German page of Azerbaijan’s history PHOTO
The German page of Azerbaijan’s history is one of the most interesting facts of the world.
Unstable situation in Germany in the 18th-19th centuries forced some Germans to leave their homelands. Landless German peasants left their native German princi pality of Wurttemberg at the beginning of the 19th century, and found shelter many thousands of kilometers away in Azerbaijan, which was then part of the Russian empire.
A number of colonies were created across the country. In early 19th-20th centuries, three of eight German colonies, Eigenfeld, Annenfeld and Georgsfeld, were located in Shamkir.
These colonies were a shelter for German colonists, who created a little Germany here with cozy houses built in German style and tidy streets, with pear and plane trees along them.
But, the World War II destroyed the peaceful life of the colony. Germans were exiled from their second home by Josef Stalin. In October 1941, more than 20,000 German colonists were living in Azerbaijan, and almost all of them were deported to Siberia, Northern Kazakhstan or to the Soviet Republics of Central Asia, to harsh environments.
In 2017, Azerbaijan will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the first settlement of Germans in Azerbaijan and this date will be marked by UNESCO.
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