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 Latvian and Estonian 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 Ostsiedlung) began settling in the eastern Baltic territories. With the decline of Latin, 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 medieval Livonia. 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 (1700โ1721), 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). 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 MolotovโRibbentrop Pact and the subsequent NaziโSoviet population transfers. Nazi Germany resettled almost all the Baltic Germans under the Heim ins Reich program into the newly formed Reichsgaue 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 OderโNeisse 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.
Ethnic composition
Baltic Germans were not a purely German ethnic group. The early crusaders, tradesmen and craftsmen and even nobles often married local women, as there were no German women available. Some noble families, such as the Lievens, claimed descent through such women from native chieftains. Many of the German Livonian-Order soldiers died during the Livonian War of 1558โ1583.
New German arrivals came to the area. During this time, the Low German (Plattdeutsch) of the original settlers was gradually replaced by the High German (Hochdeutsch) of the new settlers.
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 the early years of the Russian empire, some even married into Russian nobility and society.
In cases where any 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.
Territories
Baltic German settlements in the Baltic area consisted of the following territories:
- Estland (Latin: Estonia; Estonian: Eestimaa), roughly the northern half of present-day Estonia; major towns: Reval (Tallinn), Narwa (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 and eastern part of today's Latvia (Vidzeme); major towns: Riga, Wenden (Cฤsis), Wolmar (Valmiera), Walk (Valga and Valka), Dorpat (Tartu), Pernau (Pรคrnu), Fellin (Viljandi).
- Kurland (Latin: Curonia; also English: Courland; Latvian: Kurzeme), roughly the western half of present-day Latvia (Kurzeme and Zemgale); major towns: Mitau (Jelgava), Windau (Ventspils), Libau (Liepฤja).
- รsel (the island of Saaremaa) belonging to present-day Estonia; major town: Arensburg (Kuressaare).
History
Conquering the Baltics
Small numbers of ethnic Germans began to settle in the area in the late 12th century, when traders and Christian missionaries began to visit the coastal lands inhabited by tribes who spoke Finnic and Baltic languages. Systematic conquest and settlement of these lands was completed during the Northern Crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries; this resulted in creation of the Terra Mariana confederation, under the protection of Roman Popes and Holy Roman Empire.
After the heavy defeat in the 1236 Battle of Saule the Livonian Brothers of the Sword became a part of the Teutonic Order.
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.
PolishโLithuanian and Swedish rule
As the military power of the Teutonic Knights weakened during the 15th century wars with the Kingdom of Poland, Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Livonian branch in the north began to pursue its own policies. When the Prussian branch of the Order secularized in 1525 and became a Polish vassal state as the Duchy of Prussia, the Livonian branch remained independent while searching for a similar way to secularize. Livonia became mostly Protestant during the Reformation.
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 รsel), 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.[citation needed]
Russia's Baltic governorates (1710โ1917)
Between 1710 and 1795, following Russia's success in the Great Northern War and the three Partitions of Poland, the areas inhabited by Baltic Germans eventually became Baltic governorates of the Russian Empire: Courland Governorate, Governorate of Livonia and Governorate of Estonia.
Autonomy
The Baltic provinces remained autonomous and were self-governed by the local Baltic nobility. Until the imperial reforms of the 1880s, local government was in the hands of the landtag of each province, in which only members of the matriculated Baltic nobility held membership and cities were ruled by German burgomasters.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
Germans, other than the local estate-owners, mainly lived in the cities, such as Riga, Reval, Dorpat, Pernau and Mitau. 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 literati, were Germans.
German political and cultural autonomy ceased in the 1880s, when Russification replaced German administration and schooling with the usage of Russian. After 1885 provincial governors usually were Russians.
Rise of native peoples
Years of peace under Russian rule brought increasing prosperity and many new manor houses were built on country estates, but economic exploitation worsened the situation of the native population. For examples, see List of palaces and manor houses in Latvia and List of palaces and manor houses in Estonia.[citation needed]
The native Latvian and Estonian 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.[citation needed]
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.
World War I
World War I brought the end of the alliance of the Baltic Germans and the Russian Tsarist government. German heritage led to their being viewed as the enemy by Russians. They were also seen as traitors by the German Empire if they remained loyal to Russia. Their loyalty to the state was questioned, and rumours of a German fifth column increased with the defeats of the Imperial army led by Baltic German general Paul von Rennenkampf.
All German schools and societies were closed in the Estonian Governorate and Germans were ordered to leave the Courland Governorate for inner Russia.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
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.
United Baltic Duchy
Livonian and Estonian nobles delivered a note of independence to Soviet representatives in Stockholm on January 28, 1918, announcing their intention to break away from Russia under the rights granted to them by the Treaty of Nystad of 1721. In response, the Bolsheviks, who controlled Estonia, arrested 567 leading Germans and deported them to Russia.
After the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk they were allowed to return. Under the peace treaty, Germany gained control over Courland, Riga, Saaremaa (รsel), Livonia and Estonia.
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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
Independent Baltic states
The Baltic Germans' rule and class privileges came to the end with the demise of the Russian Empire (due to the Bolshevik revolution of October 1917) and the independence of Estonia and Latvia in 1918โ1919.
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.[self-published source?]
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 Grรขce) 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 Germany, but many stayed as ordinary citizens.
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.