Hussenbach

Names

Hussenbach, Linevo Osero, Linevo Ozero, Linjowo Osero, Ustenbach

Location

50º53' N 44º49' E

History

      Hussenbach was founded along the Medvidetsa River as a Lutheran colony on 16 May 1767 by the Crown. The original 118 founding colonists came from Brandenburg, Saxony, Darmstadt, and the Palatinate. Hussenbach was named after the first leader of the colonists.
      On the afternoon of 27 July 1896, a group of 7-8 year-old children were playing in the yard of Heinrich Sippel while the adults were working in the fields. At some point a fire was lit in the yard. The high winds fanned the flames which quickly spread to neighboring yards. By the time the fires were extinguished, 273 homes had been destroyed along with the church and numerous businesses.

Hussenbach's Church

      In the early years, Hussenbach was part of the Frank parish.
      The first church building was constructed of wood in 1785. A new building was completed in 1821 with a new larger church built of wood in 1885. This building was destroyed in the 1896 fire that destroyed most of the colony. A new church was built in 1903-1905 of backstein, a type of adobe. It has been reported that this building could seat 2,500 parishners.

Pastors

      The congregation in Hussenbach was served by the following pastors:

Population

Population Table

Year	Households	Population
		Total	Male	Female
1767
1769	118	438	240	198
1773	115	525	282	243
1788	109	701	359	342
1798	140	910	471	436
1816	180	1,397	694	703
1834	276	2,305	1,170	1,135
1850	289	3,062	1,551	1,511
1857	358	3,578	1,757	1,821
1859		3,678
1886	562	4,380	2,241	2,139
1891	525	6,143	3,141	3,002
1894	537
1897		4,661*	2,340	2,321
1905		7,350
1911		8,198
1912		8,080
1920	748**	6,783
1922		6,554
1923		6,400
1926***	1,036	6,774	3,309	3,465
1931		7,287****
1939		7,137

*Of whom 4,657 are German.
**Of which 746 households were German.
***Of whom 6,727 are German (1,017 households: 3,284 male & 3,443 female).
****Of whom 7,274 are German.

Immigration to the United States

      On 18 March 1918, Sexton Niesen from Hussenbach sent a letter to the United States asking for people to write back. He gave a list of places where people from Hussenbach were living in the United States. Places he listed were Elliot and Lisbon in North Dakota; Minnesota; Rocky Ford, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; and Walla Walla, Washington.

Sources:
- Beratz, Gottieb. The German colonies on the Lower Volga, their origin and early development: a memorial for the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first German settlers on the Volga, 29 June 1764. Translated by Adam Giesinger (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1991): 350.
- Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
- Mink, A.N. Historical and Geographical Dictionary of the Saratov Province [in Russian] (Saratov, Russia, 1898): 569-572.
- Neisen, Sexton. "Who will Write? Who Says 'Yes", Die Welt-Post (Lincoln, NE: 22 April 1926): 5.
- Orlov, Gregorii. Report of Conditions of Settlements on the Volga to Catherine II, 14 February 1769.
- Pallas, P.S. Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs. Theil 3,2, Reise aus Sibirien zurueck an die Wolga im 1773sten Jahr (St. Petersburg: Kaiserl. Academie der Wissenschaften, 1776): 623.
- Pleve, Igor R. The German Colonies on the Volga: The Second Half of the Eighteenth Century, translated by Richard Rye (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2001): 318.
- Preliminary Results of the Soviet Census of 1926 on the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Pokrovsk, 1927): 28-83.
- "Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 18.

External Links

- Hussenbach (wolgadeutsche.net) - in Russian
- Hussenbach (Linevo Osero) Village Webpage (Susan Nakaji)
- Hussenbach Villages of Russia (Patrice Miller)
- Photo gallery of Arthur Staff.

Last updated 31 May 2013.

Map showing Hussenbach (1935).

Drawing of the
Hussenbach Lutheran Church
that was built in 1885.
Destroyed by fire in 1896.
Photo published in Heimatbuch der Deutschen aus Russland, 1969-1972. Stuttgart, 1972.

Hussenbach Lutheran Church (ca.1900)
Photo courtesy of Elena Sirotkina.

Hussenbach Lutheran Church (1937)

In the background is Hussenbach's former Lutheran Church (1960s).
Source: Andrei Fetisov.

Map of Hussenbach (1940).
Source: wolgadeutsche.net

Cannery under construction
in Hussenbach (1933).
Source: Arthur Staff.

House in Hussenbach (2009).
Former home of G. Schwarz Family.
Built in 1902.
Source: Georgi Spach