Odessa Wolffs
Historical Development of the Freiherren von Wolff in Southern Russia and Bessarabia
The family history of the Freiherren von Wolff is not fully and consistently documented and contains gaps. It is, however, documented by records that Johann Sigismund Adam Wolff had not three but four sons. The first legitimate son of Johann Sigismund Adam Wolff was Ernst Gottlieb Wolff, born on 17 December 1804 at Semershof. According to the baptismal certificate, he was baptized in 1807 in Riga Cathedral under the same name.
In the year 1827, Ernst Gottlieb Wolff registered himself ‘in person’ as a colonist in Kiev and continued his journey to Southern Russia, where, under Prince Vorontsov, he assisted in the urbanization and colonization of Bessarabia and the Volga region with German settlers.
Prince Vorontsov and Neu Laitzen
Before Neu Laitzen passed into the possession of the Wolff family, the estate was associated with the work of a man who shaped the future of the Russian South like hardly any other: Prince Mikhail Vorontsov. In 1823, Vorontsov became Governor-General of Novorossiya and Bessarabia, a vast territory extending from the Black Sea far into the interior of the country. From his administrative seat in Odessa and his private residence in Alupka on the Crimean Peninsula, he directed the development of a region that became one of the most dynamic parts of the Russian Empire in the 19th century.
Vorontsov transformed Odessa into a modern port and trading city: he engaged Western European engineers and physicians, initiated large-scale urban development projects, and founded institutions that laid the foundations for the city’s intellectual and cultural advancement - including a theater, a public library, a lyceum, an institute for Oriental languages, and several scientific societies. He also supported English and French local newspapers intended to invigorate Odessa’s intellectual life.
His administration was a signal of hope for many people: under Vorontsov’s rule, escaped serfs were not pursued, which turned southern Russia into a place of refuge for people seeking a new existence. The expanding economy offered them work, especially in the rapidly growing port cities. Between 1823 and 1849, the population of Odessa doubled, an impressive testament to Vorontsov’s formative power and the appeal of his reform policies.
Against this background, the history of Neu Laitzen must also be understood. In 1789, the manor passed from Vorontsov’s ownership into that of the Wolff family, which further expanded it and shaped it into a significant estate. The world that Vorontsov created in the south would later also shape the paths of those family members who followed the call for pioneering spirit and new opportunities.
Ernst Gottlieb von Wolff – Path to Odessa
The records of the Barons von Wolff are only partially complete, and some traces are lost over the course of the generations. What is certain, however, is that Johann Sigismund Adam Wolff had four sons, not three as long assumed. His firstborn legitimate son, Ernst Gottlieb Wolff, was born on 17 December 1804 at Semershof and baptized in 1807 in Riga Cathedral.
As a young man, Ernst Gottlieb Wolff decided to leave his Baltic homeland. In 1827, he personally registered in Kiev as a colonist - a step that marked his entry into the great settlement and development process of the Russian South. From there, his path led him to those dynamic regions in which Prince Vorontsov was also active: the Odessa region, Bessarabia, and the Crimea.
Today, one can only speculate about the exact connection between Prince Vorontsov and Ernst Gottlieb Wolff. Much, however, suggests that they were acquainted through the Baltic nobility and officer circles, and that this acquaintance may have provided an important impetus. Prince Vorontsov’s reputation as a reformer and architect of the Russian South, combined with personal or familial connections from the Baltic region, made it natural for Ernst Gottlieb Wolff to follow him. In any case, it is certain that there must have been a relationship or at least a closeness between the two men that significantly influenced Ernst Gottlieb Wolff’s decision for the South - a connection that is clearly reflected in his later activities.
In Southern Russia, Ernst Gottlieb Wolff participated in urbanization and colonization projects, supported the settlement of German emigrants in Bessarabia, and helped establish new communities. His life thus exemplifies those Baltic family members who, during this period, performed pioneering work in the southern parts of the empire - driven by courage, curiosity, and the influence of prominent figures such as Prince Vorontsov.
Lineage of Ernst Gottlieb von Wolff
II. Linie: Laitzen, 1.Ast: Semershof (lett.: Zemeriene):
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Ernst Gottlieb Wolff (1804 – 1888)
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Jakob Wolff (ca. 1834 – 1892)
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Christian Wolff (1861 – 1938)
- Wilhelm Wolff (1897 – 1907)
- Friedrich Wolff (1895 – 1907)
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Michael Wolff (1892 – 1936)
- David Wolff (1911 – 1943)
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Wilhelm Wolff (1913 – 1944)
- Ewald Wolff (1938 – 1941)
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Artur Wolff (1940 – 2005)
- Sandra Wolff (1971)
- Gerda Wolff (1940 – 2025)
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Helga Klara Wolff (1942)
- Harriet Wolff (1965)
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Wilhelm Wolff (1944)
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Oliver Wilhelm Wolff (1973)
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Marius Wilhelm Adam Wolff (2006)
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Magnus Wilhelm Hans Wolff (2010)
- Karolina Elise Wolff (2014)
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Johann Sigismund Adam Wolff (1779 – 1824)
Ernst Gottlieb Wolff (1804 – 1888)
- Jakob Wolff (ca. 1834 – 1892)
- Christian Wolff (1861 – 1938)
- Wilhelm Wolff (1897 – 1907)
- Friedrich Wolff (1895 – 1907)
- Michael Wolff (1892 – 1936)
- David Wolff (1911 – 1943)
- Wilhelm Wolff (1913 – 1944)
- Ewald Wolff (1938 – 1941)
- Artur Wolff (1940 – 2005)
- Sandra Wolff (*1971)
- Gerda Wolff (*1940 – 2025)
- Helga Klara Wolff (*1942)
- Harriet Wolff (*1965)
- Wilhelm Wolff (*1944)
- Oliver Wilhelm Wolff (*1973)
- Marius Wilhelm Adam Wolff (*2006)
- Magnus Wilhelm Hans Wolff (*2010)
- Karolina Elise Wolff (*2014)
- Oliver Wilhelm Wolff (*1973)
- Christian Wolff (1861 – 1938)
Bessarabian Germans
The Bessarabian Germans (Romanian: Germani basarabeni) were a German settler group and German-speaking minority that lived in Bessarabia from 1814 to 1940 - an area that today is divided between the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. They emerged through targeted settlement policies of the Russian Empire: around 9,000 emigrants from Baden, Württemberg, Alsace, Bavaria, and the then Prussian territories of what is now Poland settled in the southern Black Sea region between 1814 and 1842. The area, then part of Russian Novorossiya, later became the Governorate of Bessarabia.
During their approximately 125-year history, the Bessarabian Germans formed an almost exclusively agrarian population and, at the beginning of the 20th century, constituted a small minority of about three percent of the population.
Die Freude über die neue Heimat in Westpreussen währte nur kurz. So mußten die Wolffs bereits 1945 vor der heranrückenden Sowjetarmee über Mecklenburg nach Sachsen-Anhalt fliehen. In Mecklenburg wurde der Familie durch die Deutsche Wehrmacht die verbliebenen Wertgegenstände und Dokumente abgenommen. Nach dem „Raubüberfall“ führte der Weg auf ein Rittergut bei Magdeburg. Dort wurde man dann 1945 von der Sowjetarmee eingeholt.
Von 1946 bis 1954 lebten die Wolffs aus Angst unter falschem Namen in einem der Nebengebäuden des Ritterguts. 1954 gelang die Flucht in den Westen über die Aufnahmelager Gießen, Ludwigsburg, Balingen und Sankt Johann im Kreis Reutlingen.
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Sources: See Imprint
Economic Expansion until 1919
Olga Maria, who married into the Wolff family and was born Bohnet (Bonnet), came from a Huguenot family originally from France that was expelled in the 16th century and emigrated via Prussia to Southern Russia.
The Bohnet family played a formative role in the colonization and development of Bessarabia and Southern Russia. Its members were early and actively involved in public life: among other things, they participated in the construction of the church in the German settlement of Leipzig/Bessarabia (today: Serpnewe) and, over generations, assumed important administrative and community functions that significantly contributed to the development of the young colonies.
With Olga Maria, the Bohnet family brought not only a respected lineage but also a considerable dowry into the Wolff family. This dowry included in particular the Petrowka estate in the Tiraspol district, which, with its extensive lands, represented the largest contiguous estate in the region. This exceptional property formed a solid economic foundation and significantly strengthened the position of the Wolff family in the rapidly developing region of Odessa and Southern Russia. In this phase, this branch of the Wolff family also impressively demonstrated its entrepreneurial talent:
As early as the 18th century, the Wolff family also possessed the largest contiguous landholding in the Tiraspol region – a sign of their early influence and lasting economic strength.
By the end of the 19th century, the Wolffs were involved in banks, a shipyard, trading houses, and wineries and were regarded as an established part of the rising economic elite of the Black Sea region.
The Period between 1919 and 1939
The years between 1919 and 1939 were very difficult for the Germans in Russia. At the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets in 1917, the Bolsheviks adopted the (second) decree on the ‘expropriation of all privately owned land without compensation,’ which meant the loss of all property in Russia.
In former Bessarabia, the situation was somewhat better. After the outbreak of the Red Revolution, an autonomous full assembly based in Chișinău took over the government in November 1917. On 2 December 1917, the assembly declared Bessarabia independent as the Moldavian Democratic Republic. Similar developments occurred in Ukraine, on the Don, and in Crimea. Conditions in the country were chaotic, as the Russian front of the First World War had collapsed. Furthermore, Soviet troops of the Rumcherod occupied Chișinău on 5 January 1918, and Bessarabia thus fell into Bolshevik hands for a few days in January 1918. The assembly called on Romania for military assistance, whereupon Romanian troops marched in.
On 9 April 1918, amid great enthusiasm among the population, Bessarabia declared its union with Greater Romania while retaining partial autonomy. In November 1918, the union with Romania was completed. International legal recognition of Bessarabia as part of Romania was achieved in 1920 in the Treaty of Versailles. The territory was awarded to Romania.
The Soviet Union, established after 1922, never recognized the loss of Bessarabia and continued to claim the land. For this reason, the ‘Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic’ (MASSR) was founded on the eastern bank of the Dniester in 1924.”
Initially, Bessarabia’s autonomy within the Romanian state was still respected, but over time a centralized administration prevailed. In the interwar period from 1918 to 1940, there was economic development, and Romania made strong efforts to expand the infrastructure in Bessarabia. A certain pressure of Romanianization on minorities nevertheless took place. However, this was not as strong as the earlier Russification. The institutions of the minorities largely remained in place. Problems arose from Romania’s difficult domestic political conditions, such as the rise of the ultranationalist, antisemitic, and fascist Iron Guard, which became the third-strongest party in the Romanian parliamentary elections of 1937.
In the course of the geopolitical developments of the Second World War, their fate changed fundamentally: after the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia in the summer of 1940, covered by the Hitler–Stalin Pact, the Bessarabian Germans followed the call to resettle in the German Reich. Around 93,000 people left their homeland between the end of 1940 and the beginning of 1941 - almost the entire German-Bessarabian population - under the propagated slogan ‘Home into the Reich.’
Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Resettlement into the German Reich
Resettlement of the Germans in the Warthegau
With the Hitler–Stalin Pact of 1939 and the subsequent Soviet occupation of Bessarabia in the summer of 1940, the fate of the Wolff family changed fundamentally. Like almost all families of German descent in the region, they too were pressured to resettle as part of the ‘Home into the Reich’ campaign. The Wolffs had to abandon their homeland, their economic foundations, and the lands still remaining to them without delay. The compensation promised by the German Reich for the property left behind was never implemented, so the family lost its entire fortune.
The resettlement initially led the family to Leipzig in Saxony, where many Bessarabian Germans arrived during this period. There, in 1940, the spouses Wilhelm Wolff and Olga Maria Wolff, née Bohnet, as well as their three children at the time – Ewald, Gerda, and Artur – were officially naturalized and granted the title “Baron von Wolff“.
Naturalization certificate of 1940
Of genealogical significance is the fact that the two younger children, Gerda and Artur Wolff, were already born in Leipzig/Saxony during the flight - a circumstance that makes the forced separation of the family from their ancestral homeland particularly clear. The eldest son, Ewald, had still been born in Leipzig/Bessarabia and thus represents the last generation of the Wolffs that was directly rooted there.
The resettlement marked a profound turning point for the family: the loss of the German-Bessarabian homeland and property, the abandonment of the extensive estates, and the forced new beginning in the German Reich constituted a watershed in the genealogical line of the Wolffs that permanently shaped their history and identity.
Manorial Estate Mönkenwerth
New Homeland in the District of Bromberg/West Prussia
The resettlement of the Wolff family took place in 1941 at the Manorial Estate of Mönkenwerth in the district of Bromberg/West Prussia. From 1941 to 1944, the family lived on the manorial estate there. West Prussia and the Warthegau became only a temporary stop for many resettled Bessarabian Germans before the advancing Red Army.
During this period, the Wolff family branch was expanded by two children: Helga Klara, born on 19 September 1942, and Wilhelm Wolff, born on 20 September 1944, both at the Manorial Estate of Mönkenwerth. The eldest son, Ewald Wolff, died during the journey from Leipzig/Saxony to West Prussia.
The head of the family, Wilhelm Wolff, had already been conscripted into the Wehrmacht in 1941. He was killed in 1944 in the Baltic region, in the area of present-day Lithuania - a fate that struck the family hard during the already difficult years of resettlement and war and left a lasting mark on their genealogical line.
As with almost all members of the Wolff family, Wilhelm Wolff also had a very pronounced passion for horses.
As with almost all members of the Wolff family, Wilhelm Wolff also had a pronounced passion for horses.
Flight and Expulsion
In 1944/1945, Olga Maria Wolff, with four small children, had to leave the new homeland already due to the advancing Red Army. The flight led via Mecklenburg to Saxony-Anhalt. In Mecklenburg, the family had their remaining valuables and documents taken away by the German Wehrmacht. After the ‘robbery,’ the path led to acquaintances near Magdeburg, where they were given accommodation at a stud farm. There, they were overtaken by the Soviet Army in 1945.
From 1946 to 1954, Olga Maria Wolff lived with her four children under a false name out of fear with a friendly noble family near Magdeburg. The acquaintances provided the single mother with four children with accommodation and food. She received support from relatives who had been housed in neighboring localities.
In 1954, the escape to the West succeeded via the reception camps of Giessen, Ludwigsburg, Balingen, and Sankt Johann in the district of Reutlingen.
The family and their descendants have lived in the district of Reutlingen from 1954 to the present day.
Back to the Roots in the Baltic Region 2011
In 2011, Baron Oliver Wilhelm von Wolff returned to the Baltic region and founded the Manor House Neu-Semerhof in the district of Võrumaa/Estonia, which is still used by the family today. Thus, a cycle of flight and expulsion came to a close, and the Wolffs are once again where they belong by definition, in their old and new homeland - Livonia.
Sources: See Imprint