Many current Medicine Hat residents can identify themselves and their ancestors as being proudly, “Germans from Russia”. Indeed a great deal of academic research has been carried out and a “Germans from Russia Society” has been established at the University of North Dakota. Medicine Hat has its own ‘Germans from Russia’ Heritage Society. The Medicine Hat and District Germans from Russia Society was founded in 2005 and was instrumental in working to complete the Legacy Project–the dedication of the Jim Hauser life sized bronze statue, which is inscribed as “Germans from Russia and their descendants dedicate this monument to all immigrant pioneer settlers in Western Canada as a tribute to their sacrifice in building this new land of freedom and opportunity.”
The Bronze sculpture is situated in front of the Esplanade in Medicine Hat. Few are fully aware, both from a historical or genealogical perspective of the significance of the mass exodus of German-speaking people from the Russian Empire to North America and beyond in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
Here is an interesting story of self -discovery, which may be of interest to those “Hatters” who proudly claim as their ancestors “Germans from Russia”. It is entitled “Regards from South America”
Hi, Bill! Many thanks for another very interesting article. The piece was of great interest to my wife, Arline (maiden name “Schneider”). Her family’s oral history includes a reference to her grandmother’s not wanting her sons to go off to fight a war, so “Canada, here we come”! This explains why Arline grew up in a German-speaking area of south-eastern Alberta, and why German is the first language Arline spoke. (I have no language ability at all, so if I want to get a laugh from Arline all I have to do is try to say something to her in German!) Many thanks again from both of us–Chuck (and Arline)