The publication includes the following items:
1) The Life Story of Dr. Karl Stumpp written by Arthur E. Flegel, Menlo Park, California (major part of the publication)
2) Karl Stumpp - Geographer, Natural Scientist and Historian, by Anton Bosch, translated by Alex Herzog, from the 2002 calendar of the Historischer Forschungsverein der Deutschen aus Russland e.V.
3) Obituary announcement in German language of Dr. Karl Stumpp
4) "Memories of Dr. Karl Stumpp" from Volk auf dem Weg, Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, Stuttgart, Germany, June, 2006
5) "Big Kraut Poses As Big Chief," from Pierce County Tribune, Rugby, North Dakota, July 28, 1971
6) "Famous Scholar to Talk at Germans from Russia Meeting Here July 19," Pierce County Tribune, Rugby, North Dakota, July 14, 1971
7) "Germans from Russia Authority to Visit Here," Pierce County Tribune, Rugby, North Dakota, July 5, 1978
8) Germans from Russia Authority Was Guest at Local Museum," Pierce County Tribune, Rugby, North Dakota, July 12, 1978
9) "Karl Stumpp Exhibit to be Relocated," Pierce County Tribune, Rugby, North Dakota, February 18, 1976
About the author:
Arthur Edmund Flegel is the son of immigrant German Russian parents, Johann and Julianne (Pflugrath) Flegel, the ninth of ten children of whom six achieved adulthood. He was born in 1917 in the wheat fields of North Dakota and raised in the wheat fields of Kansas and the sugar beet fields of Colorado. As a youth, Arthur was intrigued with the realization that while his parents and their close friends claimed to be German, they readily admitted that Russia was their native country from where they had emigrated for the New World, especially the United States and Canada.
Arthur Flegel accumulated considerable genealogical data from a variety of sources including microfilms, periodicals, family histories and interviews, along with his mother's remarkable memory and basic information from Dr. Karl Stumpp. Using materials he had collected over the years, he published the Reuscher-Schnell Kinship book in 1975 relating to his wife's genealogy, and the Flegel-Pflugrath Kinship book in 1978 covering his own paternal and maternal lines.
Gathering the materials for both kinship books became a "once in a lifetime" experience in terms of Arthur and Cleora (Reuscher) Flegel's travels, which included interviews with many people, not only in the USA, but Canada, Germany, Russia, Argentina and Brazil. Some of whom have become lasting friends.
These travels and interviews along with Arthur's God-given ability to read the printed as well as handwritten old German, some times referred to as Gothic vs. the Latin in common usage today, became the overpowering influence to become a certified genealogist which culminated in a many years' effort in accumulating and transcribing genealogical and historical information for publication in a book covering some 28,000 individuals which comprises about 6,000 families directly or indirectly related to the communities of Kulm, Leipzig and Tarutino in the former Bessarabia.
It is his firm belief that his is an innate part of God's plan for his life, and he offers his fervent hope and prayer that this work will be beneficial to many who desire to research and learn about their German-Russian connections.
