Street Name Commemorates German Heritage in Georgia

The Union for the Protection of German Cultural Heritage in the South Caucasus has announced that Joseph Stalin Street in Asureti is now called Schwabenstrasse (Schwabian Street).

Around 1400 German families settled in Kvemo Kartli in Georgia after the Russian Tsar Aleksandr I invited foreigners to live in Transcaucasia.

His 1804 law allowed foreigners to make use of land plots and cultivate them. They were also tax-exempt and not required to complete military service.

The German families settled in Elizabethal settlement, named after the Russian Tsaritsa Elizabeth Alexeievna. Many of the families who emigrated to Georgia were Swabians. They also settled in Tbilisi and Abkhazia.

By Amy Jones