Baltic Germans – Legacy of the Crusades

Founding and Early History

More than seven centuries ago, groups of Teutonic knights and warrior monks (known as the Livonian Brothers of the Sword) were sent by Papal decree from various German-speaking kingdoms to forcibly Christianise the wild barbarian tribes surrounding the Baltic Sea. These densely forested lands were the last pagan holdouts in Europe, and their conversion was of paramount importance to the Catholic church.

These Northern Crusades, as they are known today, began in the 1170s. By 1201, a fortified base on the Daugava River was founded by Bishop Albert of Buxhoevden. This year marked the beginning of German settlement in what would become modern-day Riga, with German-speaking crusaders, merchants and clergy moving in.

Over the centuries, many of these knights put down roots in what are now the countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They married local women and became accustomed to local lifeways. The local brides these German-speaking men took would become ‘Germanised’ by learning the language and converting to Christianity. Generation after generation of this created a new ethno-cultural group that came to be known as Baltic Germans.

It took a very long time to convert the peoples of Latvia to Christianity, with small pockets of traditional pagan beliefs exsisting into the 1700s. But eventually the seeds had been sown. Throughout all that time the families of the descendants of those original German-speaking men would retain their German language, convert to Lutheranism and establish a socio-economic hierarchy with Baltic Germans at the top. Over the decades other German-speaking people would arrive for various reasons, and they would also be absorbed into the group known as Baltic Germans.

These Baltic German families would become the main landowners in Latvia. They were the wealthy merchants and the clergy in the Lutheran church. They would have exclusive access to education and politics. In other words, they became the ruling class. The local Latvian-speaking population would eventually become legally bound to the farm or manor house of their birth under the extreme feudal system that would last into the 19^th century. The Baltic German landlords served as both their masters and their benefactors.

Over the centuries, the regions that make up modern-day Latvia would go back and forth between rising and falling powers like the Kingdoms of Poland, Sweden and Imperial Russia. But despite these constant changes, each new invading power looked to the already established Baltic German nobility to rule over and control local society. Hence this German-speaking ruling elite maintained their position of power into the 20^th century.

Over so many years, the main thing tying Baltic Germans to their social class was language. If any Latvian-speaking person wanted to rise above their station, which was near impossible until the abolition of serfdom in the early 19^th century, they needed to ‘Germanise’, which meant at its core to learn German. Commerce was conducted in German, the Lutheran church was based on German, the recording of important documents like births, marriages and deaths were all written in German and higher education was done mainly in German. Even when Latvia was completely absorbed into the Russian Empire, German was the true language of the elite, not Russian.

Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries

In the late 19^th century, with the advent of the Latvian National Awakening, men like Krišjānis Valdemārs made shocking statements of pride in the Latvian language. Educational opportunities like the Valdemārs sailing schools were conducted in Latvian, giving the peasant population access to higher education for the first time without having to learn German. You can see cultural changes in the naming of children in the late 19^th century, with Latvians giving their children names that were once reserved for Baltic German families like Teodors, Caroline, Elizabeth and Julius.

In 1905, resentment and dissatisfaction with the Baltic German elite came to a head. Sometimes referred to as The First Russian Revolution, the 1905 uprising saw workers’ rebellions and peasant discontent across the Empire, especially in western Latvia (Kurland and Zemgale). 400 Baltic German manor houses were burned to the ground and revolutionaries killed 82 members of this ancient noble class. The town of Talsi, home of the Zekants family of Jekob and Magreete, was a particular hotbed of violence during this time.

Although the Baltic Germans served as oppressors and aristocrats in a very unfair system by our standards today, many of the members of the nobility were important and influential men in Latvian history producing famous scientists, explorers, politicians, military leaders, architects and educators. Many were defenders of Latvian independence and made huge contributions to the success of this small Baltic nation.

As the 20^th century marched on, the world was engulfed in war, Russia fell under successful Communist revolution and Latvia gained its independence for the first time. At times Baltic Germans were seen as enemies and at other times they were great patriots. The history is very complicated and messy and allegiances and opinions changed rapidly. During the interwar years, although officially having lost their status, Baltic Germans continued to dominate in business, education and politics.

Hitler’s Call for Resettlement

1939 saw the beginning of WWII. It also saw the secret non-aggression treaty between Hitler and Stalin known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. This divided up Europe into ‘spheres of influence’ with the Baltics going to Stalin. As part of the agreement, Hitler asked for all German minorities to ‘repatriate’ to the ‘Fatherland’. This included the tens of thousands of Baltic Germans living in Latvia and Estonia. These German-speaking minorities in reality had very little connection to Germany. They were the descendants of knights from the Middle Ages, at this point entirely mixed with Russian, Scandinavian and Baltic ethnicity. Germany was not necessarily seen as their ‘Fatherland’. But this offer was too good to refuse in a time when the alternative might be living under Stalinist Russia.

In December of 1939, at 11 Miera Street (formerly 9 Karlīnes Street) in Riga, the home of Olga Blezurs-Rozentals and her nephew, Žanis Zekants, a new border arrived. His name was Willi Droune. He was recently divorced and probably was lacking in a stable income to live on his own. Willi was just another border in a long string of them Olga took in over many years to supplement her income as a seamstress. Willi was from a Baltic German family from the western city of Kuldīga. He came from a line of chancellery clerks (scribes). Willi also served as a clerk. This occupational status made the Droune family middle-class Baltic Germans, rather than the elite landlords of the past. Many Baltic German families were like the Drounes, middle-class, everyday people.

A few of Willi’s family members chose to relocate to German territory during the Resettlement of 1939. Willi, however, remained in Riga. By April of 1940 it was quite clear that the Soviet Union would soon be taking over Latvia. Fear set in. Olga was especially concerned. Olga had spent the years of the Russian Civil War (1918-1920) living and serving with the White Volunteer Army in the Caucasus and Crimea. Her anti-Bolshevik sentiments must have run deep. She was also a widow with a young son to care for. She must have been terrified and desperate. I do not know the nature of the relationship between Olga and her border, Willi, in the spring of 1940, but on the 15^th of June she and Willi were married. The 15^th of June was also the day the Soviet Union attacked guards on the Latvian border. Two days later, Latvia was handed over to Stalin. Soviet troops poured into the previously independent nation, occupying and taking over everything.

Now that Olga was officially the wife of a Baltic German, she could be considered a Baltic German, just like centuries of Latvian women before her. The next few weeks must have been a whirlwind of logistics, documents and fear. On the 10^th of July, Willi got a certified copy of the couple’s marriage certificate. Willi, Olga and Olga’s son, Valdis, then renounced their Latvian citizenship and gave up their Latvian identity documents; this was a condition of repatriation. At that moment, the three became Germans. Later that day, Olga and her son boarded one of the military steamers being used to transport Baltic Germans back to the ‘Fatherland’.

This must have been impossibly heartbreaking for Olga. This was not the first time she had fled for her life, and unfortunately it would not be the last. Willi remained in Riga until March, 1941, when the final offer for Baltic Germans to resettle in Germany was issued. Over 60,000 Baltic Germans left Latvia during these resettlements. Many that chose to stay did not fare well under the Soviet regime. Some fell victim to the Soviet deportations and sent to gulags or were never seen again. Some were forced to join the German army when the Nazis took over Latvia between 1941 and 1944. And of the ones who survived, many made efforts to hid their Baltic German ancestry from the victorious Soviet Union that controlled Latvia starting in 1944.

This was essentially the end of over 700 years of Baltic German influence in Latvia. This unique cultural group left a profound and lasting impact, both positive and negative, on the countries of the Baltic world, and echoes of their legacy can still be witnessed across the region today.