After years of dreaming, planning, designing, writing and preparing, we are ready to celebrate the grand opening of our new permanent museum-quality exhibit. The grand opening for “In Search of a Homeland: The Journey of the Germans from Russia” will take place on Wednesday, July 15, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection (GRHC), located in the NDSU Main Library (1201 Albrecht Blvd. in Fargo).
The event will be open house style, and we are pleased to host it in conjunction with the Germans from Russia Heritage Society Convention, taking place in Fargo July 15–18. We hope many of you will be able to join us for an afternoon of community, kuchen, coffee and a first look at the new exhibit.
This exhibit represents a major step for the GRHC. For many years, the collection has served researchers, families, students and visitors through books, archival materials, photographs, maps, oral histories, documentaries, outreach and community events. Those resources remain at the heart of our work. But we also knew that visitors needed a clearer and more engaging way to encounter the larger story.
The Germans from Russia story is not simple. It crosses continents, empires, languages, religions and generations. It includes German-speaking Europeans leaving for the Russian Empire, the building of villages in the Volga, Black Sea, Bessarabia and other regions, and later migrations to North America, South America and elsewhere. It is a story of promises and hardship, opportunity and loss, faith and family work and survival.
For someone who is new to the topic, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Even for those who grew up with this heritage, there is more to discover. Our hope with this exhibit is to provide a meaningful starting point where visitors can walk through the story, find connections and better understand how this history shaped families, communities and the culture of North Dakota and the Northern Plains.
The exhibit journey begins by introducing visitors to life in German-speaking Europe and the reasons many families looked eastward in the 1700s and early 1800s. It then follows the journey to Russia, where German settlers established communities under the promises of land, religious freedom and certain privileges. From there, visitors learn about village life, faith traditions, foodways, language, work and the strong community bonds that developed over generations.
The story then moves toward migration to the Americas. After broken promises and oppression, many families left Russia in the late 1800s and early 1900s, traveling by rail and steamship to begin again in unfamiliar places. For many, that meant the Dakota prairies. The exhibit explores the challenges of homesteading, the importance of churches and community life, music, prairie life and the ways families preserved traditions while adapting to a new home.
Visitors will also encounter a section on foodways, which we know will feel familiar to many. Food has always been one of the strongest connections to heritage. Recipes, kitchen tools and family traditions help tell a story that is not only historical, but personal. Visitors can take a recipe card home with them and continue that connection beyond the exhibit itself.
Another important part of the exhibit is a space called “Those Who Stayed.” While much of our work naturally focuses on the Germans from Russia who came to North America, that is not the whole story. Many remained in Russia and, later, the Soviet Union. Their experiences included famine, revolution, repression, deportation, war and displacement. This difficult history is essential to understanding the full scope of the Germans from Russia experience.
The exhibit includes interactive elements designed to help visitors engage with the story in different ways. There are opportunities to watch, listen, read, reflect and explore. Some visitors may connect most deeply with a photograph or object. Others may be drawn to maps, video clips, family stories or the everyday details of food, faith and community life. We wanted the exhibit to offer more than one path into the story.
Bringing this project to life required many people. We are grateful to the donors, community members, families, researchers, students, staff and partners who helped make it possible. We are also grateful to Upland Exhibits of Newton, Kansas, who worked with us to design and fabricate the exhibit. Their team helped transform our ideas, content and collection materials into a space that feels welcoming, thoughtful and worthy of the story being told.
As part of NDSU Libraries, the GRHC has a responsibility not only to preserve this history, but also to make it accessible for future generations. This exhibit will serve descendants, researchers, alumni, students, school groups and visitors who may be encountering the Germans from Russia story for the first time. It will also provide new opportunities for NDSU students to learn through the collection and help develop future interpretive projects. All of this is the core of our land-grant mission at NDSU.
We also hope this exhibit honors, with gratitude, the community whose story it tells. The GRHC exists because generations of people believed this history was worth preserving. They saved books, letters, photographs, objects, recipes, family histories and memories. They supported the collection, attended events, shared stories and helped ensure that this heritage would not be forgotten.
We are excited to welcome you to experience the journey of the Germans from Russia in a whole new way. Please join us for the grand opening celebration of “In Search of a Homeland: The Journey of the Germans from Russia” on Wednesday, July 15, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Germans from Russia Heritage Collection in the NDSU Main Library (1201 Albrecht Blvd., Fargo). Free parking is available just south of the library in NDSU T-Lot.
For more information about donating family histories and photographs, or how to financially support the GRHC, contact me at [email protected] or 701-231-6596; mail to: NDSU Libraries, Dept. 2080, PO Box 6050, Fargo, N.D. 58108-6050; or go to ndsu.edu/grhc. You may also contact Michael directly at [email protected] or 701-231-8416.
