The
Bessarabia Germans (, ) are an
ethnic group who lived in
Bessarabia (today part of
Moldova and
Ukraine) between 1814 and 1940. Between 1814 and 1842, 9,000 of them immigrated from the German areas
Baden,
Württemberg,
Bavaria, some
Prussian areas of modern-day Poland and
Alsace,
France, to the Russian government of Bessarabia at the
Black Sea. The area, bordering on the Black Sea, was part of the Russian Empire, in the form of
Novorossiya; it later became the Bessarabia Governorate. In their 125-year history, the Bessarabia Germans were an overwhelmingly rural population. Until their
moving to the Greater Germany (
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact), they were a minority consisting of 93,000 people who made up some 3% of the population. They are distinguished from the
Black Sea Germans who settled to the east of
Odessa.