Preservings $20 No. 25, December, 2005 - Plett Foundation

Adina Reger
5 May 1950 – 6 November 2005
Johannes Dyck and Katharina Neufeld
chair and vice-chair of the Verein zur Erforschung und Pflege des Kulturerbes des russlanddeutschen Mennonitentums.
Adina Reger was born May 5th 1950 in the
Karakalpak village in the Kustanai region of
northern Kazakhstan to Kornelius and Katharina
Reger (nee Reimer). The parents of Adina were
deported here from the Black Sea region during
World War II. She was the oldest daughter in a
family of five.
In Kustanai, in 1968, Adina completed training
as a pharmaceutical laboratory assistant,
and worked in the Soviet Union for 19 years
in a pharmacy. In 1972 Adina married Anatoly
Reger, and a year later a daughter was born
to them. Shortly after the wedding ceremony,
Anatoly was severely injured in a car accident
and since then was bound to a wheelchair. Adina
lovingly cared for him for the remaining 32
years of their marriage.
From Kazakhstan the Reger family moved
to the Republic of Moldova where they hoped
emigration to Germany would be easier. They
arrived in Germany in 1987 and settled in Darmstadt.
The family moved to Weissenthurm in
1993, a city on the Rhine River near Neuwied.
Here Adina attained her certification as a translator
for Russian and German. In Weissenthurm a
granddaughter Kirn was born.
Baptized in 1974, Adina was a member
of different churches in northern Kazakhstan,
Moldova, and Germany. During the last years
she was a member of the Mennonite Brethren
Church in Neuwied, Germany. Adina was a very
active person. She decorated the church building,
and her hospitality knew almost no limits,
even when she was seriously ill.
In Germany Adina discovered a passion for
the history of her own people, the Mennonites.
Already in Russia she had begun to collect materials
about everything pertaining to Mennonites.
The first book she published in 1996 consisted
of the memoirs of Nicolai Reimer (1900-1977),
a widely known Mennonite Brethren elder in the
post-war Soviet Union, and Adina’s grandfather.
A voluminous book on the Reimer family followed
in 1998.
Adina Reger’s best-known book was Diese
Steine, published together with Delbert Plett
in 2001. The cooperation with Delbert Plett
was very fruitful. Adina and Delbert planned
to publish more books on Mennonites in the
Soviet Union, but their death stopped them.
Adina handed all materials she collected to the
Verein zur Erforschung und Pflege des Kulturerbes
des russlanddeutschen Mennonitentums
in order to produce the next volume of Diese
Steine. The work on this project continues, but
without Adina.
Besides collecting materials and producing
Tribute
books, Adina Reger frequently traveled in the
former Soviet Union as a tour guide. She knew
everything about the traces of Mennonite life in
the Ukraine and inspired people who accompanied
her on the trips. Adina Reger passed away
in Weissenthurm on November 6, 2005, after a
Adina Reger 5 May 1950 - 6 November 2005
long and painful illness.
We may conclude with the words Adina
wrote in the epilogue to her grandfather’s biography:
“Her life was an example to us that
could give off warmth and light like the Sun
even without words - in silence.”
Preservings No. 25, December 2005 - 99