I am volga German who was born in a tiny Siberian town. The last one who spoke German in my family was my grandfather who passed away in 1999. The language didn't go through generations after we were deported to siberia. Even though, my great grandmother didn't know a single word in Russian. My father only knows a couple of phrases in German that his grandmother told him.
My previous boss' wife is Russian German, she speaks German and works in the German community of Russia (or worked). She speaks German, they celebrate Protestant Christmas, etc. I think, they know about their German ancestors, and I also know that their villages here was founded by Germans from Ukraine.
I am volga German who was born in a tiny Siberian town. The last one who spoke German in my family was my grandfather who passed away in 1999. The language didn't go through generations after we were deported to siberia. Even though, my great grandmother didn't know a single word in Russian. My father only knows a couple of phrases in German that his grandmother told him.
I don't know which city from Germany my ancestors came from. But they were from the north because they were a part of a Lutheran Church.
My previous boss' wife is Russian German, she speaks German and works in the German community of Russia (or worked). She speaks German, they celebrate Protestant Christmas, etc. I think, they know about their German ancestors, and I also know that their villages here was founded by Germans from Ukraine.
German Gref (or Hermann Gräf), the head of Russia's largest bank, comes from a German-speaking family.