Baltic nobles
Baltic German colours
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|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| ~5,000 (currently in Latvia and Estonia) | |
 Latvia: 2,882 |
|
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Since 1945 virtually extinct/post-war Germany, Canada, small numbers in Latvia and Estonia. |
|
| Languages | |
| High German, Low German, Russian | |
| Religion | |
| Principally Lutheranism, with Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox minorities | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Germans, Germans in Russia, Estonians, Latvians, Lietuvininks, Estonian Swedes |
Estonia: 1,913
The Baltic Germans (German: Deutsch-Balten or Deutschbalten, later Baltendeutsche) are ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their resettling from Estonia and Latvia during the upheavals and aftermath of the Second World War, Baltic Germans are almost extinct as a geographically-determined ethnic group. The largest groups of present-day descendants of the Baltic Germans are found in Germany and Canada. It is estimated that several thousand still reside in Latvia and Estonia.
For centuries Baltic Germans and the Baltic nobility were a ruling class over native “Undeutsche” (non-German) serfs. The emerging Baltic-German middle class was mostly urban and professional.
In the 12th and 13th centuries Germans, both traders and crusaders (see Ostsiedlung), began settling in the eastern Baltics. After the Livonian Crusade they assumed control of government, politics, economics, education and culture of these lands for over 700 years until 1918. With the decline of Latin, German became the language of all official documents, commerce, education and government.
While at first the majority of German settlers lived in small cities and military castles, large rural estates were later formed by the existing Baltic nobility that comprised the social, commercial, political and cultural elite of Latvia and Estonia for several centuries. After 1710 many of these increasingly took high positions in the military, political and civilian life of the Russian Empire, particularly in Saint Petersburg. Baltic Germans held citizenship of the Russian Empire until 1918 and Estonian or Latvian citizenship until 1939–40.
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Wikipedia