The St.Georg church in Malkotsch / Malcoci (Romania) represents 100 years of German settlement history in Dobrudja in today's Romania on the Black Sea. Around 1842/43 first immigrations from Bessarabia and Kherson in the present Ukraine began. The immigrant settlers were for the most part farmers in search of land and freedom, since they were no longer granted the privileges of the military service exemption in Southern Russia.
One of the first settlements was Malkotsch in the North Dorbuja, which at the time still belonged to the Ottoman Empire. They came into a sparsely populated country, with villages destroyed by many wars. The Ottomans gave land free of charge and granted freedom of religion for every belief. The settlers therefore began to build churches and school houses soon. In addition, setbacks often had to be overcome, by crop failures and the First World War, which caused great damage.
The history of German settlements ended abruptly when, in the autumn of 1940, Bulgarian troops occupied South Dobrudja. On the basis of a resettlement treaty of the German Reich with Romania the German population was resettled to 98%. First into camps in the German Reich, then in today's Poland, in the Warthegau. With the end of the Second World War they lost their property again and moved to East and West Germany. The Dobrudscha Germans are now organized in the Bessarabiendeutsche Verein e.V.
The project includes the preservation of the present church ruins. And as a long-term goal their construction as a monument and as a cultural center of the village. The main focus will be on the construction efforts of the German settlers at the end of the 18th century.