Father Beratz was born in 1871 in Göbel and was executed in 1921 in Herzog. He was ordained 24 August 1894. He served the newly created parish of Dehler from 17 May 1894 to 1909. He served for a time at the seminary in Saratov. Due to poor health, he moved to Herzog to assist the priest there. There he became associated with the peasant revolts against the Bolshevik government, was arrested and sentenced to death and executed. According to an account by Bishop Kessler, he was shot on a cliff overlooking the Volga River, with his arms and eyes lifted toward heaven, and his corpse was sent crashing down the embankment following the execution.
While in prison, Father Beratz wrote Deutschen Kolonien an der unteren Wolga in ihrer Entstehung und ersten Entwickelung which was translated in 1991 into English and published by the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia under the title The German colonies on the Lower Volga, their origin and early development: a memorial for the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the first German settlers on the Volga, 29 June 1764.
"Book of Remembrance: Biographies of Catholic Clergy and Laity Repressed in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1918-1953". University of Notre Dame.
Bosch, Anton. Lebensbilder russlanddeutscher Märtyrer: Bischöfe und Priester.