Conquering the Baltics in 1260 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.
Polish–Lithuanian 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
Ösel), 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.
Russia's Baltic governorates (1710–1917) . The green spots in Memel (
Klaipėda), Libau (
Liepāja), Windau (
Ventspils), Goldingen (
Kuldiga), Mitau (
Jelgava), Volmar (
Valmiera) and Riga show German populations , Estonia in Latvia 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. 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,
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. 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. 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. 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.
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 1918–1919. 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
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. 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.
Agrarian reforms At the start of independence, Baltic Germans owned 58% of land in Estonia and 48% in Latvia. Radical
agrarian reforms were implemented in both countries to break German power and to distribute land to the veterans of independence wars and landless peasants. This largely destroyed the landed class of German noble families and their economic base. 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. 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.
Spring 1941 resettlement In early 1941, the Nazi German government arranged another resettlement for all those who had refused to leave in 1939 or 1940. The action was called the
Nachumsiedlung. This time around no compensation was offered for any property or belongings left behind and this group of resettlers were treated with intense suspicion or considered traitors because they had refused Hitler's first call to leave the Baltics in 1939. Most of these arrivals were first settled in filtration camps. Unknown to the general public, the
Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union was only two to four months away, and this was Hitler's last chance to transfer these people in peacetime conditions. 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.
1941–1944 A very small minority of Baltic Germans refused again to be resettled and remained in the Baltics past March 1941. Some fell victim to the
Soviet deportations to Siberian
gulags beginning in early June 1941. The names and data of those deported from Estonia from 1941 to 1953 have been published in books. Details are kept at the
Museum of Occupations in Estonia. 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
SS. 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.
"Second resettlement" 1945 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" to areas even further in the west to escape the advancing
Red Army. Most of them settled in
West Germany, with some ending up in
East Germany. 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, 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.
Canada Many thousands of Baltic Germans emigrated to
Canada starting in 1948 with the support of Canadian
Governor General The Earl Alexander of Tunis, who had known many Baltic Germans when he had commanded the
Baltic German Landeswehr for a short time in 1919. Initially, only 12 Germans were allowed to settle in 1948. Based on the good behavior of this group, many thousands of Baltic Germans were soon allowed to immigrate during the following years. Numerous statues, monuments, structures or landmarks with German writing were destroyed, vandalized or left to ruin. 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.
1989 to present The present-day governments of Estonia and Latvia, who regained their independence in 1991, generally take a positive, or sometimes neutral, view towards the contributions of the Baltic Germans in the development of their cities and countries throughout their history. An occasional exception to this comes with some criticism in relation to the major landowners, who controlled most of the rural areas of the Baltics, and the ethnic Estonians and Latvians, until 1918. 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. ==Notable Baltic Germans==