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TheCrimea Germans (German:Krimdeutsche,Ukrainian:Кримські німці,Russian:Крымские немцы) wereethnic German settlers who were invited by Russia to colonize theCrimea as part of theOstsiedlung ("East Settlement").
From 1783 onwards, there was a systematic settlement ofRussians,Ukrainians, andGermans to theCrimean Peninsula (in what was then theCrimean Khanate) in order to weaken theCrimean Tatar population.[citation needed]
The first planned settlements ofGermans in Crimea were founded over 1805–1810 with the support ofCzarAlexander I. The first settlements were:
All of these early colonies were located in theYayla-mountains ofCrimea and were mostlySwabian wine-farmers. However over time onlySudak produced quality wine and the other settlements soon turned to agriculture. The second generation didn't have enough land and soon young men started buying land from theRussian aristocracy and creating new ("daughter") colonies.
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LaterMennonites began to move fromUkraine intoCrimea.
Details are vague but during the 19th century a "German hospital" and dispensary arose in theSimferopol suburb ofNowyj gorod (calledNeustadt or new city—now this isKyivskyi District of Simferopol).[1]
On 18 October 1921, theCrimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created as part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (i.e. part ofRussia). In place of the modernKrasnohvardiiske Raion there were two national districts made for Germans, Biyuk-Onlar and Telman. Under theSoviet Union manyVolksdeutsche were persecuted by gangs ofRussian peasants as landowningKulaks or class enemy "bourgeoisie". In 1939, two years before theirdeportation toCentral Asia, around 60,000 of the 1.1 million inhabitants ofCrimea were German and "they had their own administrative raion in the Crimean Republic.".[2][citation needed]
In late 1941, following theAxisinvasion of the western regions of theUSSR,Soviet authorities forcibly removed almost 53,000 native Germans ofCrimea eastwards toSiberia and Central Asia on entirely spurious allegations that they were spies for theThird Reich. Consequently, many died in transit, although later they could not be seriously blamed forNazi crimes in the region.
"Stalin had no doubts about the loyalty of the ethnic German minority. He considered them all potential traitors, and in line with his inherent "Great Russian" chauvinism, had already decided to deport the entire community to internal exile in case of war. Therefore, when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, a decision was made by Stalin to evacuate all ethnic Germans from the Western Regions of the Soviet Union. The first evacuations, which, in reality, were expulsions, as the inhabitants were never allowed to return to their homes, were decreed by the Supreme Soviet already on June 22. Action to deport every ethnic German from the Crimea began on August 15. Although the decree stated that old people would not have to leave, everyone was expelled—first toStavropol, and thenRostov in Southern Ukraine, near Crimea; but then all were sent on to forced labor camps and special settlements in Kazakhstan, Central Asia. The deportees were not told where they were going, how long they would stay there and how much food to take; they were given only three or four hours to pack. The result was starvation for many and, due to the confusion, the separation of a large number of families. In all, as many as 60,000 ethnic Germans were expelled from the Crimea at this time."[3]
It is unclear whether any Crimea Germans remained at all during theNazi occupation—German policy called for the evacuation of all survivingSovietVolksdeutsche to settlements inPoland.[4] Hitler had claimed that many Germans in Crimea were descended from ancientGoth settlers (theCrimean Goths), and had intended to "reclaim" the peninsula for Germanic speakers.[5]One plan envisaged a special status for Crimea and its hinterland - an ahistoric resurrection of the territory of the ancient Crimean Goths as a purely GermanicGotengau [de] (Goth region) re-settled by ex-SSWehrbauer.[6]TheNaziGeneralkommissar for Crimea, the AustrianAlfred Frauenfeld, toyed with the idea of resettling ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) here fromItalianSouth Tyrol after the war, and he re-labelled several cities of the envisagedGotengau with constructed German/Gothic names: (Simferopol becameGotenburg andSevastopol becameTheoderichshafen, for example, honoring the Goths and theOstrogothic kingTheodoric).[7] By 1950, all ethnic Germans were expelled from Crimea.[8]
CrimeanGermans were only allowed to return to the peninsula afterPerestroika. TheGerman reunification brought a rebirth of Crimean-German culture and, in 1994, they had a small representation in the Crimean Parliament.[citation needed]
The 1991 RSFSR lawOn the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples addressedrehabilitation of all ethnicities repressed in the Soviet Union. However the law had various deficiencies, including unclear legal status of a number of peoples, such as Crimean Tatars and Crimean Germans moved across the borders of Soviet republics, after thedissolution of the Soviet Union.[9] After theannexation of Crimea by Russia, on April 21, 2014Vladimir Putin signed the decree No 268 "О мерах по реабилитации армянского, болгарского, греческого, крымско-татарского и немецкого народов и государственной поддержке их возрождения и развития". ("On the Measures for the Rehabilitation of Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, Crimean Tatar and German Peoples and the State Support of Their Revival and Development"),[10] amended by Decree no. 458 of September 12, 2015.[11] The decree addressed the status of the mentioned peoples which resided inCrimean ASSR and were deported from there.
A few Volksdeutsche colonies were established to harvest cotton, and Alvensleben began referring to Sevastopol as 'Theodorichhafen' and Simferopol as 'Gotenburg' – names that the Wehrmacht never used. Organization Todt was brought to the Crimea, but instead of refurbishing Soviet fortifications or port facilities, they wasted most of their efforts on ridiculous civil-engineering projects. Frauenfeld and Alvensleben tried to erase traces of the old Crimea and replace it with a new Gothic-inspired creation, but the Third Reich proved more adept at destruction than creation.
As the panzers smashed into southern Ukraine and the Crimea in 1942, Himmler received the führer's support for his grand plan of establishing a pure Germanic colony in the ancient heartland of the Goths (it was to be called Gotengau, land of the Goths). This would be repopulated from the west by an SS farmer-soldier peasantry who, through selective breeding (eugenics) would re-establish the Aryan master race in their primal strength and would forever insulate Europe from Asiatics from the east.