Germanic Colonisation Maps - Overview of eastern expansion of German culture

While it was several generations since many of our German ancestors lived in what is now known today as Germany, they maintained their ethnic and cultural heritage as they migrated throughout eastern Europe. 

Germans had migrated and conquered Slavic tribes beginning in the 800s.  Their settlement took over present day eastern Germany.  As the centuries went by, German culture spread quickly eastward, through what is today Poland, Czech, Slovakia, Hungary and Lithuania. German colonies and enclaves became Germanic islands in the midst of other Slavic cultures.

As the Prussian Empire joined in with Russia and Austria on the Partition of Poland, German colonists flooded into the greater Poland regions. 

• 1772 West Prussia / Westpreussen
• 1786 Netze River Valley / Netzegau
• 1793 South Prussia / Sudpreussen
• 1795 New East Prussia / Neu-ostpreussen

Further colonisation began by invitation from the Russians, beginning in 1763.  Germans were desired since they were very industrious and knowledgeable in farming.  Many were invited to the Black Sea area in the early 1800s.  In 1814, settlement of Bessarabia began, as Russia wanted to secure it's acquisition from the Ottoman Empire. 

As Germans in South Russia began to lose the privileges that they were originally promised, they began migrating south into the Ottoman Empire, which later included the Romanian provinces of Wallachia, Moldovia, and Dobruja.  Our families crossed over into Dobruja and lived in Atmagea and Cataloi.