German Baltic
Baltic German colours
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| ~5,000 (currently in Latvia and Estonia) | |
 Latvia: 2,882 |
|
|
Since 1945 virtually extinct/post-war Germany, Canada, small numbers in Latvia and Estonia. |
|
| Languages | |
| High German, Low German | |
| Religion | |
| Principally Lutheranism, with Roman Catholic | |
| 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 expulsion from Estonia and Latvia and resettlement during the upheavals and aftermath of the Second World War, Baltic Germans have markedly declined 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 constituted 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 Catholic Germans, both traders and crusaders (see Ostsiedlung), began settling in the eastern Baltic territories. After the Livonian Crusade, they assumed control of government, politics, economics, education and culture of these lands, ruling for more than 700 years until 1918. With the decline of Latin, German became the language of all official documents, commerce, education and government.
At first the majority of German settlers lived in small cities and military castles. Their elite formed the Baltic nobility, acquiring large rural estates and comprising the social, commercial, political and cultural elite of Latvia and Estonia for several centuries. After 1710 many of these men increasingly took high positions in the military, political and civilian life of the Russian Empire, particularly in Saint Petersburg. Baltic Germans held citizenship in the Russian Empire until the Revolution of 1918. They held Estonian or Latvian citizenship until the invasion of these areas by Nazi German forces in 1939–40.
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Wikipedia