Rot-Front

Coordinates: 42°43′20″N 75°06′20″E / 42.72222°N 75.10556°E / 42.72222; 75.10556
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Rot-Front
Рот-Фронт
Rot-Front is located in Kyrgyzstan
Rot-Front
Rot-Front
Coordinates: 42°43′20″N 75°06′20″E / 42.72222°N 75.10556°E / 42.72222; 75.10556
CountryKyrgyzstan
RegionChüy Region
DistrictYsyk-Ata District
Elevation
1,075 m (3,527 ft)
Population
 (2021)
 • Total968

Rot-Front is a settlement 60 kilometres east of

Germans, a significant minority remains.[2]
It was founded as Bergtal (also sometimes spelt Bergthal) and renamed Rot-Front in 1927.

History

See also:
Germans in Kyrgyzstan

At the end of the 19th century, German-speaking settlers from the

Baptist and Mennonite families who had emigrated from East Frisia some three hundred years earlier to escape forced military service. At the end of the 19th century many moved to central Asia from the Volga and Crimea
.

With the

Third Reich, the ethnic Germans of Rotfront were subject to much suspicion and discrimination. They tried to explain that they did not identify with the Germans of Nazi Germany, referring to their distant Polish ancestry or relatives.[3]

With the onset of

collective farms
and other state enterprises many jobs were lost. In the community, there were roughly 900 residents with German ancestry in 1990; by 2012, there were only about 500.

Today

After Kyrgyzstan's independence in 1991, arising from the collapse of the Soviet Union, the remaining German residents received permission to display the village's original name, Bergtal, on their road signs, underneath the official designation of "Rotfront". A small museum in the school house, established with financial support from the German government, displays letters and photographs recounting the migration of the villagers' ancestors to Kyrgyzstan and their past life in the village. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the German government has also provided a German teacher for the community. Generous financial and material aid from the German government for the local agricultural cooperative has, however, for the most part been wasted or misused.

In 1995 a film was made entitled Milch und Honig aus Rotfront (Milk and Honey from Rotfront), depicting the life of the German residents of Bergtal.[4]

Today, Bergtal/Rotfront has the second largest community of people of German background in central Asia, although a majority of the population of the village is now of Kyrgyz descent.[2] It is believed to be the only remaining village in central Asia with a substantial German minority.[citation needed]

As strict Mennonites,[2] the residents continue to reject the use of alcohol, television, films and dancing.

References

  1. ^ "Population of regions, districts, towns, urban-type settlements, rural communities and villages of Kyrgyz Republic" (XLS) (in Russian). National Statistics Committee of the Kyrgyz Republic. 2021. Archived from the original on 10 November 2021.
  2. ^
    New York Times. New York City
    . Retrieved 2 December 2023.
  3. ^ Laabs, Laura, 2004, Weiße Gipfel, rote Sterne (German)
  4. ^ Milch und Honig aus Rotfront Archived 2007-03-11 at the Wayback Machine (German)

External links

  • Mennonites in Kyrgystan Photo documentary about inhabitants of Bergtal/Rotfront, by photographer Wim Klerkx, 1996/97.
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