From Empire to Minority: Baltic Germans from Late Nineteenth Century to the 1930s Conference at the University of Latvia, Riga January 23–24, 2026
ABSTRACTS Prof. Bradley Woodworth (University of New Haven; Yale University) Imperial Paragons to National Minority: Baltic Germans and the Challenges of Political Modernity Over the period addressed by the presentations in this symposium, the Baltic Germans moved from being paragons of empire – from the perspective of both the multiethnic Russian Empire and the expanding German presence across imperial outposts worldwide – to losing their position of political, economic, and social authority. This loss was not confined to those whose ancestral homelands became the new republics of Estonia and Latvia, but also affected those who had built careers across the broader empire. These latter Baltic Germans were perhaps the quintessential group “in between.” The singular achievements of this small number of highly talented individuals – many of whom occupied central positions at the highest levels of one of Europe’s and Eurasia’s major powers – continue to attract scholarly interest. While we may now describe them, in retrospect, as a “minority group,” this was not how they understood themselves. These introductory remarks for the conference focus on the opportunities available to Baltic Germans in an imperial setting that was not explicitly national and in which individual achievement was rewarded; this position is contrasted with its seemingly inevitable erosion under the conditions of political modernity. Dr. Kadi Kähär-Peterson (University of Tartu) The Never-born Baltia? Baltic German Responses to Harry Jannsen’s Call for Shared Baltic Identity In 1879, Harry Jannsen interrupted his intellectual pursuits in Europe to return home at the invitation of his father, Johann Voldemar Jannsen, and join the newspaper Eesti Postimees as associate editor. Upon assuming this role, the young Jannsen articulated his political vision: to foster a sense of shared identity among the inhabitants of the Baltic provinces as “Balts.” The program was remarkably ambitious: he envisioned a society in which hostility and mutual estrangement would give way to coexistence, while the distinct nationalities and languages of the Baltic provinces would be preserved. Few journalists begin their careers by promoting an idea that meets with such a hostile reception. Famously, Jannsen’s proposal encountered strong resistance in Carl Robert Jakobson’s Sakala. Although one of the intellectual roots of his vision was Edmund von Heyking’s appeal in Baltische Monatsschrift that same year, existing historiography suggests that Baltic German newspapers largely also rejected Jannsen’s program. Yet the specific arguments underlying this opposition remain insufficiently explored. This paper focuses on the response to Harry Jannsen’s idea in the Baltic German press. How might the reaction in these newspapers have been shaped by different social and national factors, as well as by the position between two empires – the German and the Russian? In addition, Jannsen’s vision was highly demanding: it presupposed a sustained willingness 1
among different groups to engage with one another’s literature, cultural traditions, and political concerns. Was it too demanding? By analyzing this polemic, the paper seeks to illuminate why efforts to construct a transprovincial and transnational identity failed.
Ass. Prof. Ivars Ijabs (University of Latvia) From Minority to Empire(s): Julius von Eckardt and the Baltic Perspectives on Imperial Geopolitics in the Late Nineteenth Century Julius von Eckardt (1836–1908), a prolific Baltic German journalist and writer, had an extraordinary biography. Starting out as a prominent liberal journalist in Riga of the early 1860s, he became increasingly dissatisfied with reformist politics of the Russian Empire and the perspectives of the Baltic provinces. After moving to Leipzig in 1867, he later became deeply involved with the formulation of German imperial policies toward the Russian Empire, both as a writer and diplomat. At the same time his Heimat – Livland and the other Baltic provinces – continued to play a significant role in his later work. Prof. Andris Levāns (University of Latvia) Medieval Livonia and Baltic German Self-Image: The Case of Historian Johannes Haller in the 1920s Writing about the history of a bygone era such as the Middle Ages allowed historians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries not only to explore questions of historical knowledge, but also to formulate their own understanding of power and politics. The work of Baltic German scholars on the history of medieval Livonia was thus not only understood as an academic task in service of the study and publication of sources and the writing of historical accounts. The density and intensity with which medieval Livonia was researched proves that this subject area also had increased socio-political significance for the historical consciousness of Germans in the Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire. These histories shaped the collective memory of Germans in the Baltic region and constituted their historical identity. Looking at the reinterpretation of written accounts of medieval Livonia as political statements, this paper focuses on the work of medievalist Johannes Haller (1865–1947) on European and Baltic history. His research covers e.g., the history of ecclesiastical councils and the political dynamics in Livonia in the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries. For Haller, history was always an important medium of political public discourse in the present. A critical analysis of his treatises on medieval and modern history thus draws our attention to the peculiarities of conceptual and rhetorical text formation. What conceptual ideas shaped his depictions of medieval Livonia, and how did these become vehicles for his political views? How was his research, which had been conducted outside his Baltic homeland since the 1890s when he left for Germany, perceived and received by the intellectual milieux in Riga, Reval and Dorpat? What specific rhetorical characteristics distinguish his historical narratives in the contexts of political, ethnic and cultural discourses in Europe and the Baltic region in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? Dr. Mārtiņš Mintaurs (National Library of Latvia, Riga) A Colonial Self-Reflection? Baltic German Scholars and Discussions on the Architectural Heritage in Latvia (1908–1938) Protection of the architectural heritage in the Baltic provinces became an object of public discussions in the late nineteenth century. Wilhelm Neumann’s (1849–1919) publications 2
about reconstruction works carried out at the Riga Cathedral from 1885 to 1910 made him the main authority in the field. Other Baltic German scholars and his colleagues, architects Heinrich/Heinz Pirang (1876–1936) and Wilhelm Bockslaff (1858–1945), who published on these issues, kept up their activities also in the Republic of Latvia during the interwar era. In two conferences of Baltic historians held in Riga in 1908 and Reval in 1912, these experts established the main concepts for the preservation of historical buildings in the Baltic provinces. However, they could not avoid the political contexts challenging their activities, including the turmoil of 1905, the catastrophe of the First World War, and the tensions arising in the Republic of Latvia. During the interwar years, discussions of architectural monuments in Latvia, by both state officials and the wider public, often led to perceiving them as evidence of “German” colonial activities. Hence Pirang in his work Das baltische Herrenhaus (in three volumes, 1926–1930) tried to eliminate the previously used “colonial approach” towards architectural heritage. Yet the situation changed after 1934, during the years of the authoritarian regime of Kārlis Ulmanis, when a massive campaign for “Latvianization” was launched in both culture and politics in an attempt to get rid of the colonial past. This affected also the architectural heritage the state was obligated to care for: from 1935 to 1939 the Old Town of Riga was rigorously rebuilt, over the objections against this by Pirang and Wilhelm Bockslaff. Among their Latvian contemporaries too there is evidence of (limited) opposition to the demolishing of historical buildings.
Helen Bome (independent scholar, Tallinn) The Demolition of the Wrangellsche Haus in Reval: The Changing Status and Coping Strategies of Baltic Germans This paper is a case study of the demise of a building in Tallinn (then, Reval), known by the name of its owner, Wrangell. In 1911, the house was bought by British businessman William Tulip, who intended to demolish and replace it with a modern apartment building. The Baltic German community viewed merchants’ dwellings from the Hanseatic times – of which this house was an especially well-preserved example – as a testament to their glorious past and source of their cultural identity. But times were changing, and the heritage section of the Estonian Literary Society, based in Tallinn, had neither the power to stop the demolition, nor the funds to acquire the house themselves. Faced with inevitable tragedy, they documented the appearance of the Wrangellsche Haus with unprecedented thoroughness, and attempted to save at least parts of it. While the role of medieval architecture in constructing Baltic identity has been researched before, this paper looks more specifically at carved limestone details of Gothic houses. From the second half of the nineteenth century, such details became valued as artefacts among the local Baltic Germans, with several carved stone collections accumulating in the courtyards of their town houses and parks of their summer manors. Architectural details were also extracted from the Wrangellsche Haus – to be sold, donated, exhibited or reused in other buildings. They were viewed not only as remnants, but also as representatives (pars pro toto) of the house that had now been lost. The affair of the Wrangellsche Haus is thus an example of how the Baltic Germans, increasingly stripped of their position and wealth, clung to their cultural heritage and found ways to cope with their losses. PhD cand. Denis Smetanin (University of Hamburg; Nordost-Institut, Lüneburg) Between Tradition and Modernity? Uncertainty, Baltic Germans and the Municipal Reform in Riga, 1877 3
This paper reconsiders the positioning of the Baltic German community during the preparation and implementation of the Municipal Reform of 1877, as well as within the Riga City Council up to 1891. The reform and related discussions have commonly been interpreted as a confrontation between different national groups and the imperial administration. The debates over the reform – initiated within the German community – allegedly divided it into two groups, those supporting and those opposing the reform. I argue that such an approach overlooks the complexity and internal contradictions of the reform itself, within which the German groups were compelled to operate. I look at the reform not so much as an attempt at imperial integration and abolition of Germans’ “special” system of privileges, but rather as a complex space of ambivalence. The attempt to integrate the old urban political tradition into the new model of self-government created a “zone of uncertainty” (Michel Crozier) in which, due to the absence of stable, legitimized norms and practices, actors were compelled to establish their own. Crozier emphasizes that attempts to eliminate or control these zones usually lead to the emergence of new ones, and that was the case also in late-nineteenth-century Riga. All of this shaped the practices of positioning of the German group in Riga during the preparation of the Municipal Reform, the first electoral campaign, and within the activities of the Riga City Council. The council itself emerged as a “zone of uncertainty” (in a meeting of 1878, its chairman even positioned the new municipality as a parliament, bringing about waves of criticism): intended to serve as an instrument of imperial administration and a platform for Russian and Latvian national groups, it ultimately became a space in which the German party succeeded in legitimizing its own practices of ideas, debate and resistance.
Ass. Prof. Olev Liivik (University of Tartu; Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, Tallinn) The Volhynian Germans in Interwar Estonia: A Marginal “Non-Community” among the Baltic Germans Before the First World War, Baltic German landowners resettled thousands of German colonists from Volhynia (and the Volga region) to Livonia and Courland. The recruitment of this labor force was motivated by economic concerns as well as by political ambitions to create a stratum of German peasantry, hitherto largely absent in the Baltic provinces. Of the approximately 10,000 settlers who arrived in Livonia in the early 1910s, a few thousand were settled in southern Estonian manors and on smallholdings carved out of manor land. Many of them left Estonia after the war, but the Heimthal colony in southeastern Estonia survived until the Second World War. The topic has been researched primarily from an economic perspective. More recent studies on “new farmers” as colonial substitutes in Baltic German imaginations, or on the representation of Russian German colonists as “pioneers of settlement,” concentrate on discursive constructions and symbolic attributions. As the Volhynian Germans in interwar Estonia constituted a small, unorganized, and publicly almost invisible group, my hypothesis is that they allow for a shift in research focus: from public representations to the reconstruction of lived realities on the micro-level. I examine the Volhynian Germans who remained in interwar Estonia, tracing their migration background, settlement patterns, and socio-economic, educational, confessional profiles. Using archival sources, memoirs and newspapers, I highlight both their adaptation to the Estonian Republic and the attempts by the Baltic German elite to integrate them. I also address the extent to which the Volhynian Germans consciously pursued assimilation (e.g. through intermarriage) and the degree to which they retained the German identity. Finally, I discuss why they did not form a distinct community and how they were affected by the 4
Umsiedlung of 1939–1941. The study seeks to shed new light on the diversity of the Germanspeaking minority – the shifting identities of small German-speaking groups in the Baltic region. PhD cand. Rūdolfs Rubenis (University of Latvia; University of Latvia Museum) The Status of Baltic German Student Fraternities within the System of the University of Latvia (1920–1932): A National Issue The origins of Baltic student fraternities can be traced to the Baltic provinces of the nineteenth century. Their development is historically closely linked to two institutions of higher education and research that have influenced the modern University of Latvia: the University of Tartu (Dorpat, re-est. 1802) and the Riga Polytechnic Institute (est. 1862), where Baltic Germans had founded the first student fraternities and others adopted the concept to their own nationalist perspective. Although the Baltic German student fraternities at both these universities were connected with the umbrella organizations, the Tartu and Riga Chargierter Convents, the situation changed with the foundation of the University of Latvia after the First World War. In the Republic of Latvia, Baltic German fraternity members became a minority in the face of most Latvian student fraternities, who established their own, Latvian-dominated umbrella organization – the University of Latvia Presidium Convent. The Baltic German fraternities (Curonia, Fraternitas Rigensis, Fraternitas Baltica, Concordia Rigensis, Rubonia and Gotonia) had to cooperate with the Latvian ones and accept their dominance. How well did they adapt to the radical changes in the higher education system of the nation-state? In addition to providing an overview of the development of Baltic German student fraternities to 1918, the paper, firstly, assesses the Baltic German fraternity members’ measures to adapt to the changes at the University of Latvia from 1920 (when they joined the Presidium Convent) to 1932 (when they left it). Secondly, the paper also analyzes the changes in the number of their members, taking into account the ethnic diversity of the students. Thirdly, the paper identifies key national disputes between Baltic German and Latvian fraternity members. The paper combines existing historiography with documents from the Latvian State Historical Archives (Latvian National Archive); student fraternity anniversary books, biographical descriptions, journalism; and historical reviews and student statistics published by the University of Latvia. Dr. Kārlis Sils (Södertörn University, Stockholm) Contesting Baltic German Exceptionalism: Nationalization Policies in Authoritarian Latvia, 1934–1938 This paper examines the nationalization policies implemented by Latvia’s authoritarian government from 1934 to 1938 and their impact on the Baltic German community. While scholarship has often characterized these measures as primarily anti-German, this paper argues that their effects were shaped less by ethnic affiliation than by class, geography and age. By situating these policies within the broader institutional framework and the legacies of imperial rule, I show how the authoritarian government sought to overcome entrenched social structures that had constrained the integration of the citizenry during the parliamentary period (1920–1934). In this context, the Baltic Germans stood out not because they were uniquely targeted, but because their social position enabled them to mount particularly vocal opposition to nationalization efforts. 5
The paper also raises broader methodological questions about how to evaluate relations between minority groups and post-imperial states in the interwar period. It questions the use of grievances expressed by minority elites as a measure for evaluating political regimes in post-imperial states. Likewise, it challenges the view that the high degree of political consolidation among some minority groups, such as the Baltic Germans, was a natural outcome of shifting social hierarchies after imperial collapse; instead, it situates this interpretation within broader scholarship that conceptualizes such consolidation as a political process actively shaped by nationalist leaders from minority groups. Lastly, it argues that even within authoritarian settings, a distinction must be made between pro-regime nationalist discourses in the press and the actual policies pursued by governments and officials.
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Dr. Rasa Pārpuce-Blauma (Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation, Riga) Strengthening Germanness through Historical Sources: The Influence of Nazi Germany on Latvian Museums and Archives in the 1930s The Third Reich’ efforts to increase its influence in northeastern Europe in the 1930s were manifested also in Latvian research and the management of historical sources. At the Riga Herder Institute, operating as a private university from 1924, Baltic German historians of several generations worked as lecturers and researchers – including Reinhard Wittram, head of the Volkskundliche Forschungsstelle; Leonid Arbusow Jr. (also a professor at the University of Latvia); and Jürgen von Hehn – training important specialists (teachers, theologians). Many sources important to Latvian history were owned and managed by Baltic Germans. While archivists, museum curators, historians were supported by Germany already in the 1920s, the 1930s witnessed a significant increase. In addition to the Verein für das Deutschtum im Ausland, organizations such as Nordostdeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem, Reichstelle für Sippenforschung, and Volksdeutsche Archivverwaltung deserve mention. Funding came in the form of research scholarships or paid study trips to Germany, support for publications, exhibitions, etc. – often secretly, through the German Foreign Ministry; the financial coordinator was Wittram. Significant funding was received by archivist Arnold Feuereisen and historian Herta von RammHelmsing. The Third Reich also financed visits by its own specialists to Latvia. Archaeologist Carl Engel worked at the Herder Institute while reorganizing the Dommuseum’s archaeological display and compiling its catalog. Legal scholar Hans Julius Wolf, who worked at the Institute in the later 1930s, became involved in the removal of Latvian museum objects during the Second World War. Historiography is still dominated by narratives of Baltic German authors about the supposedly unprovoked “anti-German measures” during the rule of Kārlis Ulmanis that “forced” them to seek protection in the Third Reich. Closer study of historical research and management of collections suggests that the Latvian government’s suspicions of secret cooperation between the Baltic Germans and the Third Reich were well-founded even before such measures. Prof. Raivis Bičevskis (University of Latvia; Latvian Academy of Sciences, Riga) Erika Sehl at the Herder Institute in Riga and Beyond: The Fate of a Baltic German Philosopher in Interwar Latvia and Postwar Germany The fate of philosopher Erika Sehl is intertwined with the Baltic German educational and cultural life of the 1920s and 1930s, as well as with German universities. Although Sehl’s dissertation on the epistemology of John Locke and habilitation on ancient Greek philosophy were recognized by the best specialists, and although she published six collections of poetry in post-war Berlin, we know almost nothing about her life today: neither her academic nor literary contribution has been studied. Yet, this female scholar’s life and its turning points are revealing not only from the point of view of the Baltic German community, but also from that of the Riga Herder Institute (1921–1939). This institute has been viewed mainly from a socio-political perspective, whereas its role as a place of research and transfer of ideas – a discovery-generating Kampfplatz (Kurt Flasch) in the intellectual “constellation” of Riga (Dieter Henrich) – has been almost unstudied. Thus, the paper attempts to connect two research curves: the Herder Institute itself, and Sehl’s activity at both the Institute and German universities. 7
Under the wing of her mentor and habilitation supervisor Kurt Stavenhagen, Sehl found her way to the universities of Freiburg, Munich and Königsberg, where she listened to lectures by Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Heinrich Wölfflin, Heinz Heimsoeth, and others. Her autobiographical poems look back at her life path, in which her academic career once played a major role. The archive of the Herder Institute gives insight into dimensions of this career, but also into the discourses of Baltic German identity and scientific excellence more broadly.
Dr. Ugis Sildegs (Luther Academy, Riga) Adolf von Harnack: A Baltic German Theologian Navigating Empire and Minority Identity, 1870s–1930s This paper examines Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930), a Baltic German theologian born in Dorpat (Tartu), as a lens for understanding the shifting identity of Baltic Germans from imperial elites to a minority amidst Russification, nationalist movements and the emergence of independent Estonia and Latvia. His life and work encapsulate the “in-betweenness” of Baltic Germanness – geographically poised between the Russian and German empires, bridging Lutheran tradition and liberal theology, and, in the political realm, navigating elite privilege and minority status. As the son of a theology professor, Harnack was exposed early in life to the pressures of Russification that shaped his later academic career in Germany, where he became a leading figure in Protestant theology, notably through works such as Grundriss der Dogmengeschichte (1889). His intellectual output and public roles, including his endorsement of the 1914 Manifesto of the Ninety-Three, reflect a Baltic German propensity for “propaganda” that framed the Baltic region as a German cultural bastion, often marginalizing Estonian and Latvian voices. This paper thus explores how Harnack’s theological scholarship – emphasizing a universal Christian history – mirrored Baltic German efforts to assert cultural continuity amid their declining political power. By analyzing his correspondence, publications and institutional roles, I investigate how his work subtly reinforced German imperial ambitions, and adapted to the realities of Baltic Germans’ minority status in the interwar Baltic states. Drawing on archival sources and recent historiography, the paper argues that Harnack’s career offers a microcosm of the Baltic German elite’s complex transition from empire to minority, reflecting both resilience and ambivalence in a transformative era. This biographical case study thus illuminates broader tensions: the interplay of professional theology with political identity, the negotiation of Germanness against rising Baltic nationalisms, and the role of Baltic Germans in shaping European perceptions of the region. Dr. Kristiāna Ābele (Art Academy of Latvia, Riga; Latvian Academy of Sciences) Antagonistic Heralds of a Baltic Art Spring: Roderich von Engelhardt and Wilhelm Sawitzky as Art Critics at the Turn of the Twentieth Century The Baltic provinces around 1900 were the north-western fringe of the Russian Empire, but also the north-eastern periphery of the German cultural sphere, where the new ethnocentric national cultures were developing like a “storm, full of creative joy and daring” in contrast to the alleged “Baltic German air of provincial lethargy” (Jānis Siliņš, 1940). Revising this established view, it is necessary not only to identify the contribution of Baltic German artists to the modern art of Baltic lands at the turn of the century, but also to acknowledge and 8
explore the particular and peculiar role of Baltic German art critics in heralding this storm of artistic creativity to their compatriots in the “immediate homeland” (engere Heimat). The paper focuses on the largely antagonistic positions and fluctuating identities of two authors active in Tallinn, Riga and beyond: Roderich von Engelhardt (1862–1934) and Wilhelm Sawitzky (1879–1947). Their homes in Riga became important hubs of intellectual exchange, attracting conservative upper-class circles in the first case and young liberal Germans in the latter. Having put much effort into the elucidation of late-nineteenth-century Baltic art and forged the fame of Latvian landscape painter Vilhelms Purvītis (1872–1945), Engelhardt turned into a warrior against the modernist trends before the First World War. In 1904, journalist Sawitzky was happy to announce that “Baltic art has been in a spring mood for several years now,” but following the bankruptcy of the newspaper Rigasche Neueste Nachrichten in 1911, he emigrated to USA, where he ultimately earned the reputation of a pioneering researcher of eighteenth-century American painting. Closer scrutiny of these writers, their biographies and statements reveals diversity of social and professional backgrounds, aesthetic preferences, intellectual aspirations, as well as political views. Prof. Māra Grudule (University of Latvia; Latvian Academy of Sciences) Kurt von Löwenstern: A Baltic German Voice of Loss and Change At the center of this paper stands the Baltic German writer Kurt von Löwenstern (1882– 1930), whose oeuvre reflects the ambivalent cultural position of the Baltic Germans caught between the collapse of empires and the rise of modern nation-states. His prose, shaped by personal experiences of revolution, war and agrarian reform, reveals the perspective of a “superfluous man” in 1920s Latvia. Löwenstern’s life – spent mostly between Koknese and Riga, with brief journeys east and west – places him at the crossroads of German and Russian cultural spheres. His modest corpus (thirteen stories, sketches, miniatures, and one novella) was published exclusively in the Baltic press and remained largely unnoticed. Yet his works vividly convey the existential dislocation and melancholy typical of Baltic German identity narratives after the loss of aristocratic privilege. Löwenstern’s prose intertwines past and present, memory and imagination, revealing a deep concern with the inner world, fate and nature. Formally, his writing employs fragmented narration, abrupt syntax, shifting perspectives, and moments of stream of consciousness, aligning it with German modernism. The recurring imagery of deserts, frost, storms and night heightens the atmosphere of loneliness, inevitability and existential crisis, while movement and stillness symbolize the tension between history and stasis. Occasional grotesque or ironic tones introduce contrast and emotional depth. Though his influences remain uncertain, it can be argued that Löwenstern’s prose in fact resonates with both German modernist aesthetics and the psychological nuance of Russian short prose, especially Anton Chekhov, merging Western sophistication with the provincial world of the Russian nobility and the elemental forces of man and nature.
Ass. Prof. Maris Saagpakk (Tallinn University) Reflections on the Estonian Emancipation Process in Baltic German Newspapers and Literary Texts in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century Change in the position of the Baltic German community vis-à-vis their Estonian compatriots was gradual and unfolded in multiple stages. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Baltic German elite remained culturally, legally and administratively dominant, maintaining relations with Estonians that can be characterized as colonial. Baltic German interest in Estonian culture, 9
initially inspired by Herder’s ideas and by German national romanticism, remained strong. Another influential framework at the time was the project of public Enlightenment (Volksaufklärung), pursued largely by Baltic German clergy, which had acquired pronounced anti-Enlightenment features by the mid-nineteenth century. The establishment of the first Estonian newspaper to reach a wider readership (Perno Postimees, 1857), the emergence of publishing houses that regularly issued books in Estonian (especially Laakmann in Tartu), the slow but steady rise of the educational level of Estonians, as well as a formation of the Estonian national movement marked important turning points. These developments gradually made the Baltic Germans question their role in the emancipation of Estonians as their cultural “others.” Drawing on Baltic German newspapers such as Revaler Zeitung and Dörptsche Zeitung, as well as literary and autobiographic texts by one of the leading Estophiles, Georg Julius von Schultz, this paper examines Baltic German reflections on the Estonian emancipation process. Schultz, who often published under the pseudonym Dr. Bertram, was a passionate supporter of Estonian national movement in its early decades. He had a close relationship to Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, the author of the Estonian epic Kalevipoeg (1857). However, from the late 1850s Kreutzwald and other Estonians began to reject Schultz’ role as a guide and teacher to the Estonian people. In his writings in both German and Estonian, Schultz expressed criticism, disappointment, and anger over these developments, reflecting the dominant sentiments within the Baltic German community.
PhD cand. Marika Selga (University of Latvia; National Library of Latvia) Witnessing Radical Change: American Correspondents Reporting on Baltic Germans in 1914–1923 The memoirs of several Baltic Germans – Ruth von Grotthuss, Joachim von der OstenSacken, Camilla von Stackelberg, Ernst von Mensenkampff – suggest that they felt that they belonged to the German cultural sphere, were caring about all Baltic people, including Latvian peasants, and that their world was collapsing, counterposing the previous peaceful pastoral life of the nobility and literati with the injustice they experienced during 1905, the First World War and the revolution of 1917 and land reform. After a period of Russification, the wartime German occupation provided new hope for the Baltic Germans. The BrestLitovsk peace treaty created conditions which allowed some to dream of re-establishing former glory by creating a United Baltic Duchy under the protection of Germany. Others chose to cooperate with the new states of Estonia and Latvia. This paper focuses on the outside view on the Baltic Germans in this period of drastic change and in particular how the topic of Baltic Germans’ shifting roles and coming to terms with this change was addressed in the media abroad. Russia and its Baltic provinces were of interest to the American media – news of princesses and counts and their romances, but also of the achievements of Baltic German scholars were often reported on front pages. This changed when the war began: Russia was still an ally, but now Germany was the adversary. American correspondents’ first direct reporting from the Baltic states began in 1919 when The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Daily, The New York Times sent reporters like Walter Duranty, Richard Henry Little, Arthur E. Mann, Michael Farbmen and Arthur Brown Ruhl to observe the situation on site in the Baltic. This paper examines how the Baltic Germans were identified as a specific group in the United States, how their achievements were celebrated, and whether they were perceived as protectors of Russia or promoters of German interests.
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Dr. Iveta Leitane (Tallinn University) Alfons Heyking on Minority Politics in the Baltics This paper will, firstly, analyze the theoretical legal foundations and sources Alfons Heyking (1860–1930) employed when dealing with minority questions he addressed in works such as The Main Issues Confronting the Minorities of Latvia and Estonia (1922), Quelques défectuosités dans la protection des minorités (1924), and Der internationale Schutz der Minderheiten – die Achillesferse des Völkerbundes (1925). I will, secondly, examine the extent to which Heyking’s ideas, despite their rather limited reception, were discussed and criticized in contemporary legal literature. The third task is to identify the place his arguments took in the framework of Baltic German legal thought. Both the legal and non-legal components of his argumentation will be discerned, characterizing the main categories of the value system he rests upon. Finally, I will examine his rather idiosyncratic worldview and ask about the specifically Baltic German elements in it. The Heyking family had been tied with Latvia for five centuries. Given the literary productivity and socio-political standing of this family, it is an ideal research subject to study the dynamics (and continuity) of the loyalty of Baltic Germans to the changing political powers. The activities of this family will shed light on the embeddedness of Baltic German loyalty in their ethos and religious background as well as in their political conservative historiosophy. Not overlooking Heyking’s early theological essay The Christian Faith and the Natural Necessity of All Things (1891), the paper considers how Heyking’s religious beliefs and the ethos of chivalry, family memories and formative years in Dorpat shaped his perception of minority issues.
Dr. Nuppu Koivisto-Kaasik (University of Helsinki) Gender, Politics and Cultural Propaganda: Three Baltic German Women Composers in Inter-war Germany In the spring of 1938, the Volksbildungsstätte Potsdam arranged a lecture-concert “Musical Life and Creativity in the Baltic Lands” (Das musikalische Leben und Schaffen im Baltenlande). The program showcased works by three Baltic German composers – Martha Erbs-Küntzel, Anna Teichmüller and Elsa von Oettingen. This paper examines these composers and asks why their works were chosen to illustrate Baltic cultural life in the Third Reich and how the composers reflected on their Baltic German identity in the political climate of the interwar era. Out of the three women, only Teichmüller has been the subject of detailed biographic study, whereas Elsa von Oettingen is only briefly mentioned and Martha Erbs-Küntzel’s identity has remained entirely unclear. Based on previously unstudied letters, this paper seeks to answer the aforementioned questions on two levels. First, a brief socio-historical overview of the composers’ lives and careers is presented. Second, the composers’ own thoughts on Baltic, German and Baltic German identity are analyzed. Special attention is paid to the composers’ career paths in the Third Reich as they all worked and had their compositions performed in Germany during the 1930s. The paper argues that these composers’ lives and their ambiguous ideas on Baltic German identity poignantly illustrate the general “in-betweenness” of Baltic German cultural life of this era. On the one hand, because of their gender and cultural background, these women have not been widely studied in the context of either Baltic or German music history. On the other hand, their ties to the Nazi regime and its cultural propaganda might have made music historians reluctant to study their works or address their activities in the 1930s. 11
Dr. Anja Wilhelmi (Nordost-Institut, Lüneburg) How to Find and Defend Germanness in Italy? Travel Experiences and Nationalcultural Self-identification of Baltic Germans on Their Travels to Italy, 1880–1940 Since the publication of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s travel diary, Italy had become the destination of choice for Germans seeking personal development. At the same time, Italy was for many of them the country where processes of negotiation between foreignness and familiarity were revealed. Numerous Baltic Germans also followed this desire and travelled to Italy, and many of them left behind autobiographical travel notes. Most of these sources show that there was a confrontation with the origins and the self-identification of those travelers in a foreign country: the search for the self also implied a search for a specifically German identity. This was the case not least because the Baltic Germans – among the crowds of German tourists – were perceived in Italy as citizens of the Russian Empire. With the independence of Estonia and Latvia, this image changed. Nevertheless, Baltic Germans faced a similarly indifferent situation of classification: they had now become an unknown minority in the newly independent Baltic states. The surviving documents suggest that the search for, positioning of, and proclamation of belonging to a German and, at the same time, Baltic German population group was a central topic of negotiation throughout the entire period.
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