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Baltic Germans ( or Deutschbalten, later Baltendeutsche; ; ) are Germans inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their resettlement in 1945 after the end of World War II, Baltic Germans have drastically declined as a geographically determined ethnic group in the region, with diaspora generally relocating to Germany proper and beyond.
Since the Late Middle Ages, native German-speakers formed the majority of merchants and clergy, and the large majority of the Baltic nobility who effectively constituted a ruling class over indigenous Latvians and Estonians non-nobles. By the time a distinct Baltic German ethnic identity began emerging in the 19th century, the majority of self-identifying Baltic Germans were non-nobles belonging mostly to the urban and professional middle class.
In the 12th and 13th centuries, Catholic German traders and crusaders ( see italic=unset) began settling in the eastern Baltic territories. With the decline of Latin language, Low German became the dominant language of official documents, commerce, education and government and later on High German. By the first half of the 20th century, the Baltic Germans were, until after World War II, along with the Transylvanian Saxons and the Zipser Germans (in Romania and Slovakia respectively), one of the three oldest continuously German-speaking and ethnic German groups of the German diaspora in Europe.
The majority of medieval Catholic settlers and their German-speaking descendants lived in the local towns of Terra Mariana. However, a small wealthy elite formed the Baltic nobility, acquiring large rural estates. When Sweden had ceded its Livonian territories to the Russian Empire after the Great Northern War (1700–1721), many of these German-speaking aristocrats began taking high positions in the military, political and civilian life of the Russian Empire, particularly in its capital city Saint Petersburg. Most Baltic Germans were citizens of the Russian Empire until Estonia and Latvia achieved independence in 1918. Thereafter, most Baltic Germans held Estonian or Latvian citizenship until their coerced resettlement to Nazi Germany in 1939, prior to the Soviet invasion and occupation of Estonia and Latvia in 1940.
The Baltic German population never surpassed more than 10% of the total population. In 1881, there were 180,000 Baltic Germans in Russia's Baltic provinces; however, by 1914, this number had declined to 162,000. In 1881 there were approximately 46,700 Germans in Estonia (5.3% of the population). Baltic Germans in Estonia , Estonian Institute einst.ee According to the Russian Empire Census of 1897, there were 120,191 Germans in Latvia, or 6.2% of the population.
Baltic German presence in the Baltics came effectively close to an end in late 1939, following the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the subsequent Nazi–Soviet population transfers. Nazi Germany resettled almost all the Baltic Germans under the Heim ins Reich program into the newly formed of Wartheland and Danzig-West Prussia (on the territory of the occupied Second Polish Republic). In 1945, most ethnic Germans were expelled from these lands as part of the wider expulsion of Germans from Central and Eastern Europe after World War II. Resettlement was planned by the Allies for the territory remaining under Germany under terms of the border changes promulgated at the Potsdam Conference, i.e. west of the Oder–Neisse line.
Ethnic Germans from East Prussia and Lithuania are sometimes incorrectly considered Baltic Germans for reasons of cultural, linguistic, and historical affinities. Germans of East Prussia held Prussian, and after 1871, German citizenship, because the territory they lived in was part of the Kingdom of Prussia.
In the course of their 700-year history, Baltic German families had ethnic German roots, but also intermarried extensively with Estonians, Livonians and Latvians, as well as with other Northern or Central European peoples, such as Danes, Swedes, Irish, English, Scots, Poles, Hungarians and Dutch. In cases where intermarriage occurred, members of the other ethnic groups frequently assimilated into German culture, adopting German language, customs, and family names. They were then considered Germans, leading to the ethnogenesis of the Baltic Germans. The families of Barclay de Tolly and of George Armitstead (1847–1912), who had emigrated from the British Isles, married into and became part of the Baltic-German community.
During the next three centuries, German-speaking soldiers, clergymen, merchants and craftsmen constituted the majority of the quickly growing urban population, as the native inhabitants usually were prohibited from settling there. In 1230, the Livonian Order invited over 200 German merchants from Gotland to settle in Tallinn where they founded a market town. Membership in the Hanseatic League and active trade links with Russia and Europe increased the wealth of German traders.
In 1558, the Tsardom of Russia began the Livonian War against Terra Mariana which soon involved the Kingdoms of Poland, Sweden, and Denmark and lasted for 20 years. In 1561, Terra Mariana ceased to exist and was divided among Denmark (which took the island of Saaremaa), Sweden (which took northern Estonia) and Poland, which annexed the newly created Duchy of Livonia, and granted the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, a vassal state of Poland-Lithuania, to the last Master of the Livonian Order Gotthard Kettler. The secularized land was divided among the remaining knights who formed the basis of Baltic nobility.
The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia existed as a German-speaking country until 1795, while the northern part of Duchy of Livonia was conquered by Sweden which controlled parts of Estonia between 1561 and 1710 and Swedish Livonia between 1621 and 1710, having signed an agreement with the local Baltic German nobles not to undermine their political rights and autonomy.
The Academia Gustaviana (now University of Tartu) was founded in 1632 by King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. It remained the only institution of higher education in the former Livonian territories and became the intellectual focus of the Baltic Germans.
At the end of the 17th century, Sweden introduced the land reduction in its Baltic provinces and properties held by German nobility became the property of the Crown. That effectively turned serfs into free peasants. However, it would be overturned when Russia conquered these territories in 1710 and restored the rights of German landowners under the Treaty of Nystad.
Between 1710 and approximately 1880, the Baltic German ruling class enjoyed great autonomy from the Imperial government and achieved great political influence in the Imperial court. Starting from the 18th century, the Baltic German nobility also assumed some leading posts in the Russian imperial government.
Germans, other than the local estate-owners, mainly lived in the cities, such as Riga, Tallinn, Tartu, Pernau and Jelgava. As late as the mid-19th century, the population of many of these cities still had a German majority, with Estonian, Latvian or Jewish minorities. By 1867, Riga's population was 42.9% German. Until the late 19th century, most of the professional and learned classes in the region, the Intellectual, were Germans.
German political and cultural autonomy ceased in the 1880s, when Russification replaced German administration and schooling with the usage of Russian language. After 1885 provincial governors usually were Russians.
The native Latvians and Estonians population enjoyed fewer rights under the Baltic German nobility compared with farmers in Germany or Sweden. In contrast to the Baltic Germans, Estonians and Latvians had restricted civil rights and resided mostly in rural areas as serfs, tradesmen, or as servants in manors and urban homes. They had no rights to leave their masters and no surnames. This was in keeping with the social scheme of things in Russian Empire. It lasted until the 19th century, when emancipation from serfdom brought those inhabitants increased civil freedoms and some political rights.
In 1804, Livonian peasant law was introduced by the Imperial government, aimed at improving conditions for serfs. Serfdom was abolished in all Baltic provinces between 1816 and 1820, about half a century earlier than in Russia proper. For some time, there was no outward tension between the German speakers and indigenous residents.
Earlier, if any Latvian or Estonian who managed to rise above his class was expected to Germanize and to forget his roots, by the mid-19th century German urban classes began to feel increasing competition from the natives, who after the First Latvian National Awakening and Estonian national awakening produced their own middle class and moved to German- and Jewish-dominated towns and cities in increasing numbers.
The Revolution of 1905 led to attacks against the Baltic German landowners, the burning of manors, and the torture and even killing of members of the nobility. During the 1905 Revolution groups of rebels burned over 400 manor houses and German-owned buildings and killed 82 Germans. In response Cossack punitive expeditions aided by German nobles and officers burned down hundreds of farms, arrested and deported thousands and summarily executed at least 2,000 people.
Reaction to 1905 Revolution included a scheme by Karl Baron von Manteuffel-Szoege and Silvio Broedrich-Kurmahlen to pacify the countryside by settling up to 20,000 ethnic German farmers, mostly from Volhynia, in Courland.
Courland was conquered by Germany in 1915 and included into the military Ober Ost administration. After the Russian surrender at the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918, the German Empire occupied the remaining Baltic provinces.
The Ober Ost military administration began plans for German colonization of Courland. On April 20, 1917, the Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern front announced that a third of arable land there should be reserved for settlement by German war veterans. This was approved by Courland's German nobility on September 22, 1917.
In the spring of 1918, Baltic Germans announced the restoration of the independent Duchy of Courland and Semigallia and pursued plans for uniting it with the Kingdom of Prussia. On April 12, 1918, Baltic German representatives from all Baltic provinces met in Riga and called on the German Emperor to annex the Baltic lands.
Subsequently, a plan for a United Baltic Duchy ruled by Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg, instead of outright annexation, was developed. Its regency council met on November 9, 1918, but collapsed with the German Empire.
Baltic Germans suffered greatly under Bolshevik regimes in Estonia and Latvia. While the Bolshevik regimes were short-lived, they pursued the Red Terror against Germans, often killing them purely because of their nationality.
After the collapse of the German Empire, Baltic Germans in Estonia began forming volunteer units to defend against the Bolshevik threat. On November 27, 1918 this was authorized by the Estonian government, and the Volunteer Baltic Battalion ( Freiwilligen Baltenbataillon) was formed under the command of Colonel Constantin von Weiss (de).
During the Estonian and Latvian wars of independence from 1918 to 1920, many Baltic Germans voluntarily enlisted in the newly formed Estonian and Latvian armies to help secure the independence of these countries from Russia. These Baltic German military units became known as the Baltische Landeswehr in Latvia and Baltenregiment (de) in Estonia. The State archives of Estonia and Latvia keep individual military records of each person who fought in this war.
Baltische Landeswehr units took Riga on May 22, 1919 which was followed by White Terror in which up to 2,000 people, mostly Latvians, were shot as suspected Bolshevik supporters.
Baltic German outlying estates were frequent targets of local Bolsheviks (as portrayed in the film, Coup de Grâce) and the combination of local Bolsheviks and nationalists following independence brought about land nationalisations and a displacement of Baltic Germans from positions of authority. Baltic Germans of the Livonian Governorate found themselves in two new countries, both of which introduced sweeping agrarian reforms aimed at the large land owners, an absolute majority of whom were Germans.
As a result of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Russian Civil War, many Baltic Germans fled to Germany. After 1919, many Baltic Germans felt obliged to depart the newly independent states for Weimar Republic, but many stayed as ordinary citizens.Hiden, John, The Baltic States and Weimar Ostpolitik, Cambridge University Press, 1987,
In 1925, there were 70,964 Germans in Latvia (3.6%) and 62,144 in 1935 (3.2% of population). Riga remained by far the largest German center with 38,523 Germans residing there in 1935, while Tallinn then had 6,575 Germans.
While the German landed class soon lost most of their lands after the agrarian reforms, they continued to work in their professions and to lead their companies. German cultural autonomy was respected. The Committee of the German Baltic Parties in Latvia and Deutsch-baltische Partei in Estland in Estonia participated in elections and won seats.
At the same time, as both young states built their institutions, this often reduced the status of their minorities. In Latvia, children of mixed marriages were registered as Latvians while in Estonia they took the nationality of their fathers, who increasingly were Estonians. This quickly reduced the number of German children. German place names were eliminated from public use. German congregations lost their churches. Tallinn Cathedral was given to an Estonian congregation in 1927. After the 1923 referendum St. James's Cathedral in Riga was lost and Riga Cathedral taken away after another referendum in 1931.
On October 10, 1919, the Estonian parliament expropriated 1,065 estates (96.6% of all estates). The law of March 1, 1926 set the compensation to the former owners of arable land at about 3% of its market value and no compensation at all for the forests. This almost instantly bankrupted the German noble class, even if they were allowed to keep some 50 hectares of their lands.
On September 16, 1920, the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia nationalized 1,300 estates comprising 3.7million hectares of land. Former German owners were allowed to keep 50 hectares of land and farm equipment. In 1924, the Saeima decided that no compensation would be paid to former owners. In 1929, the Saeima voted that veterans of the Baltische Landeswehr could not receive any land.
Germans were banned from governmental and military positions. Many Germans sold their properties and emigrated to Scandinavia or Western Europe. Most of the grand manor houses were taken over by schools, hospitals, local administration and museums.
Estonia's Baltic German population was smaller than Latvia's, so as Estonians continued to fill professional positions such as law and medicine, there was less of a leadership role for the Baltic Germans. Baron Wilhelm Wrangel family, leader of the Baltic German cultural association between 1933 and 1938 was included in the Estonian Council of State after 1937 as a token representative of minorities. The last leader of Baltic German Cultural administration was Hellmuth Weiss.
On February 12, 1925, Estonia adopted the Cultural Autonomy and National Minorities Act, which provided for some cultural autonomy of Germans. Despite this, the German community in Estonia continued to decline as the majority of young people chose to emigrate. By 1934, there were 16,346 Baltic Germans in Estonia, 1.5% of the total population.
Estonia allowed German schools to teach in the German language. These schools were overseen by the Gesellschaft Deutsche Schulhilfe, which was part of the Union of German Societies in Estonia. After adoption of the Minority law of February 5, 1925 the Baltic German Cultural Council was created on November 1, 1925. In 1928, German schools were attended by 3,456 pupils.
Six, later seven, German parties existed and formed a coalition in the Saeima. The leading politicians were Baron Wilhelm Friedrich Karl von Fircks, leader of the Baltic-German People's Party and Paul Schiemann, editor-in-chief of the Rigasche Rundschau newspaper and leader of the Baltic-German Democratic Party. Increased activity of National Socialist supporters in the German community led to the resignation of Schiemann from the Rigasche Rundschau in 1933.
Minority cultural affairs were overseen by the Ministry of Culture and the German section was led by pastor Karl Keller (1868–1939) and later by Wolfgang Wachtsmuth. In 1923, there were 12,168 pupils in German schools. The Herder Institute, a private German university with three faculties (Theology, Jurisprudence and Political Science and Philosophy) was established.
In 1926, the German community introduced voluntary self-taxation, asking all Germans to contribute up to 3% of their monthly income to community activities. In 1928, the Baltic German National Community was established as the central representative body of Baltic Germans in Latvia.
The educational autonomy of Germans was severely limited in 1931–1933, when the Minister of Education Atis Ķeniņš introduced a policy of latvianization in minority schools. On July 18, 1934 the autonomous German schools were brought under complete control of the Ministry of Education.
After the coup of May 15, 1934, all associations and independent business organizations had to shut down. This affected the German community especially hard, as they lost their ancient communal centers – guilds, and all of their property was nationalized. A wave of takeovers of Jewish, Russian and German businesses then followed; banks, factories and trading companies were purchased by state-owned banks at set rates in order to reduce minority control over businesses.
In a speech to the Reichstag on October 6, 1939, which was broadcast live on radio, Hitler announced that German minorities should be resettled in the Reich (Back home to the Reich, Heim ins Reich). Resettlement was overseen by Heinrich Himmler who created a new Reich Commisariat for the Strengthening of Germandom for this purpose.
Treaties were signed with Estonia and Latvia in 1939 and 1940 concerning the emigration of Baltic Germans and the liquidation of their educational, cultural, and religious institutions. Nazi Germany succeeded in getting the Baltic Germans to abandon their homes and homeland in haste. Due to the imposition of wartime rationing, Germans were banned from taking along any valuables, objects of historic value, fuels and even food. A massive sell-off of household items and small businesses followed. Larger properties, real estate and businesses were sold over a longer period of time by a special German commission to local governments.
The Estonian and Latvian governments published books containing alphabetical lists of the names of resettled Baltic German adults together with their birthdate, birthplace and last address in the Baltics. Eestist saksamaale ümberasunute nimestik/ Verzeichnis der aus Estland nach Deutschland Umgesiedelten, Oskar Angelus, Tallinn 1939; "Izceļojušo vācu tautības pilsoņu saraksts" : "The list of resettled citizens of German ethnicity".1940
Baltic Germans left by ships from the port cities of Estonia and Latvia to the ports of Gdynia and Szczecin and then were transported to Poznań and Łódź in Reichsgau Wartheland (sometimes called Warthegau) and other Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany. The "new" homes and farms they were given to live in had been owned and inhabited by Poles and Jews just a few months earlier who were executed or deported eastwards when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. The new arrivals fulfilled Nazi plans for the ethnic Germanization of these lands.
By this time, the remaining Baltic Germans in Estonia and Latvia found themselves in a vastly different situation than in 1939. Their countries were now occupied by the Soviet Union, and intense pressure and intimidation had been put on anyone with a position of privilege or wealth before 1939. Mass arrests and some killings had taken place. Fearing a worsening of the situation, the vast majority of the remaining Baltic Germans decided to leave. About 7,000 resettled from Estonia by late March 1941, and approximately 10,500 resettled from Latvia by late March 1941. Even though the German government had planned a relocation that would be limited to ethnic Germans only, ultimately a considerable share of resettlers were non-Germans of various ethnicities (mostly Estonians and Latvians, but also individuals of Slavic ethnicity), who used this as the only legal route to escape the Soviet regime.
No books were published listing those who resettled in 1941; however, the present-day archives of Estonia and Latvia still have the lists of all those who left in this year.
After the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union and the conquest of Latvia and Estonia, a small number of Baltic Germans were allowed to return in order to serve as translators, but requests of many resettled Germans to be allowed to return to their homelands were denied by Himmler's Schutzstaffel. Many German Baltic men were mobilized in the occupied Warthegau and served in the German army.
The resettled Germans fled west with the retreating German army in 1944. No precise numbers or lists are available for them. However, several thousand Baltic Germans remained in the Baltics after 1944, but they were subject to widespread discrimination (and possible deportation to Siberia until 1953) by the Soviet authorities ruling Estonia and Latvia. As a result of this, many hid or lied about their Baltic German origins. Most of those who stayed after 1944 were children of mixed ethnic marriages or themselves married to ethnic Estonians, Latvians or Russians and their descendants no longer consider themselves German.
In stark contrast to the resettlements in 1939–1941, this time 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 most of their belongings behind. Seeing as they had been living in these "new" homes only for about five years, this was almost seen as a second forced resettlement for them, albeit under different circumstances.
Many Baltic Germans were on board the KdF Ship Wilhelm Gustloff when it was sunk by a Soviet submarine on January 30, 1945. By one estimate,"Wilhelm Gustloff: World's Deadliest Sea Disasters". Unsolved History, The Discovery Channel. Season 1, Episode 14. (Original air date: March 26, 2003) about 9,400 people on board died, which would make it the largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history. Additionally, many Baltic Germans died during the sinking of the SS General von Steuben on February 10, 1945.
Two books listing the names and personal data of all Baltic Germans who died as a result of the resettlements and wartime conditions between 1939 and 1947 have been published by the Baltic German genealogical society: Deutsch-baltisches Gedenkbuch. Unsere Toten der Jahre 1939–1947 by Karin von Borbély, Darmstadt, 1991; and Nachtrag zum Deutsch-baltisches Gedenkbuch by Karin von Borbély, Darmstadt, 1995.
With Estonia and Latvia falling under Soviet rule after 1944, most Baltic Germans did not return to the Soviet-occupied Baltics.
A small group of Latvians and Baltic Germans emigrated to Newfoundland as part of then Premier Joseph Smallwood's New Industries Program. Several families in Corner Brook built, operated and worked in the cement and gypsum plants that provided essential material for the creation of Newfoundland's infrastructure after Confederation.
The largest Baltic German cemeteries in Estonia, Kopli cemetery and Mõigu cemetery, both standing since 1774, were completely destroyed by the Soviet authorities. The Great Cemetery of Riga, the largest burial ground of Baltic Germans in Latvia, standing since 1773, also had the vast majority of its graves destroyed by the Soviets.
After Estonia 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 these two countries.
Cooperation between Baltic German societies and the governments of Estonia and Latvia has made the restoration of many small Baltic German plaques and landmarks possible, such as monuments to those who fought in the 1918–1920 War of Independence.
Since 1989, many elderly Baltic Germans, or their descendants, have taken holidays to Estonia and Latvia to look for traces of their own past, their ancestral homes, and their family histories. Most of the remaining manor houses have new owners, and operate as hotels that are open to the public.
Many Baltic Germans, such as Baron Pyotr Wrangel, Baron Ungern, Yevgeny Miller and Prince Anatol von Lieven, sided with the White movement and related anti-Bolshevik forces (like the Baltische Landeswehr and the Freikorps movement) during the Russian Civil War.
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