BALTIC GERMANS
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The 'Baltic Germans' (, ''Deutschbalten''; literally "German Balts") were mostly ethnically German inhabitants of the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, which today forms the countries of Estonia and Latvia.
After the Northern Crusades in the early 13th century, the Baltic Germans quickly came to control all the administrations of government, politics, economics, education and culture of these territories for over 7 centuries until 1918. Practically all urban and rural properties were owned by them. After the decline of Latin, German quickly became the ''de facto'' language of all official documents for hundreds of years until the late 19th century. They were subordinate only to the rule of the Swedish empire until 1710 and the Russian Empire until 1917.
However, the vast majority of ethnic Estonians and Latvians in the same areas lived in stark contrast to the baltic Germans, and were denied the same rights and privileges, having mostly to live in rural areas under serfdom or as servants in urban homes. This lasted well into the 19th century until they were granted increasing poltical rights and freedoms.
The Baltic Germans' effective rule came to the end with the demise of the Russian Empire and the independence of Estonia and Latvia in 1918. After 1918 many stayed as ordinary citizens in the newly formed independent countries.
Their history in the Baltics came to an abrupt end in late 1939 during the Nazi-Soviet population transfers, when practically all the remaining Baltic Germans were resettled by Hitler to areas Nazi Germany had invaded in western Poland in the second world war. Later, with Estonia and Latvia falling under Soviet rule after 1944, the Baltic Germans never came to live in the Baltic again.
The present day descendants of the Baltic Germans can be found all over the world with the largest groups being in Germany and Canada.
The German term '''Baltendeutsche''' is sometimes avoided after it was often used in Nazi Germany.
It should be noted that in the course of their 700 year history, Baltic German families often had not only ethnic German roots, but also mixed with peoples of non-German origin such as native Estonians, Livonians and Latvians, as well as with the Danes, Swedes, Scots, Poles and the Dutch ethnicities.
In those cases where intermarriage occurred, the other ethnic group usually assimilated into the German culture, adopted the German language and customs which often included "germanising" their names and surnames. They were then considered Baltic Germans as well. (see also: Ethnogenesis).
In Baltic German settlement patterns, the Baltic area consisted of the following territories:
★ ''Estland'' (Latin: Estonia) (Estonian: Eesti), roughly the northern half of present-day Estonia; major towns: ''Reval'' (Tallinn), ''Narva'' (Narva), ''Wesenberg'' (Rakvere), ''Weissenstein'' (Paide), ''Hapsal'' (Haapsalu).
★ ''Livland'' (Latin: Livonia) (Estonian: Liivimaa) (Latvian: Vidzeme), roughly the southern half of present-day Estonia and the northern half of today's Latvia; major towns: Riga, ''Wenden'' (Cesis), ''Wolmar'' (Valmiera), ''Walk'' (Valga), ''Dorpat'' (Tartu), ''Pernau'' (Pärnu), ''Fellin'' (Viljandi).
★ ''Kurland'' (Latin: Curonia, also English: Courland) (Estonian: Kuramaa) (Latvian: Kurzeme), roughly the southern half of present-day Latvia; major towns: ''Mitau'' (Jelgava), ''Windau'' (Ventspils), ''Libau'' (LiepÄja).
★ ''Ösel'' (the island of Saaremaa) belonging to present-day Estonia; major town: ''Arensburg'' (Kuressaare).
Incorrectly, ethnic Germans from East Prussia are sometimes considered ''Baltic German'' for reasons of cultural, linguistic, and historical affinities. The Germans of East Prussia held German citizenship because the territory they lived in was part of the Prussia (which after 1871 was part of the newly formed German state).
However, the Baltic Germans held citizenship of the Russian Empire until 1918 and Estonian or Latvian citizenship from 1918 onwards.
Ethnic Germans began to settle in what are now Baltic countries in the 12th century when traders and missionaries began to visit the coastal lands inhabited by tribes who spoke Finnic and Baltic languages. Systematic settlement started during the Northern Crusades. Moving in the wake of German merchants a monk named Meinhard had landed at the mouth of the Daugava river in present-day Latvia in 1180. In 1184 First Christian church was built in Livonian village of Uexkyll and in 1186 Meinhard consecrated as the first Bishop of Uexküll. The Pope proclaimed a crusade against the Baltic heathens in 1193 and a crusading expedition led by Meinhard's successor, Bishop Berthold, landed in Livonia. In 1196 the New Bishop of Uexküll, Berthold assembles the first crusading army in the Baltics. In 1199, Albert of Buxhoeveden was appointed by the Archbishop of Bremen to Christianise the Baltic countries. To ensure a permanent military presence, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword were founded in 1202. 30 years later, the conquest and formal Christianisation of present-day Estonia and northern Latvia was complete.[1]
At the same time, German-speaking merchants and craftsmen constituted the majority of the quickly growing urban population in the area. The Livonian Sword Brothers became part of the Teutonic Order in 1236. For 200 years, the knights on the shores of the eastern Baltic had support from the Holy Roman Empire.
As the Teutonic Knights were weakened during the 15th century through wars with Poland and Lithuania, the Livonian branch in the north began to pursue its own policies. When the Prussian branch of the Order secularized in 1525 and became the Duchy of Prussia, the Livonian Order remained independent, although surrounded by aggressive neighbors. In 1558, Russia's invasion of Livonia began the Livonian War between Russia, Poland, Sweden, and Denmark which lasted for 20 years. In the course of the war, the state was divided between Denmark (which took Ösel), Sweden (which took Estland), Poland (which took Livland), and the Protestant state of Courland, a fief of Poland.
The Baltic provinces, like many other German-led states, became Protestant during the Reformation, and the secularized land was split up among the remaining aristocratic knights.
Kurland existed as a country dominated by German-speakers for over 200 years, while Livland was once again split. Sweden controlled Estland between 1561 and 1710 and Livland between 1621 and 1710, having signed an agreement not to undermine Baltic German autonomy. The German-language ''Universität Dorpat'' (University of Tartu), the foundation of which was supported by King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden (himself a native German-speaker), remained the only one in the former Livonian territory for centuries and became the intellectual focus of the Baltic Germans, both nobles and intellectuals.
Between 1710 and 1795, following Russia's success in the Great Northern War and the Partitions of Poland, the areas inhabited by Baltic Germans became provinces of Imperial Russia.
However, the Baltic provinces remained dominated and self-governed by the local German-speaking aristocracy. This ''Ritterschaft'' (in English: Knighthood) was based on the former knights but also some included immigrants from the German principalities to the west. Most of the professional classes in the region, the ''literati'', were German-speakers. Government, however, was in the hands of the Knighthood of each province, in which only members of the matriculated nobility held membership. was guaranteed by the various rulers, especially during Russian times. Germans, other than the estate-owners, mainly settled in the cities, such as Riga, ''Reval'' (Tallinn), ''Dorpat'' (Tartu), and ''Pernau'' (Pärnu); as late as the mid-19th century the population of many of these municipalities still had a German majority with an Estonian or Latvian minority.
The region's indigenous rural population enjoyed fewer rights under the Baltic German nobility compared to the farmers in Germany, Sweden, or Poland. Serfdom was officially abolished in the Baltic provinces in the beginning of 19th century, about half a century before in Russia proper. There was less tension between the German-speakers and indigenous urban residents.
German cultural autonomy ceased in the 1880s, when Russification replaced German administration and schooling with the usage of the Russian language. The Revolution of 1905 led to attacks against the Baltic German landowners, the burning of manors, and the killing and torture of members of the nobility, if usually not by the local inhabitants but by outside revolutionary bands. Owing to their German heritage, during World War I Baltic Germans were sometimes seen as the enemy by Russians, yet also as traitors by the German Empire if they remained loyal to Russia. As a result of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Russian Civil War, many Baltic Germans fled to Weimar Germany. As the Russian Civil War weakened the Russian Empire, the Baltic countries won the war against both Russian army and the Baltic Germans, making the former Baltic German elite lose their status and influence.
When the Republics of Estonia and Latvia were founded in 1918-19, the Baltic German estate owners were largely expropriated in a land reform, although the Germans were given considerable cultural autonomy.
Estonia's Baltic German population was smaller, so as Estonians continued to fill professional positions such as law and medicine, there was less of a leadership role for the Baltic Germans. Many Baltic Germans began to leave during the interwar era. No precise numbers are available for the emigration during this period.
In Latvia, Baltic Germans were the most politically active and organized ethnic group, although they lost some influence after Karlis Ulmanis's coup in 1934.
As a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, Estonia and Latvia were assigned to the "soviet sphere of influence". Hitler gave Stalin free reign over these countries and Stalin made immediate use of this to set up soviet military bases in Estonia and Latvia in late 1939. This was in preparation of an all-out invasion of the baltics by the Soviet Union in 1940. One of the main conditions posed by Hitler to Stalin in August of 1939 was the prior transfer of all ethnic Germans living in Estonia and Latvia to areas under German control. These became known as the Nazi-Soviet population transfers.
Almost all the Baltic Germans were evacuated by ships in the port cities of Estonia and Latvia and resettled into the Wartheland (in these times sometimes also called ''Warthegau'') and other Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany. (The action was called ''Umsiedlung''). The "new" homes they were given to live in had mostly been owned by polish citizens who were deported eastwards when Nazi Germany invaded Poland.
★ Some 21,400 Baltic Germans were resettled from Estonia to Germany in late 1939.
★ Close to 50,000 were resettled from Latvia by late 1939.
★ The last resettling procedures took place during the first months of 1941.
A very small minority of baltic Germans refused to be resettled and remained in the baltics past 1941. Most of these however fled with the retreating German army in 1944.
A tiny number remained in the baltics after 1944, but these were subject to widespread discrimination (and possible deportation to Siberia until 1953) by the Soviet authorities ruling Estonia and Latvia.
''Main article: Evacuation of German civilians during the end of World War II''
The Soviet Union's advance into Poland and Germany in late 1944 and early 1945 resulted in the Baltic Germans being evacuated by the German authorities (or simply fleeing) from their "new homes" (in which Hitler had resettled them in 1939) to areas even further in the west to escape the advancing Red Army.
In stark contrast to the resettlements in 1939-1941, this time around the evacuation in most of the areas was delayed until the last moment, when it was too late to conduct it in an orderly fashion and practically all of them had to leave their most of their belongings behind.
Seeing as they had only been living in these "new" homes for only about 5 years, this was almost seen as a ''second forced resettlement'' for them albeit under different circumstances.
Many Baltic Germans were onboard the ''KdF Ship Wilhelm Gustloff'' when it was sunk by a Soviet submarine on January 30, 1945 in the worst loss of life from a single vessel in maritime history. Additional Baltic Germans died during the sinking of the ''SS General von Steuben'' on February 10, 1945.
Later, with Estonia and Latvia falling under Soviet rule after 1944, the Baltic Germans never came to live in the Baltics again.
After Estonia had regained independence from the Soviet Union on August 20 1991, the exiled association of the German Baltic nobility sent an official message to the president-to-be Lennart Meri that no member of the association would claim proprietary rights to their former Estonian lands. This, and the fact that the first German ambassadors to Estonia and Latvia were both Baltic Germans, helped to further reconcile the Baltic Germans with Estonians and Latvians.
Baltic Germans played leading roles in the society of what are now Estonia and Latvia throughout most of the period from 13th to mid-20th century, with many of them becoming noted scientists or explorers. A number of Baltic Germans served as ranking generals in the Russian Imperial army and navy. Several Baltic Germans sided with the Whites during the Russian Civil War.
★ Patriarch Alexius II, born Alexei Ridiger (''von Rüdiger'')
★ Friedrich Amelung, chess master
★ Karl Ernst von Baer, biologist and a founding father of embryology
★ Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly, field marshal and Minister of War (Russia)
★ Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, admiral and naval explorer (Russia), discoverer of Antarctica
★ Alexander von Benckendorff, general and statesman (Russia)
★ Konstantin von Benckendorff, general and diplomat (Russia)
★ Werner Bergengruen, writer
★ August Johann Gottfried Bielenstein, linguist, folklorist, ethnographer, and theologian
★ Emil Bretschneider, Russian legation physcian, sinologist.
★ Johann Christoph Brotze, pedagogue and ethnographer
★ Georg Dehio, art historian
★ Kaspar von Dönhoff, Imperial Reichsfürst and Polish Diplomat
★ Heinz Erhardt, comedian, musician, entertainer and actor
★ Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, botanist and naturalist
★ Gregor von Helmersen, geologist
★ George Hoyningen-Huene, fashion photographer
★ Alexander Keyserling, geologist, paleontologist
★ Eduard von Keyserling, writer
★ Hermann Alexander Graf Keyserling, philosopher
★ Lionel Kieseritzky, chess master
★ Otto von Kotzebue, naval officer and explorer (Russia)
★ Adam Johann von Krusenstern, admiral and naval explorer (Russia)
★ Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon, field marshal and commander-in-chief of the armed forces (Austria)
★ Heinrich Lenz, physicist
★ Werner Zoege von Manteuffel, a surgeon, a pioneer of sterilization in the field of surgery
★ Garlieb Merkel, writer, Estophile and Lettophile
★ Alexander Theodor von Middendorff a famous zoologist and explorer
★ Eugene Miller, general and counterrevolutionary (Russia)
★ Burkhardt Christoph von Münnich, a Russian field marshal and famous politician
★ Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, politician, son of a Russian and a Baltic German noblewoman
★ Heinrich von Neff, a world-famous portrait painter
★ Alexander von Oettingen, theologian
★ Wilhelm Ostwald, chemist
★ Johann Patkul, nobleman of Livonia
★ Adolf Konstantin Jakob Baron Pilar von Pilchau, a politician, land marschal of Livonia/Livland, regent of the United Baltic Duchy (1918)
★ Alexander Pilar von Pilchau, painter
★ Wolter von Plettenberg, Master of the Livonian Order
★ Georg Wilhelm Richmann, physicist
★ Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi party ideologist
★ Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, early Nazi party leader, inspired the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 in Munich
★ Marie Seebach German actress
★ Thomas Johann Seebeck, physicist
★ Jacob Johann Sievers, statesman and reformer
★ Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, astronomer
★ Inge E. M. Thiel, chemist
★ Frank Thiess, writer
★ Eduard von Toll, Russian famous Arctic geologist and scientist
★ Jakob von Uexküll, biologist, semiotician
★ Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, commander of White Russian forces
★ Siegfried von Vegesack, writer
★ Edgar von Wahl, creator of Interlingue
★ Peter P. von Weymarn, chemist in colloid science (''von Weimarn law'')
★ Gero von Wilpert, writer
★ Ferdinand von Wrangel, admiral and naval explorer (Russia)
★ Peter von Wrangel, Lieutenant General, one of the leaders in White movement in Southern Russia, known there as Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel
★ Friedrich Zander, rocketry engineer and space flight pioneer
★ Walter Zapp inventor of the world-famous subminiature camera Minox
★ Estonia
★ Latvia
★ Courland
★ Livonia
★ Livonian Confederation
★ Northern Crusades
★ Teutonic Knights
★ Latvian Literary Society
★ History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union
★ Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
★ Nazi-Soviet population transfers
★ Flight and expulsion of Germans during and after WWII
★ Kopli cemetery
★ Mõigu cemetery
★ Helmreich E.C. (1942) The return of the Baltic Germans. ''The American Political Science Review'' 36.4, 711-716.
★ Whelan, Heide W. (1999). ''Adapting to Modernity: Family, Caste and Capitalism among the Baltic German Nobility''. Ostmitteleuropa in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, vol. 22. Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, 1999. ISBN 3412101982
★ Hiden, John W. (1970). The Baltic Germans and German policy towards Latvia after 1918. ''The Historical Journal'' 13.2, 295-317.
★ Hiden, John (1987). ''The Baltic States and Weimar Ostpolitik''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521893259
★ Anders Henrikkson (1983). ''The Tsar's Loyal Germans. The Riga Community: Social Change and the Nationality Question, 1855-1905''. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs. ISBN 0880330201
★ Mikko Ketola (2000). ''The Nationality Question in the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1918–1939''. Helsinki: Publications of the Finnish Society of Church History. ISBN 9525031179
★ A Baltic German site.
★ The association of German Baltic Nobility (rulers of Estland, Livland and Kurland between 1252 and 1918) - also see English language version
★ Germans in Latvia
★ Estonian Manors Portal the English version introduces 438 well-preserved manors historically owned by the Baltic Germans (Baltic nobility)
1. The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, translated and edited by James A. Brundage, Columbia University, 1961; revised 2003; 288 pages ISBN 0231128886
After the Northern Crusades in the early 13th century, the Baltic Germans quickly came to control all the administrations of government, politics, economics, education and culture of these territories for over 7 centuries until 1918. Practically all urban and rural properties were owned by them. After the decline of Latin, German quickly became the ''de facto'' language of all official documents for hundreds of years until the late 19th century. They were subordinate only to the rule of the Swedish empire until 1710 and the Russian Empire until 1917.
However, the vast majority of ethnic Estonians and Latvians in the same areas lived in stark contrast to the baltic Germans, and were denied the same rights and privileges, having mostly to live in rural areas under serfdom or as servants in urban homes. This lasted well into the 19th century until they were granted increasing poltical rights and freedoms.
The Baltic Germans' effective rule came to the end with the demise of the Russian Empire and the independence of Estonia and Latvia in 1918. After 1918 many stayed as ordinary citizens in the newly formed independent countries.
Their history in the Baltics came to an abrupt end in late 1939 during the Nazi-Soviet population transfers, when practically all the remaining Baltic Germans were resettled by Hitler to areas Nazi Germany had invaded in western Poland in the second world war. Later, with Estonia and Latvia falling under Soviet rule after 1944, the Baltic Germans never came to live in the Baltic again.
The present day descendants of the Baltic Germans can be found all over the world with the largest groups being in Germany and Canada.
The German term '''Baltendeutsche''' is sometimes avoided after it was often used in Nazi Germany.
Ethnic composition
It should be noted that in the course of their 700 year history, Baltic German families often had not only ethnic German roots, but also mixed with peoples of non-German origin such as native Estonians, Livonians and Latvians, as well as with the Danes, Swedes, Scots, Poles and the Dutch ethnicities.
In those cases where intermarriage occurred, the other ethnic group usually assimilated into the German culture, adopted the German language and customs which often included "germanising" their names and surnames. They were then considered Baltic Germans as well. (see also: Ethnogenesis).
Territories
In Baltic German settlement patterns, the Baltic area consisted of the following territories:
★ ''Estland'' (Latin: Estonia) (Estonian: Eesti), roughly the northern half of present-day Estonia; major towns: ''Reval'' (Tallinn), ''Narva'' (Narva), ''Wesenberg'' (Rakvere), ''Weissenstein'' (Paide), ''Hapsal'' (Haapsalu).
★ ''Livland'' (Latin: Livonia) (Estonian: Liivimaa) (Latvian: Vidzeme), roughly the southern half of present-day Estonia and the northern half of today's Latvia; major towns: Riga, ''Wenden'' (Cesis), ''Wolmar'' (Valmiera), ''Walk'' (Valga), ''Dorpat'' (Tartu), ''Pernau'' (Pärnu), ''Fellin'' (Viljandi).
★ ''Kurland'' (Latin: Curonia, also English: Courland) (Estonian: Kuramaa) (Latvian: Kurzeme), roughly the southern half of present-day Latvia; major towns: ''Mitau'' (Jelgava), ''Windau'' (Ventspils), ''Libau'' (LiepÄja).
★ ''Ösel'' (the island of Saaremaa) belonging to present-day Estonia; major town: ''Arensburg'' (Kuressaare).
Incorrectly, ethnic Germans from East Prussia are sometimes considered ''Baltic German'' for reasons of cultural, linguistic, and historical affinities. The Germans of East Prussia held German citizenship because the territory they lived in was part of the Prussia (which after 1871 was part of the newly formed German state).
However, the Baltic Germans held citizenship of the Russian Empire until 1918 and Estonian or Latvian citizenship from 1918 onwards.
History
Middle ages
Ethnic Germans began to settle in what are now Baltic countries in the 12th century when traders and missionaries began to visit the coastal lands inhabited by tribes who spoke Finnic and Baltic languages. Systematic settlement started during the Northern Crusades. Moving in the wake of German merchants a monk named Meinhard had landed at the mouth of the Daugava river in present-day Latvia in 1180. In 1184 First Christian church was built in Livonian village of Uexkyll and in 1186 Meinhard consecrated as the first Bishop of Uexküll. The Pope proclaimed a crusade against the Baltic heathens in 1193 and a crusading expedition led by Meinhard's successor, Bishop Berthold, landed in Livonia. In 1196 the New Bishop of Uexküll, Berthold assembles the first crusading army in the Baltics. In 1199, Albert of Buxhoeveden was appointed by the Archbishop of Bremen to Christianise the Baltic countries. To ensure a permanent military presence, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword were founded in 1202. 30 years later, the conquest and formal Christianisation of present-day Estonia and northern Latvia was complete.[1]
At the same time, German-speaking merchants and craftsmen constituted the majority of the quickly growing urban population in the area. The Livonian Sword Brothers became part of the Teutonic Order in 1236. For 200 years, the knights on the shores of the eastern Baltic had support from the Holy Roman Empire.
As the Teutonic Knights were weakened during the 15th century through wars with Poland and Lithuania, the Livonian branch in the north began to pursue its own policies. When the Prussian branch of the Order secularized in 1525 and became the Duchy of Prussia, the Livonian Order remained independent, although surrounded by aggressive neighbors. In 1558, Russia's invasion of Livonia began the Livonian War between Russia, Poland, Sweden, and Denmark which lasted for 20 years. In the course of the war, the state was divided between Denmark (which took Ösel), Sweden (which took Estland), Poland (which took Livland), and the Protestant state of Courland, a fief of Poland.
Reformation
The Baltic provinces, like many other German-led states, became Protestant during the Reformation, and the secularized land was split up among the remaining aristocratic knights.
Kurland existed as a country dominated by German-speakers for over 200 years, while Livland was once again split. Sweden controlled Estland between 1561 and 1710 and Livland between 1621 and 1710, having signed an agreement not to undermine Baltic German autonomy. The German-language ''Universität Dorpat'' (University of Tartu), the foundation of which was supported by King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden (himself a native German-speaker), remained the only one in the former Livonian territory for centuries and became the intellectual focus of the Baltic Germans, both nobles and intellectuals.
Russian control
Between 1710 and 1795, following Russia's success in the Great Northern War and the Partitions of Poland, the areas inhabited by Baltic Germans became provinces of Imperial Russia.
However, the Baltic provinces remained dominated and self-governed by the local German-speaking aristocracy. This ''Ritterschaft'' (in English: Knighthood) was based on the former knights but also some included immigrants from the German principalities to the west. Most of the professional classes in the region, the ''literati'', were German-speakers. Government, however, was in the hands of the Knighthood of each province, in which only members of the matriculated nobility held membership. was guaranteed by the various rulers, especially during Russian times. Germans, other than the estate-owners, mainly settled in the cities, such as Riga, ''Reval'' (Tallinn), ''Dorpat'' (Tartu), and ''Pernau'' (Pärnu); as late as the mid-19th century the population of many of these municipalities still had a German majority with an Estonian or Latvian minority.
The region's indigenous rural population enjoyed fewer rights under the Baltic German nobility compared to the farmers in Germany, Sweden, or Poland. Serfdom was officially abolished in the Baltic provinces in the beginning of 19th century, about half a century before in Russia proper. There was less tension between the German-speakers and indigenous urban residents.
German cultural autonomy ceased in the 1880s, when Russification replaced German administration and schooling with the usage of the Russian language. The Revolution of 1905 led to attacks against the Baltic German landowners, the burning of manors, and the killing and torture of members of the nobility, if usually not by the local inhabitants but by outside revolutionary bands. Owing to their German heritage, during World War I Baltic Germans were sometimes seen as the enemy by Russians, yet also as traitors by the German Empire if they remained loyal to Russia. As a result of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Russian Civil War, many Baltic Germans fled to Weimar Germany. As the Russian Civil War weakened the Russian Empire, the Baltic countries won the war against both Russian army and the Baltic Germans, making the former Baltic German elite lose their status and influence.
Post World War I
When the Republics of Estonia and Latvia were founded in 1918-19, the Baltic German estate owners were largely expropriated in a land reform, although the Germans were given considerable cultural autonomy.
Estonia's Baltic German population was smaller, so as Estonians continued to fill professional positions such as law and medicine, there was less of a leadership role for the Baltic Germans. Many Baltic Germans began to leave during the interwar era. No precise numbers are available for the emigration during this period.
In Latvia, Baltic Germans were the most politically active and organized ethnic group, although they lost some influence after Karlis Ulmanis's coup in 1934.
Resettlement from Estonia and Latvia 1939-1944
As a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, Estonia and Latvia were assigned to the "soviet sphere of influence". Hitler gave Stalin free reign over these countries and Stalin made immediate use of this to set up soviet military bases in Estonia and Latvia in late 1939. This was in preparation of an all-out invasion of the baltics by the Soviet Union in 1940. One of the main conditions posed by Hitler to Stalin in August of 1939 was the prior transfer of all ethnic Germans living in Estonia and Latvia to areas under German control. These became known as the Nazi-Soviet population transfers.
Almost all the Baltic Germans were evacuated by ships in the port cities of Estonia and Latvia and resettled into the Wartheland (in these times sometimes also called ''Warthegau'') and other Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany. (The action was called ''Umsiedlung''). The "new" homes they were given to live in had mostly been owned by polish citizens who were deported eastwards when Nazi Germany invaded Poland.
★ Some 21,400 Baltic Germans were resettled from Estonia to Germany in late 1939.
★ Close to 50,000 were resettled from Latvia by late 1939.
★ The last resettling procedures took place during the first months of 1941.
A very small minority of baltic Germans refused to be resettled and remained in the baltics past 1941. Most of these however fled with the retreating German army in 1944.
A tiny number remained in the baltics after 1944, but these were subject to widespread discrimination (and possible deportation to Siberia until 1953) by the Soviet authorities ruling Estonia and Latvia.
"Second resettlement" 1945
''Main article: Evacuation of German civilians during the end of World War II''
The Soviet Union's advance into Poland and Germany in late 1944 and early 1945 resulted in the Baltic Germans being evacuated by the German authorities (or simply fleeing) from their "new homes" (in which Hitler had resettled them in 1939) to areas even further in the west to escape the advancing Red Army.
In stark contrast to the resettlements in 1939-1941, this time around the evacuation in most of the areas was delayed until the last moment, when it was too late to conduct it in an orderly fashion and practically all of them had to leave their most of their belongings behind.
Seeing as they had only been living in these "new" homes for only about 5 years, this was almost seen as a ''second forced resettlement'' for them albeit under different circumstances.
Many Baltic Germans were onboard the ''KdF Ship Wilhelm Gustloff'' when it was sunk by a Soviet submarine on January 30, 1945 in the worst loss of life from a single vessel in maritime history. Additional Baltic Germans died during the sinking of the ''SS General von Steuben'' on February 10, 1945.
Later, with Estonia and Latvia falling under Soviet rule after 1944, the Baltic Germans never came to live in the Baltics again.
Present Day
After Estonia had regained independence from the Soviet Union on August 20 1991, the exiled association of the German Baltic nobility sent an official message to the president-to-be Lennart Meri that no member of the association would claim proprietary rights to their former Estonian lands. This, and the fact that the first German ambassadors to Estonia and Latvia were both Baltic Germans, helped to further reconcile the Baltic Germans with Estonians and Latvians.
Notable Baltic Germans
Baltic Germans played leading roles in the society of what are now Estonia and Latvia throughout most of the period from 13th to mid-20th century, with many of them becoming noted scientists or explorers. A number of Baltic Germans served as ranking generals in the Russian Imperial army and navy. Several Baltic Germans sided with the Whites during the Russian Civil War.
★ Patriarch Alexius II, born Alexei Ridiger (''von Rüdiger'')
★ Friedrich Amelung, chess master
★ Karl Ernst von Baer, biologist and a founding father of embryology
★ Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly, field marshal and Minister of War (Russia)
★ Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, admiral and naval explorer (Russia), discoverer of Antarctica
★ Alexander von Benckendorff, general and statesman (Russia)
★ Konstantin von Benckendorff, general and diplomat (Russia)
★ Werner Bergengruen, writer
★ August Johann Gottfried Bielenstein, linguist, folklorist, ethnographer, and theologian
★ Emil Bretschneider, Russian legation physcian, sinologist.
★ Johann Christoph Brotze, pedagogue and ethnographer
★ Georg Dehio, art historian
★ Kaspar von Dönhoff, Imperial Reichsfürst and Polish Diplomat
★ Heinz Erhardt, comedian, musician, entertainer and actor
★ Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, botanist and naturalist
★ Gregor von Helmersen, geologist
★ George Hoyningen-Huene, fashion photographer
★ Alexander Keyserling, geologist, paleontologist
★ Eduard von Keyserling, writer
★ Hermann Alexander Graf Keyserling, philosopher
★ Lionel Kieseritzky, chess master
★ Otto von Kotzebue, naval officer and explorer (Russia)
★ Adam Johann von Krusenstern, admiral and naval explorer (Russia)
★ Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon, field marshal and commander-in-chief of the armed forces (Austria)
★ Heinrich Lenz, physicist
★ Werner Zoege von Manteuffel, a surgeon, a pioneer of sterilization in the field of surgery
★ Garlieb Merkel, writer, Estophile and Lettophile
★ Alexander Theodor von Middendorff a famous zoologist and explorer
★ Eugene Miller, general and counterrevolutionary (Russia)
★ Burkhardt Christoph von Münnich, a Russian field marshal and famous politician
★ Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, politician, son of a Russian and a Baltic German noblewoman
★ Heinrich von Neff, a world-famous portrait painter
★ Alexander von Oettingen, theologian
★ Wilhelm Ostwald, chemist
★ Johann Patkul, nobleman of Livonia
★ Adolf Konstantin Jakob Baron Pilar von Pilchau, a politician, land marschal of Livonia/Livland, regent of the United Baltic Duchy (1918)
★ Alexander Pilar von Pilchau, painter
★ Wolter von Plettenberg, Master of the Livonian Order
★ Georg Wilhelm Richmann, physicist
★ Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi party ideologist
★ Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter, early Nazi party leader, inspired the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 in Munich
★ Marie Seebach German actress
★ Thomas Johann Seebeck, physicist
★ Jacob Johann Sievers, statesman and reformer
★ Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve, astronomer
★ Inge E. M. Thiel, chemist
★ Frank Thiess, writer
★ Eduard von Toll, Russian famous Arctic geologist and scientist
★ Jakob von Uexküll, biologist, semiotician
★ Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, commander of White Russian forces
★ Siegfried von Vegesack, writer
★ Edgar von Wahl, creator of Interlingue
★ Peter P. von Weymarn, chemist in colloid science (''von Weimarn law'')
★ Gero von Wilpert, writer
★ Ferdinand von Wrangel, admiral and naval explorer (Russia)
★ Peter von Wrangel, Lieutenant General, one of the leaders in White movement in Southern Russia, known there as Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel
★ Friedrich Zander, rocketry engineer and space flight pioneer
★ Walter Zapp inventor of the world-famous subminiature camera Minox
See also
★ Estonia
★ Latvia
★ Courland
★ Livonia
★ Livonian Confederation
★ Northern Crusades
★ Teutonic Knights
★ Latvian Literary Society
★ History of Germans in Russia and the Soviet Union
★ Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
★ Nazi-Soviet population transfers
★ Flight and expulsion of Germans during and after WWII
★ Kopli cemetery
★ Mõigu cemetery
Further reading
★ Helmreich E.C. (1942) The return of the Baltic Germans. ''The American Political Science Review'' 36.4, 711-716.
★ Whelan, Heide W. (1999). ''Adapting to Modernity: Family, Caste and Capitalism among the Baltic German Nobility''. Ostmitteleuropa in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, vol. 22. Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, 1999. ISBN 3412101982
★ Hiden, John W. (1970). The Baltic Germans and German policy towards Latvia after 1918. ''The Historical Journal'' 13.2, 295-317.
★ Hiden, John (1987). ''The Baltic States and Weimar Ostpolitik''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521893259
★ Anders Henrikkson (1983). ''The Tsar's Loyal Germans. The Riga Community: Social Change and the Nationality Question, 1855-1905''. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs. ISBN 0880330201
★ Mikko Ketola (2000). ''The Nationality Question in the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1918–1939''. Helsinki: Publications of the Finnish Society of Church History. ISBN 9525031179
External links
★ A Baltic German site.
★ The association of German Baltic Nobility (rulers of Estland, Livland and Kurland between 1252 and 1918) - also see English language version
★ Germans in Latvia
★ Estonian Manors Portal the English version introduces 438 well-preserved manors historically owned by the Baltic Germans (Baltic nobility)
References
1. The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, translated and edited by James A. Brundage, Columbia University, 1961; revised 2003; 288 pages ISBN 0231128886
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