Michael M. Miller, director and bibliographer of the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection at NDSU Libraries, will lead the 16th Journey to the Homeland Tour group to Ukraine and Germany May 20-30. The tour will include stops at Odessa, Ukraine; the former Bessarabian and Black Sea German villages; Stuttgart, Germany; and Alsace, France.
Arve Moser, a native of Medina, N.D., who lives in Sartell, Minn., will attend the tour. "As a full-blooded German from Russia with all my grandparents as direct ancestors from Russia, I have a deep, almost yearning, desire to visit where they came from. I want to see the landscapes and anything else remaining that will take me back in time and allow me to understand the culture a bit more," Moser said. "There are so many cultural influences during my childhood that have shaped me into who I am today and I simply continue to need to know more. In looking back, it seems, the more I found out about the Germans from Russia, the more I know that if ever possible, I need to do the tour."
Gilbert and Audrey Schauer, Longview, Wash., and their daughter, Tauni from New Mexico, also will go on the tour. "As I was growing up, my dad never talked about the place where he was born, which was Neudorf. I think maybe he was too young to really remember too much about it," said Gilbert, a Wishek, N.D. "My mother and I had a much closer relationship. In the spring, she and I would walk out in the pasture looking for turkey nests. She always raised a lot of turkeys. Mother and I would talk about where she was born and raised. Sometimes she would say it would be nice if one of her kids could go over and see where she was born. Mother had 12 children with me being the youngest. Now, I will be traveling to the village where mother was born. I am sure when I get there she will be clapping her hands up in heaven very excited."
Miller will attend the national gathering of the Bessarabian Germans on May 30 at Ludwigsburg, Germany, with more than 6,000 people attending. While in Berlin on June 1, he will meet with Ute Schmidt, author of the book, "Bessarabien: Deutsche Kolonisten am Schwarzen Meer" (“Bessarabia: German Colonists on the Black Sea") to be published in the English language by the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection in 2011.
The 17th Journey to the Homeland Tour is scheduled for May 18-28, 2011. For more information, contact Miller at 1-8416 or visit www.ndsu.edu/grhc.
