7.10 Teachers of Krasna

We do not know the names of the teachers in the first years. It is known that Caspar Materi was a teacher in 1848. He came to the colony in 1843 from Franzfeld near Odessa. He wrote the community report of Krasna in 1848. The school statistics available show us the teachers in Krasna for some years. In 1864 ¹⁾ Georg Deiß/Deck (colonist) is listed for Krasna and for 1866 ²⁾ Alexander Laturnus (colonist) is named. Another list from this decade (date is illegible) shows Philipp Matery as the teacher. The memoirs of Romuald Dirk from Krasna ³⁾ confirm two names and list another name of a teacher from this time: I was born in Krasna on February 26, 1858…. My parents home-schooled me until I was seven years old. They then sent me to the village school. There the teachers Deck, Seifert and Laturnus taught me until I turned eleven…

There are no further records until after 1920, where some names are mentioned, but the sources contradict each other in part.

• In the Deutschen Volkskalender für Bessarabien, (German Peoples’ Calendar) published in Tarutino, these Krasna teachers are listed (it seems they are only German teachers).

• On May 5, the Dakota Rundschau mentioned teachers for “the big school” (probably the boys’ school): ….teachers are: head teacher Adelbert Gulewitsch and his wife nee Rechar and teacher Lilie Lukas from Tarutino, Luba Tuschtschinko from Bolgrad. The female teachers are single, they live near the school, as well as the head teacher. Other teachers are: Eduard Ruscheinsky, married, Anselmus son of Bernhard Leins and Aloisius son of Simon Folk, single, and Michael Ziebart, married.
• On November 6, 1931, the Dakota Rundschau reports: …Our head teacher A. Gulewitsch, who worked at our school for 18 years was transferred to Schabo and replaced by Otto Schaub of Sarata, who may well become chief teacher, since we have long wanted a German.

Image 93: The teachers of the two Krasna schools and the school auditor in 1933 The school administrator of the boys’ school is on the far right in the second row, the others shown are not known

• In his chronicle of Krasna published in 1939, Eduard Ruscheinsky states: All told, Krasna has 12 teachers, including the kindergarten teacher, two of them are Germans.
  Note: There is no further information concerning the kindergarten.
• Ernst Schäfer ⁵⁾ lists the following teachers for 1940:
  (By recollections of Alex Hein, Melchior Koch and Michael Engel)
  • Boys’ school:
    School administrator and head teacher: Eduard Ruscheinsky⁶⁾
    Other teachers: Otto Schaupp (see above, article of the Dakota Rundschau Dated November 6, 1931.)
    Albert Gulewitsch (He was probably not in Krasna in 1940. See newspaper article above dated November 6, 1931)
    Alois Volk,
    Alexius Riehl,
    Anselm Leinz,
    Maximilian Hein, (this is incorrect, he died in 1928)
    Kaspar Gedak,
    Mr. Jonike
    and three additional Rumanian teachers, whose names are not known.
  • Girls’ School
    Luba Jonike (administratrix),
    Marjora Unescu
    Eugenia Cirnenco
    Leni Schaupp
    Alice Tataru
    and another teacher, whose name is not known.