Recommended Reading

For this post, I decided to give a few books that talk about Volga-German immigration and Ellis County, Kansas.  I linked to them on Amazon and the Ellis County Historical Society in case you get the urge to buy them:

History of the Volga-Germans in Russia: From Catherine toKhruschev: The Story of Russia’s Germans by Adam Giesinger. 

This book gives you an inside account of the German migration to the Volga in 1764-1767, some of their immigration to the United States, and what happened to that group when Stalin came to power. 

Volga-German immigration to the United States and social customs: Conquering the Wind:An Epic Migration from the Rhine to the Volga to the Great Plains by Amy Brungardt -Toepfer and Agnes Dreiling. (scroll down on the website to find it!)

This book is very famous in Kansas.  It recounts the the journey of these immigrants to Kansas and talks about some of their social customs and how they adapted to life on the great plains.

Ellis County Life: In UnsereLeute; The Volga Germans of West Central Kansas: Aspects of Their History,Politics, Culture and Language.  Edited by William D. Keel et al. (scroll down on the website to find it!)

This book is a collection of essays that by local authors in Kansas who discuss various topics on Volga-German life in Ellis County including: folk medicine, settlement patters, religious services, etc.  It was produced by the Max Kade Institute for German American Studies at the University of Kansas, which does excellent work in this field. 

Those are some of my picks.  These books are very easy to understand, short, and give you a taste of Volga-German life.