Die Auswanderung an die Wolga als Problem der Verfassung des Heiligen Römischen Reiches. 250 Jahre Auswanderung aus Hessen (1765-1767).

The dialect of the Volga Germans is a kind of Hessian as the majority of the settlers came from north and south of the lower river Main. On a historical map of the middle of the 18th century this part of Germany consists of several big territories and of a lot of small and very small ones, owned by counts and Imperial knights (Reichsritter). All of them had their own interests with regard to finances, tax, and population. The Russian ambassador at the Imperial Diet in Regensburg had realised that - in contrast to Russia — property-rights of all subjects were a kind of fundamental right superior even to orders of the central political organs of the Holy Roman Empire (Emperor, Imperial Diet, Imperial Circles). All of them started the prohibition of emigration to Russia in 1766/67. The Russian ambassador tried to exploit the opportunities given by the complicated constitution of the Holy Roman Empire, as regional leagues of knights and Imperial knights were of different opinion. They let their own subjects go and opened the door for Russian propaganda into the territories of their neighbours with the effect of a great wave of Hessian emigration to Russia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]