THE ZIMBELMANNS....ANCESTORS OF JOHN SR, JAKE, PETE, ANDREAS
In 1809 Jakob (Karl) Zimpelmann (the 8th child of Johann Jakob Zimpelmann and Anna Maria Tropf) left Billigheim, Germany and emigrated to Rohrbach near Odessa in South Russia. Here is the story as we know it today:
In the 1760’s Catharine the Great of Russia recruited Germans to come and settle the untamed lands of Russia. She promised them the right to keep their own language & customs, no taxes for 30 years, money for their travel, land with houses, and freedom from service in the Russian military. Hundreds and hundreds of Germans answered this call and went to Russia and settled along the Volga River. The family Trupp went during that time (1766). Some refer to these folks as Volga deutsche. Catharine’s grandson, Alexander I, in the early 1800s again sent out scouts to recruit German farmers to settle in south Russia (now the Ukraine) with all the same conditions his grandmother had promised. So, Jakob (Karl) left the Billigheim area that is located in the Pfalz region (now Rheinland-Pfalz, in past times Bavaria-Pfalz) within 30-45 minutes of the French border along the Rhine River. This border area was at war often, sometimes being under French control, other times German or occupied by the Swedish or Dutch army. This, along with shortage of land for new farms, may have been a reason Jakob (Karl) decided to emigrate. He was 43 years old at the time and he, his wife Catharine (38) and eight children ages 12 - 1 began the journey across Germany, Poland, and Romania to Odessa on the Black Sea. Catharine died either during the journey or shortly after and Jakob (Karl) remarried Anna Maria Kogler and together they had 8 more children. They settled in Rohrbach, about 66 miles north of Odessa. They were one of the 26 families who settled this village in 1809. Sixty-nine more families came in 1810. Christoph, who was 8 when he made the journey from Germany, married Anna Marie Schneck and they had 13 children. Daniel, their 6th child, married Karolina Pflugfelder and they had 9 children. Their 4th child, Johann married Katharine Sauter who was from a neighboring village of Waterloo. In 1889/90 Johann, Katherine and their 3 sons (Johann, Jakob, Heinrich - ages 6, 4, 1) left Russia and went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Twin sons, Peter & Andreas (me Grandpa), were born there. We know they left Brazil for in 1893, a daughter, Karolina, was born back in Russia in Rohrbach on February 15, 1893. What we don’t know is the reason for their emigration & return. Agents of Brazil were recruiting people to settle their lands, so they may have intended to go and because of crop failure or climate, decided to return. We’ve heard stories that there was a shipwreck on the way to North America and a passing ship picked them up and this is how they ended up in Brazil. Another possibility is that at the port in Germany, ship captains were telling people they’d take them to America, but didn’t tell them it was South America until it was too late. We just don’t know. Maybe some day our research will uncover the ship they were on and we might have more of the answer. In June 1906 at the age of 23, the oldest son Johann with his wife, Elizabeth Muhlbeier, left Russia (while on leave from the Russia army - they were now forcing the Germans to serve) and came to the U.S. thru the port of Galveston, Texas. On the journey, Heinrich, was born at sea. John and Elizabeth & their infant son settled in Loveland, Colorado where their next son George was born. John & Elizabeth encouraged Elizabeth’s family to also come to U.S. So, in November 1906 on board the S.S. Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse were George & Elisabeth Muhlbeier and their other children, as well as 16 year old Peter Zimbelmann (Uncle Pete, the twin from me Grandpa). The day after leaving Bremen, Germany, the ship collided with a British steamer and 14 people were killed. Among these were George Muhlbeier and a Michael Zimbelmann. The dead were buried in Cherbourg, France and the remaining passengers boarded the S.S. York and continued to New York. In 1913 Jakob Zimbelmann (Uncle Jake) and his wife, Margaret Ackermann, and small daughter came to the U.S. Like his brothers, he settled in Colorado. Of the 10 children Johann & Katharine Sauter raised, only these 3 came to the U.S.: John Sr., Jacob, Pete. Four brothers and 3 sisters remained in Russia. Heinrich the third oldest son (born 1888), married Katharina Strasser and they had 4 children. During the 1930’s reign of terror, he was executed in Odessa (1937) as a suspected enemy of Russia. Andreas, the twin of Pete, born 1890 married Katharina Wiest and they had 2 children. His second marriage was with Margarethe Wiest and they had 2 children. The 6th child, Karolina, born 1893 married Eduard Moser and they had 2 children. Her second marriage was to Friedrich Moser and they had 5 children. The 7th child Friedrich, born 1895, married Rosalia Moos and they had 3 children. The 8th child, Christina, born 1897 married Henry Langjahr and they had 1 child. The 9th child, Kasper, born 1900 married Elisabeth Peter and they had 5 children. The 10th child, Anna, born 1903 married Jakob Karl Langjahr and they had 5 children. During WWII after the Germans had invaded Russia and occupied the German villages, Andreas & his family completed forms (EWZ records) that proved they were 100% German for at least 3 generations and were allowed to leave Russia and return to Germany. After the war, thru agreements Stalin had gained, the Russian Germans were returned to Russia and subsequently sent to Siberia & Kazakhstan for hard (compulsory) labor. Andreas and his family (with the exception of his 18 year old son, Woldemar), returned and were deported to Kazakhstan. Woldemar had refused to go by "hiding out" and later went on to marry and raise a family in East Germany. Uwe Zimbelmann, whom you met at the reunion in Loveland, is his son. We are still piecing together the stories of the other children. The daughter Karolina, who married a Moser, also lived in Kazackhstan. The youngest daughter, Anna Langjahr, was finally allowed to leave Kazakhstan and settle in Germany at an advanced age. She died in the 1990s. We learned that since about 1980 most of the children came back to Germany with the exception of one son, Fredrick, who lives in Austria. We can be thankful that our ancestors chose to come to the U.S. for those who stayed suffered many, many, unthinkable hardships before, during, and after WWII. Several books have been written by survivors of the deportation to Kazakhstan detailing these times. After reading some of these books, I couldn’t help but recall the movie Dr. Zhivago for the condition-- cattle cars, food shortages, blizzards, etc.-- were quite similar.(Based on comments made by Robert Zimbelman at the
Zimbelman Reunion in Loveland, Colorado on August 13, 2000
and modified later by Uwe Zimbelmann)