld. Winegrowing was a very successful endeavor and
resulted in prosperity.
In 1941 villagers were forcibly deported to Kazakhstan and
Siberia. The Wilhelm Biedlingmaier family was able to survive and wrote about
their experiences. I recently gained access to, “Das Ahnenbuch Von
Katharinenfeld in Georgien, Kaukasus Chronic Der Familien” Contact me if you need a look-up. I was thrilled to see the family name of
Stark.
The search continues for any information on this and other
villages. Please share what you have
learned. Contact me anytime.
Dee Hert, Village Coordinator
deeehert@gmail.com
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