Meinhard was originally part of the parish headquartered in Bettinger. In 1820, the parishes were realligned and Meinhard became part of the parish lead by the pastor living in Näb.
A wooden church building was constructed in 1831 that was still in use in 1909. At that time, it could seat 1,050 worshipers.
Meinhard was founded as a Lutheran colony on 12 June 1767 by Baron Caneau de Beauregard.
|
Year
|
Households
|
Population
|
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total
|
Male
|
Female
|
||
| 1767 |
|
|
|
|
| 1769 |
8
|
147
|
89
|
58
|
| 1773 |
36
|
150
|
72
|
78
|
| 1788 |
33
|
194
|
98
|
96
|
| 1798 |
37
|
234
|
126
|
108
|
| 1816 |
62
|
386
|
202
|
184
|
| 1834 |
84
|
778
|
383
|
395
|
| 1850 |
129
|
1,117
|
553
|
564
|
| 1857 |
129
|
1,282
|
634
|
648
|
| 1859 |
|
1,205
|
|
|
| 1883 |
|
1,760
|
|
|
| 1889 |
|
2,022
|
|
|
| 1897 |
|
2,250*
|
1,123
|
1,127
|
| 1905 |
|
3,127
|
|
|
| 1910 |
410
|
3,616
|
1,831
|
1,785
|
| 1912 |
|
3,598
|
|
|
| 1920 |
385**
|
2,697
|
|
|
| 1922 |
|
2,021
|
|
|
| 1923 |
|
1,943
|
|
|
| 1926 |
347
|
2,051
|
1,002
|
1,049
|
| 1931 |
|
2,725***
|
|
|
*Of whom 2,246 were German.
**Of which 383 households were German.
***Of whom 2,699 were German.
Lutheran
Censuses : 1798, 1857
Beratz, Gottieb. 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 . Translated by Adam Giesinger (Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1991): 351.
Diesendorf, V.F. Die Deutschen Russlands : Siedlungen und Siedlungsgebiete : Lexicon. Moscow, 2006.
Dietz, Jacob E. History of the Volga German Colonists . Lincoln, NE: American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 2005.
Klaus, A.A. Our Colonies (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1869): 2:13; 4:52-53.
List of the Populated Places of the Samara Province (Samara, Russia, 1910): 292.
Pallas, P.S. Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs. Theil 3,2, Reise aus Sibirien zurueck an die Wolga im 1773sten Jahr (St. Petersburg: Kaiserl. Academie der Wissenschaften, 1776): 613.
Preliminary Totals of the All-Union Population Census of 1926 for the Volga German ASSR (Pokrovsk, Russia, 1927): 28-83.
"Settlements in the 1897 Census." Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (Winter, 1990): 17.
Unterwalden (wolgadeutsche.net) - in Russian