The German minority and its cultural activities in Latvia: 20's and 30's of the 20th century

Résumé du document

After many years of "national awakening" and a very painful "liberation war", Latvia became an independent and non-occupied state in 1919-1920, for the first time in its history. Thus began a very new political process of nation-state building. While ethnic Latvians had to face many difficulties, the German Baltic also experienced a radical change in their situation. They lost many privileges that they benefited from, under the Tsarist rule, and were deprived of their economic power by the Land Reform Law, passed in September 1920. Nevertheless, they managed to remain the most organized and coherent national minority of Latvia during the independence period. Thus, one interesting research topic could be to study the cultural activities of the Baltic Germans in Latvia, because culture became one of the most relevant ways to express themselves and to affirm their new identity as a national minority in a nation-state.

Extraits

[...] References Shimkuva H.; cultural and historical heritage of Baltic Germans and results and prospects of research in the field”, The Baltic States at historical crossroads, page 442 to 461, book by A. Loeber and D.A. Loeber, Riga p. History of Latvia, the 20th century, Jumava p. Kaplans, The Latvians Rei, A.; The Drama of the Baltic Peoples, Kirjastus Vaba Eesti p. Spekke A.; History of Latvia: an outline, M. Goppers p. [...]

[...] So, the Baltic Germans experienced a very difficult situation at the independence. Latvians took the control of the nation-state they were building. And as soon as 1920, the basis of the German political and economic power was destroyed by the Land Reform Act. Furthermore, Germans were only the third, even fourth ethnic group of the new country, which did not give them strong assets in a representative parliamentary system. As a conclusion, we could say that the independence put the Germans in front of a new challenge: while carrying an important heritage, the loss of their over-representation in Latvia forced them to organize their life like any other national minority. [...]

[...] Furthermore, the Germans benefited from their situation: they were mainly living in cities, active in cultural activities, well-educated and with higher standards of living than the rest of the population. As a consequence, they managed to become the most well organized national minority, despite of their small political representation. It is quite clear in the education field. On December two laws were passed by the People's Council: the Educational Institutions of Latvia” and the structure of Minority Schools in Latvia”. They provided national and local financing for minority schools and basis of cultural autonomy in education. [...]

[...] Finally, let us remember that an independent culture was a symbol of freedom for Latvians. As a consequence, cultural activities were state-supported and Latvia became a large cultural place in the inter-war period. German cultural activities were then supported by such institutional facilities and they created many cultural and educational structures. German language disappeared from the official public life but its use was allowed and protected. Then Baltic Germans created the “Herder Institute”, a private institution of higher education, which coordinated the network of German schools. [...]

[...] The German minority and its cultural activities in Latvia: 20's and 30's of the 20th century After many years of “national awakening” and a very painful “liberation Latvia became in 1919-1920 an independent and non- occupied state, for the first time of its history. So began a very new political process of nation-state building. As ethnic Latvians had to face many difficulties, the German Baltic experienced also a radical change in their situation. Indeed, they lost many privileges they benefited under the Tsarist rule, and were mainly evicted of the economic power by the Land Reform Law, passed in September 1920. [...]