Description

Ute Schmidt tells the story of Germans who settled in Bessarabia. In 1813, Tsar Alexander I asked Germans to settle near the Black Sea. Most came from Prussia and southwest Germany. Their community thrived over five or six generations.

This history shows how they settled and shaped farm life. It looks at how they ran their own local affairs. It also shows the role of Protestant ethics, or moral beliefs. The Germans were a small part of the population. They lived among groups with many faiths and ethnic roots. They got on well with their neighbours. These included Moldovans, Russians and Ukrainians, as well as Bulgarians and Jews. They lived on good terms with other groups too.

Bessarabia returned to Romania in 1918. The Germans moved back to their homeland in autumn 1940. This ended 125 years of settlement. Schmidt ends with her own views of the region today. Since 1991, Moldova and Ukraine have each held part of it.

Cristina Grossu-Chiriac translated this edition from German. The book is part of the C(ART)IER series.