History and Church Leaders

During the early years of settlement in Russia, the Volga German suffered from a lack of pastors to serve the colonies. Despite the great preponderance of Protestants, few pastors came or stayed with the colonists due to the meager salaries of the clergy who were faced with ministering to scattered parishes often numbering over 2,000 souls. The lack of pastors became an acute problem.  By 1805, there were only fifteen Protestants pastors in the entire colonial enclave, these living in Messer, Grimm, Beideck, Galka, Dietel, Frank, Norka, Stephan, Jagodnaja Poljana, Saratov, Rosenheim, Warenburg, Bettinger and two in Katharinenstadt.  Protestant seminaries were eventually built to provide students with a better chance of studying closer to home. Despite this fact, shortages persisted and even up to 1910, there were between three to five colonies in a Kirchenspiel (or parish).

The University of Dorpat (now the University of Tartu) in Estonia was the nearest theological school but the great distance and expense virtually prevented enrollment by eligible Volga German men.

Norka became a parish center for the Bergseite region which included three colonies: Norka, Huck and Neu-Messer. By 1906, Joseph Schnurr states that the parish had a church membership of 23,179 souls served by one pastor. This parish, like the others, came under the direction of the Moscow Evangelical Lutheran Consistory.

The pastor lived in Norka since it was the largest village of the parish and as result the parsonage was built there. From Norka, the pastor traveled to each congregation within the parish nearly every week.

The clergy, in addition to a state salary, were granted a payment of 180 rubles, which was secured by way of a special collection (Steuer) from the colonist's families. Large families paid 96 kopeks, medium families paid 80 kopeks and small families 64 kopeks. In addition, he received free horses for travel and an additional payment for maintenance of his own horses at a rate set by special negotiation with member of his parish a verified by the district commissar. The pastor also received payment of wheat, rye, barley, hay, potatoes and wood. On the average the salary of a clergyman reached 500 to 600 rubles as opposed to a common laborer who earned about 12 rubles per year.

 

1897-1901?

Woldemar Emil Arthur Sibbul

Sibbul was of Estonian heritage b. Dorpat 25.8. 1869, d. Berlin 16.2. 1947. F.: Georg S. merchant; M.: Elisabeth Makkar.  m. Saratov 10.1. 1901 Olga Kindsvater, b. Saratov 26.10. 1878, d. Hamburg 14.12. 1972, daughter of Alexander K. and Natalie Mueller. Gymnasium (high school-college) Dorpat, 1891-96 student of theology Dorpat, 9.2. 1897 ordained in Norka (province of Saratov) as the assistant pastor there, 1901-20 in Irkutsk; 1921-25 religion instructor at the Cathedral School in Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia), 1921-39 Pastor Vicar there, inspector (supervisor?) of the Evening Middle School.

 

1910-1913

David Weigum

   

Reverend David Weigum

b. Ludwigstal (province of Ekaterinoslav) 24.10. 1874, d. Liestal (Switzerland) 24.10. 1952.  F.: Joseph W.; M.: Christine Weidner. m. Oftringen (Canton of Aargau, Switzerland) 13.5. 1903 Klara Pluess, b. Rothrist (Canton Aargau) 29.11. 1872, d. Riehen (Canton Basel) 31.12. 1965, daughter of Samuel P. and Marie Weber.  1894-97, 1899-1901 student of theology Basel.  1903-05 P. of the separtist congregation Neu-Hoffnung (Tauria or Taurida?). 2.7. 1906 ordained in Neudorf (province of Cherson), 1906-10 P. there, 1910-13 Norka (province of Saratov). He moved to Appenzell, Switzerland, 1913-37 P. of the Reformed diaspora congregation Appenzell-Inner-Rhoden. Retired, lived in Riehen near Basel.

Below is a reduced copy of the official document appointing David Weigum as pastor at Norka. This was the standard form of appointment for all pastors under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Evangelical-Lutheran Consistory, which included those serving in both Lutheran and Reformed parishes in the Volga region.

Document appointing David Weigum as pastor of Norka

The appointment, formally, came "on command" of the Tsar himself, His Imperial Majesty, the Autocrat of all the Russians, etc., etc., but was made through the Moscow Evangelical­Lutheran Consistory. The wording of the document, in translation, is as follows:

Pastor David Weigum, having been called as preacher by the parish of Norka and having been confirmed in office through an order of the governor of Saratov on 12 July of this year, is hereby installed as pastor of the parish of Norka, situated in the Kamyshin district of the province of Saratov, with the duty to serve faithfully the parish entrusted to him, on the basis of Holy Scrip­ture and according to the liturgical books of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church, in exact fulfill­ment of church law, with pure doctrine and the administration of the sacraments, and in all other obligations, and to give good example by an irreproachable life, such as is expected of a servant of Christ and such as he can answer for before God, his conscience and the authorities. In return he is assured of all the rights that are his as pastor of the parish of Norka and is granted all the needed protection of the authorities.

Moscow, 29 July 1910.

Seal of the Ev.-Luth. Consistory                   Signatures of Consistory Officials Pastor

David Weigum served in Norka for three years, 1910-1913. Old Pastor Wilhelm Stärkel, who had been pastor in Norka 1878-1908, was then still alive and was living in retirement in the Norka parsonage. The Weigum children, so Dr. Walter Weigum informs us, were fond of the old man: "he had himself become somewhat childish and was obviously a good playmate."

1913-1925

Friedrich Alexander Wacker

The Rev. Friedrich Alexander Wacker was born in Kamyshin on 8 April 1886, the son of Volga German colonist Georg W. Wacker and Dorothea Reisich.  He died after 1938.  He married Clara (surname unknown).  He attended high school and college in Astrakhan.  From 1909-1912, he was a theology student at the seminary in Dorpat, Estonia.  He was ordained on 3 November 1913 and served the Norka parish from then until 1925.  He became dean of the parishes of the Bergseite colonies and theological director of the pastor’s seminary in Leningrad.  In 1930, he was exiled to Martyskino, near Oranienbaum until 1934 and not permitted to serve as a pastor during that time.  According to Schnurr, he was still alive in 1938.

 

1925-1934

Emil Pfeiffer

b. (Norka, province of Saratov) 1891.  Teacher. Until 1924 private theological courses in Leningrad (with Bishop Malmgren).  1925-34 P. Norka (province of Saratov). He served Norka, Huck and Beideck. Married to Anna Frederick Pfeifer. Emil Pfeiffer was arrested in 1935 and resettled near Alma Ata. Later shot. Brother of Pastor Arthur Pfeiffer. His daughter Edith Muethel (October 2002) lives in St. Petersburg and is a member of St. Peter and St. Anne Evangelical Lutheran Church, Nevsky Prospect 22-24, 191186 St. Petersburg, Russia. She was born in 1919 in Saint-Petersburg and lived in Norka from 1927-1933. Her memoirs were written in 1994 and were published in Germany as part of an evangelical church calendar for 2001.

From the memoirs Edith Muethel: "the village consists of ten lines of houses and five very long streets on which part of the houses are made from from clay, brick or logs, covered with boards or iron sheets… the houses border on an old cemetery. In spite of the fact that the village existed for more than one hundred years, this is still the first cemetery. The paths in the cemetery were well well-groomed. It was planted with lilacs and roses, a white acacia, birches, aspens and elms - a botanical garden. There I could hide with a book and quietly read. In the village of Norka there were five schools, but teachers did not communicate directly with us, as it was forbidden to them. Father gave lessons to us.

Read more about Norka from Edith Muethel's diary

Note: All the localities listed in the extracts are located in Russia or in Germany unless otherwise stated. Dorpat is now called Tartu and Reval is now called Tallinn. Today they are cities located in Estonia.