Father Zimmermann, son of Andreas Zimmermann, was born in Seelmann in 1885. After completing his studies at the Catholic Seminary in Saratov in 1908, he was ordained a priest and began serving the parishes in Astrakhan and then Liebental (1910), Dehler and Brabander (1913-1918), and Seelmann and Rothammel (1918-1923). When he was arrested the final time, he was serving as the Dean of the parish in Saratov.
Between 1918 and 1924, he was arrested several times by the secret police under the pretext of "counter-revolutionary activities." Due to lack of evidence, he was released each time. Finally, in 1925 he was arrested again and banished for two years to Siberia. In 1927, he returned from exile took up residence in Stalingrad (Volgograd). On 2 February 1930 he was arrested again by the secret police arrested and accused of conspiring with "a group of German clergy conspirators in the Volga region." On 6 June 1931, he was convicted by a secret court and sentenced to three years of concentration camp imprisonment. He returned to the Volga in 1934 and served in the parish at Brabander until his arrest again on 20 April 1935. He was tried again a final time on 13 August 1937 and sentenced to execution. This order was carred out on 17 August 1937.
Schnurr, Joseph. Die Kirchen und das religiöse Leben der Russlanddeutschen - Katholischer Teil (Stuttgart: Selbstverlag Joseph Schnurr, 1980): 239, 246f, 369.