Bulwark against the East or Imperial Outpost?
Baltic Germans in the Russian Empire
7–8 February 2025
Yale University, Luce Hall (34 Hillhouse Ave), room 203
ABSTRACTS
A “Balcony” to Control Europe or a “German Fortress” on Russian National Territory?
Changing Perception of the Baltic Provinces in the Late Tsarist Empire
Prof. Karsten Brüggemann (Tallinn University)
This paper discusses the changing modes of Russian perceptions of the culturally diverse Baltic littoral during the age of nationalism. Beginning in the 1820s, Russian texts discovered the “Russian Germany” on the shores of the Baltic Sea and portrayed as a medieval wonderland with castles, knights and tournaments. This imagined European past on tsarist territory significantly contributed to the self-image of imperial elites as being in charge of a European empire. Towards the 1840s, however, this perception of a mutually beneficial Russo-German idyll in the Baltic provinces was challenged by the nationalism of the local populations. Increasingly, foreignness in terms of culture, societal organization, and ethnic composition was seen as a potential threat to the unity of the empire. What followed was a re-definition of mutual relations. Instead of the traditional pre-modern alliance of the aristocracies, a vision of a national empire was created, in which “Russian foundations” were to be fostered in non-Russian regions. The Baltic Germans, previously seen as an important social group contributing to the Europeanization of the whole empire, were now increasingly portrayed as unjust intruders who had violently prevented the full merger of the indigenes (tuzemtsy) of the region with the Rus’ in the thirteenth century.
This research makes use of the increasing numbers of publications that served to introduce the Baltic lands and peoples to the Russian-reading public from the 1860s onwards. As will be shown, these drew the traditional picture of peasant nations that sooner or later were expected to become Russian. Thus, these non-scholarly publications essentially gave a colonialist view of Baltic populations, with the Baltic Germans assigned the role of potential enemies of the state.
Baltic German Responses to Imperial Russia’s Judicial Reform, 1860–1917
Dr. Patrick Monson (Brigham Young University-Idaho, Rexburg)
In 1862, Tsar Alexander II proclaimed the progressive Basic Principles of Judicial Reform, which heralded the introduction of lawyers; oral, adversarial procedure; judicial independence; and more. Much, however, was left unclear about how these principles should be applied to the borderlands, where non-Russian elites often administered and controlled local legal systems. How did Baltic Germans respond to these proposals? Many Baltic Germans, as well as some central officials, recognized and emphasized that the local courts already observed many tenets of the reforms and were even superior in some respects. This paper argues that while many Baltic Germans urged the retention of local autonomy, many wanted to implement various aspects of the reforms to make the legal system more inclusive of non-elites. Some prominent Baltic German jurists even argued for greater oversight by the central government, indicating
that non-local imperial institutions could administer more impartial judgment than the local elitecontrolled institutions. The Baltic German system was not, in their view, so sacrosanct that it could not benefit from some outside intervention, particularly since imperial law schools were among the best in Europe; and a disproportionate number of Baltic Germans served in the empire’s highest judicial body, the Senate.
The final, 1889 reform controversially centralized the courts and introduced Russian as the primary language of proceedings, essentially eclipsing Baltic German elite control. While scholarship tends to highlight (not incorrectly) visceral dislike and distancing on the part of Baltic Germans, this paper demonstrates that many Baltic Germans took a pragmatic approach to the new legal system, seeking its protections, and even participating in it as lawyers and judicial officials. These proposals, policies, and practices reveal a kaleidoscope of intertwining perceptions and identities, situated at multiple points along a spectrum between East and West.
The Baltics as a Bridge between the West European and Russian Market? Baltic German, Reich German, and German-Speaking Jewish Entrepreneurs in Riga, 1870s to 1914 Dr. Katja Wezel (University of Göttingen)
In the late nineteenth century, Riga became one of Imperial Russia’s most industrialized cities. Its entrepreneurial elite was mainly German-speaking. However, Riga’s Baltic German merchants and entrepreneurs were not necessarily “ethnic Germans”; some of them were only first- or second-generation “Baltic Germans,” having come from Sweden, England, Austria, or elsewhere. Riga’s upper-class Jews also spoke German. What united them was the use of the German language in daily life and in their commercial dealings, and the belief that their children should best be brought up with German as their first language. The German language was a tool for doing business, but it also united them against Russian administrators, especially after “Russification,” when Russian became the only teaching language in schools and universities in the Baltics, and local politics had – at least partly – to be conducted in Russian.
For German merchants from Imperial Germany, Riga functioned as an attracting entry point into the Russian Empire German businesses, such as Eau de Cologne 4711, often established a foothold in the Russian market by first establishing a branch and/or factory in Riga, which served as a strategic hub for the distribution of their products into the empire.
The availability of Baltic lawyers and administrators who were fluent in German, as well as the prevailing understanding that German Ordnung (i.e. laws and traditions) continued to hold sway in the region, were crucial factors in influencing the decision of German entrepreneurs to establish a presence in Riga. Furthermore, the high level of education among the local population, which boasted the highest literacy rates in the Russian Empire, and the fact that welleducated engineers from Germany, Austria, or Switzerland could be hired and integrated into local companies, added to Riga’s attractiveness. These factors must be considered in conjunction with other advantages, including Riga’s well developed railroad connections to the Russian hinterland and its modern port, which offered fast steamship links to Western Europe.
Adam Johann von Krusenstern: A Baltic German or Russian Explorer and Scientist?
Dr. Feliks Gornischeff (Estonian Maritime Museum)
Adam Johann von Krusenstern (1770–1846) is most famous for being the leader of the first Russian circumnavigation of the earth (1803–1806), and in historiography, he is still mainly recognized as such. He has also been later credited for having rendered important services to the Russian Navy as the director of the Naval Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg, a position he held from 1827 until 1842. While one cannot overlook these two important milestones in Krusenstern’s career, I argue that his other less known activities need to be addressed as well. This paper provides a fresh biographical look into Krusenstern’s life and shows how the Baltic German, Russian and Western sources depicted him in the nineteenth century.
After publishing his account and atlas of the circumnavigation between 1809-1814, Krusenstern, having left active state service, shifted his focus to hydrographic sciences for the next decade. His Atlas de l’Océan Pacifique was published in 1824, cementing his place among the scientific elite of Europe. As director of the Naval Cadet Corps, he managed to keep active his international scientific network, which considered him one of the foremost experts on the hydrography of the Pacific Ocean. When Krusenstern died as an admiral in 1846, he was buried in the Tallinn cathedral with the special permission of Nicholas I. In 1873 a monument was erected to him in front of the Naval Cadet Corps’ main building in St. Petersburg with the inscription “to the first Russian circumnavigator.” In 2020, the 250th anniversary of Krusenstern’s birth was celebrated both in Estonia and Russia, showing the importance of his achievements even today. But the question remains – was he a Baltic German or Russian explorer and scientist, or both?
Dorothea Lieven, a Russian Princess in London and Paris
Dr. Judith Lissauer Cromwell (New York)
Born into a world of power and privilege in 1785 at Riga, Dorothea Benckendorff, daughter of a Baltic baron father and German mother, evolved from the unfulfilled wife of Christopher Lieven, son of Baltic barons, into a lover, confidante, and political force. She operated in Europe’s aristocratic socio-political milieu during the first half of the nineteenth century. Count Lieven’s appointment as ambassador to England gave his magnetic wife a chance to satisfy her ambition. In 1825 Tsar Alexander I trusted Dorothea with a secret diplomatic overture to the British government. This coup initiated her role in a series of events culminating in the birth of modern Greece. Countess Lieven’s subsequent influence in the creation of Belgium established her status.
When Tsar Nicholas I recalled Prince Lieven, Dorothea lost everything. After suffering a devastating personal tragedy, she moved to Paris, where she succeeded in re-inventing herself. Princess Lieven created a salon known as the Listening Post of Europe. She played a pivotal part in an Entente Cordiale between Britain and France. Furthermore, she operated as an unofficial yet crucial liaison between combatants during the Crimean War. At her death (1857) the diplomatic community eulogized her as one of its most prominent members. Dorothea was remembered as one of the most prominent figures in contemporary diplomatic circles.
Throughout history, women have wielded power via their husbands and lovers, but Princess Lieven created a position for herself as an independent diplomat within nineteenth-century Europe’s exclusive political fraternity. Yet posterity has trivialized, defamed, discounted, derided, and damned Princess Lieven with faint praise, besides largely ignoring her deeply moving personal story. My research in the British Library archives, as well as in archives in several continental capitals, has revealed unpublished correspondence that casts a new light on Princess Lieven
“He Made Me Think About Russian History”: Gustav von Ewers and Russian Historiography
Prof. Bradley Woodworth (University of New Haven / Yale University)
Among the influential historians of the peoples of the lands comprising the Russian Empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries – writers who helped solidify the notion that all these lands naturally belonged to one autocratic state – was the now obscure Baltic German Gustav von Ewers. His work that was most widely read, notably by other historians in Russia, concerns Kyivan Rus’ and its assigned role in the formation of what von Ewers called the “Russian state. ” Von Ewers was part of a group of historians and thinkers of the nineteenth century, collectively known initially as the “juridical school” of historiography, and later in the century as the “state school” (gosudarstvennaia shkola).
The depth in which the peoples of the Baltic became integral to the fabric of the multiethnic state in which they were included beginning in the early eighteenth century should not be underestimated. This was particularly significant in the case of Baltic Germans. In the case of von Ewers, his work influenced the views of historians such as Sergei Soloviev and Vasilii Kliuchevskii. Moreover, it is not at all a stretch to say that the work of von Ewers helped form modern Russians’ conception of Imperial Russia.
“Internal Colonization in the Baltics”? The Baltic German Settlement Scheme, 1906–1914 Dr. Tim Buchen (University of Wrocław)
As a consequence of the turmoil of 1905-1906, many large estate owners in the Baltic provinces fled to the cities or to the German empire. With many manors looted and destroyed, land abandoned, and former laborers arrested or gone, the agrarian economy was in severe crisis. With land prices in freefall, the remaining Baltic German landowners feared that the Russian peasant bank would buy up estates and make the land available to Russian peasants from Central Russia. In order to prevent this and to become independent from revolutionary Estonian and Latvian laborers, agrarian entrepreneurs from Livonia and Courland recruited some 12,000 German-speaking colonists from Volhynia and the Kingdom of Poland as laborers and settlers on parceled land. This episode shows the entanglement between Russian and German ethnic and agrarian borderland policies. Their analysis helps us to learn more about the Baltic German landowners’ positions between the extremes addressed in this symposium. In the crushing of the revolutionary upheaval, they certainly stabilized the Tsarist order for the time being.
Yet, the contacts to Pan-German Settlement experts and the attempt to strengthen German presence in the Baltics had German nationalist aims as well. Using material from the state archives in Tallinn, the paper reconstructs debates among the Baltic Germans, their connections to the German empire, to Lutheran pastors in Volhynia, and also to the Russian Ministry of Agriculture. It will reveal a broad spectrum of positions as ranging from understanding oneself as outposts of the German people, bulwark against the revolution, and pragmatic economic considerations accepting the new agrarian course under Stolypin.
“Oldest Colony” and “New Land in the East”: German Colonization Plans in the Baltic, 1914–1919
Dr. Ron Hellfritzsch (German Optical Museum, Jena)
The Latvian National Library in Riga owns a small brochure with drawings and statistics: “Capital requirements, economic equipment, and yield estimate for a new farm to be established in Courland with a total area of 20 hectares.” Behind this seemingly sober title lies the hitherto barely researched history of a gigantic imperial project developed during World War I, which aimed to transform the Baltic region into a German settlement colony under the name Neuland, Ostland, or neues Ostland. German scholars, politicians, government officials, military officers, and significant sections of the public regarded the region between the East Prussian border and the Gulf of Finland as a colonial area with development potential rivaling that of the vast plains of North America. The numerous historical ties with Germany supposedly only needed to be revived.
Linked to the German colonial efforts of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in terms of ideas and, in some cases, personnel, these plans anticipated some elements of the National Socialist Lebensraumpolitik, including the classification of the population groups of Eastern Europe according to their expected ability to become Germanized and, not least, the German state’s aim to resettle or expel hundreds of thousands of people. Despite this, the annexation and colonization of territories inhabited primarily by Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians was presented as war aim that was supposedly “moderate,” legally and morally justifiable, and easily achievable.
This paper outlines the plans pursued during World War I for a German colonization of the Baltic in the context of the “colonial gaze to the East,” established in the early nineteenth century. Such brochures provide further evidence that this was far more than just rhetoric.
Instrumentalization of Baltic Germans in the Occupied Western Borderlands of the Russian Empire, 1915–1918
Dr. Klāvs Zariņš (Latvian War Museum / Institute of Latvian History, Riga)
World War I saw not only the emergence of modern warfare on a previously unprecedented industrial and geographical scale, but it was also a war that brought forward new models of imperial dominance through transformative military occupations. This was most evident in the
western borderlands of the Russian Empire, notably in the Baltic provinces After the region was occupied by Imperial Germany in several consecutive stages, the lines between the occupier and the occupied became increasingly blurred, as the German occupying power attempted to implement policies for far-reaching political, cultural, and social restructuring of the land.
Central to these policies were the Baltic Germans, a large part of whom had remained in the occupied territories, and were regarded as a “modernizing,” Western element in an otherwise foreign land. Given their cultural and ethnic relation to Germany, the occupier began to purposefully instrumentalize the Baltic Germans to achieve both short-term and long-term policy aims. Historiography has thus far stressed the Baltic German factor in both the practical and theoretical constructs of puppet-statehood in the late stages of the war in 1917–1918. Using unpublished archival sources from various memory institutions, this paper will aim shed light on a thus far only partially analyzed aspect – the instrumentalization of Baltic Germans in administrative (governance, judicial system) and security (gendarmerie, secret police, counterintelligence, and espionage) structures Focusing on the dynamics it created between the occupied and the occupier in the larger legacies of the war, the paper contributes to a wider understanding and discussion of the instrumentalization of ethnic groups in wartime empires.
On the Boundary: Baltic German Historians in Germany as Experts of the East
Prof. Jörg Hackmann (University of Szczecin / University of Greifswald)
Theodor Schiemann (1847–1921), Reinhard Wittram (1902–1973), and Georg von Rauch (1904–1991) are known as leading experts of Eastern European history in Germany between c. 1900 and 1980. They represent a larger group of scholars of Baltic German origin who were born in the late tsarist empire and then made their careers at German universities in the broader field of East European area studies. Most of them were also active as political experts or writers, not least during the world wars between the German and Russian/Soviet empires. Schiemann was not only the initiator of the subdiscipline of East European history in Germany, but also an adviser to Wilhelm II. Wittram and Rauch began their careers within German Ostforschung in the 1930s and 1940s and became influential historians in West Germany. As Baltic Germans in Germany, they helped shape the perception of Russia and the Soviet Union in German academia and the public from the Kaiserreich to the Cold War, including the image of the Baltic region as a German colonial outpost and a bulwark against the Slavic threat. The basic questions discussed in this paper are to what extent the Baltic background of these experts shaped their perspectives on Eastern Europe and whether they also developed diverging images on the region.
The von Stryk Conspiracy: Baltic German Politicians and Swedish Volunteers in Late 1918 and Early 1919
Prof. Mart Kuldkepp (University College London)
More so than the multinational empires that started World War I, it was arguably the small nations of Eastern and Central Europe that were the real winners of the war, as they saw the principle of national self-determination legitimized and their independence (at least eventually) recognized. Nevertheless, not all were equally successful: a number of national movements
failed to reach their aims, unable to exploit the window of opportunity that the war had created. The Baltic Germans were one such case. Increasingly identifying as part of the German diaspora, their elites had against the wishes of Estonians and Latvians made a bid for some form of German annexation in 1917-1918. When Germany was defeated, these plans collapsed, and the Estonian and Latvian national politicians – who had primarily relied on the Entente – gained an upper hand. The Baltic German elites thus needed to come up with a new strategy.
I will take a closer look at one such attempt by Land Marshal of Livonia, Heinrich von Stryk, to find a course of action that would have accomplished the dual objectives of the Baltic Provinces’ Bolshevization (i.e. conquest by Soviet Russia) and Balkanization (establishment of national Estonian and Latvian states). His plan to orchestrate a coup d’état in Latvia with the help of Swedish volunteers failed, but it nevertheless provides a good case study of the unlikely schemes that Baltic German elites devised in hopes of maintaining relevance in a post-World War I world.
Constructing (Baltic) Germanness in a 1918 Propaganda Exhibition: The Art Section
Associate Prof. Kristina Jõekalda (Estonian Academy of Arts)
Dr. Baiba Vanaga (Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga)
Two travelling propaganda exhibitions on the Russian Baltic Sea provinces – the KurlandAusstellung, organized by the Deutsches Auslands-Institut, and Livland-Estland-Ausstellung, organized by the Verein für das Deutschtum im Ausland, were held in multiple cities of Germany in 1917 and 1918. Both were a showcase of the colonial instrumentalization of history to justify territorial expansion. In addition to soil, nutrition, hunting, and economic data, also displayed were national costumes, handicrafts, and even medieval and contemporary works of art, transported to Germany in the midst of war. The exhibitions were inaugurated by no less figures than members of the royal family. Combining German and Baltic German aims, the exhibitions were accompanied by concerts, poetry evenings, and lectures, varying by location.
The creator of the art section of the Livland-Estland-Ausstellung was the most prominent art historian of the region, director of the Riga City Art Museum Wilhelm Neumann, who was born in Germany but spent his entire professional life in what is now Latvia. He had also prepared several publications on Baltic (German) art, and tried to build a comprehensive collection of Baltic art in the museum he led, always emphasizing the close ties of local artists with German art. How did all of this play out in the Livland-Estland-Ausstellung? The exhibition’s accompanying guidebook and publications list only the artists’ names, along with a brief introduction to Baltic art and its typical features. Newly uncovered data and visuals from several German, Latvian, and Estonian archives and museums help to reconstruct the little-researched display, exploring its position in Baltic and wider historiography. Were these solely in the service of communicating the historical and contemporary Germanness of the newly acquired territories, or were there alternative narratives involved?
German Enough? Self-Fashioning and Identity of Baltic German Women Artists in the First Half of the Twentieth Century
Ragne Soosalu,
Ph.D. candidate (Estonian Academy of Arts)
Between 1890 and 1939, a notable number of women artists of Baltic German origin were active participants in the art scene of the Baltic provinces and successor Baltic states Their impact and general contribution to cultural life has received only limited scholarly attention to date. This is due both to their marginalized position in their lifetimes and their exclusion from later historiographical discourses.
Compared to ethnic Estonian and Latvian women artists in the imperial era, Baltic Germans as part of the ruling elite benefited from certain privileges in their artistic careers. However, as they transitioned into a cultural and ethnic minority after 1918, these women had very different ways of navigating the new situation. Artists such as Erna Brinckmann, Lilly Walther, Klara Zeidler, Erna Kreischmann, Anna Maydell and Magda Luther had to balance their personal values and beliefs with the social expectations of their gender and ethnicity, which often lead to their being perceived as dilettantes. This paper examines issues of cultural and ethnic identity, and these artists’ self-fashioning in their art Did these aspects help the artists (re)construct multiple, hybrid, or conflicting identifications? This paper argues that art was, among other things, a tool for these women to negotiate their position in old and new social networks as well as in the local art scene. It served as a strategy for cultural belonging or inclusion during these changing times.
German Working Women in the Republic of Estonia: Baltic Germans from a Non-Elite Perspective
Heidi
Rifk, Ph.D. candidate (Tallinn University)
The historiography of the Baltic Germans, which has traditionally framed them as a social elite, has already been questioned by historians such as Wilfried Schlau (1997) and Norbert Angermann (2012). This Oberschicht-Ideologie often focuses solely on the German-speaking elites, while neglecting the broader social spectrum of the German community, including artisans, small merchants, servants, peasants (colonists in Livonia), and laborers (particularly in Riga). This paper challenges this prevailing viewpoint by exploring the less examined segments of the Baltic German population. The concepts of Deutschbalten and German national minority will also be unpacked to illustrate the complex identity dynamics within the German-speaking community. Focusing on the Republic of Estonia, I will trace the social transformations that affected Germans from the late Tsarist period – when the German-speaking elite began losing its political and economic influence (at least in terms of land ownership) – through to the interwar period.
By adopting the perspective of German working women, who have been largely overlooked in historiographical discourse, this paper reevaluates the Baltic German narrative, moving beyond the elitist (and male-centered) perspective that has dominated traditional accounts. The paper addresses the following questions: What types of work did German women engage in? What did
young women study? How did the ideas of gender-appropriate work for women change from the late nineteenth century until the end of the 1930s? What kind of education, skills, and characteristics were sought after (and offered) in job postings targeted at women? How did women navigate their various roles, such as being both income earners and mothers? This analysis will offer new insights into the multifaceted identities and roles of Baltic Germans, presenting a more nuanced understanding of their position within Estonian society during the early twentieth century.
Elites After the Empire: Baltic Germans in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s
Dr. Timo Aava (London School of Economics)
Since the mid-nineteenth century, the dominant position of Baltic German elites had eroded due to various imperial reforms, the rise of Estonian and Latvian urban middle classes, and changes in the administration of towns and cities. The February and October Revolutions radically changed the power relations. The establishment of Estonian and Latvian nation-states rendered the Baltic Germans’ former dominant position into that of a numerically insignificant minority whose means to influence politics in a democratic parliamentary system were limited.
The collapse of European empires, redrawing the political map of Europe, and the establishment of democratic nation-states thus meant a readjustment for the former political elites. This paper analyzes how Baltic German elites sought new roles in the changed political setting. This transformation or readjustment has found some scholarly attention from the perspective of Baltic German endeavors to secure their autonomy rights within these states. The question of how various individuals and organizations outside the Baltic region positioned themselves has gained much less attention. This paper focuses on such individuals as Alexander Meyendorff (18691964), former vice president of the Russian State Duma, who resettled in London, becoming an expert on Russia and a lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The paper also analyzes the activities of Alphons Heyking (1860-1930), a former Russian consul in the United Kingdom who became a vocal critic of independent Estonia and Latvia, and a representative of dispossessed Baltic German landowners in international fora. How did Meyendorff’s and Heyking’s understanding of the former imperial system, the new Bolshevik rule, and Europe of nation-states change? How did they perceive the independence of Estonia and Latvia as opposed to maintaining hope of establishing a reformed monarchical Russian/imperial entity, and how did they view the internal policies in the new Baltic states such as those of land reform and minority protection legislation? Finally, the paper looks into the contacts and networks of Baltic German politicians in Estonia and Latvia.