An Ethnic Minority in a Nation State: The Baltic Germans between Democracy and Authoritarianism in Estonia, 1918–1940
An Ethnic Minority in a Nation State: The Baltic Germans between Democracy and Authoritarianism in Estonia, 1918–1940

Summary/Abstract: Like other democracies created in the territories of the former empires of Eastern Europe after the First World War, also Estonia experienced authoritarian rule in the 1930s. One of the main problems these newly formed national states faced was the challenge of fostering loyalty among its ethnic minorities. In 1925, Estonia garnered international acclaim for issuing a law on cultural autonomy for ethnic minorities. However, the fate of this law under the authoritarian rule of Konstantin Päts after 1934 came into question. With a focus on the German community in Estonia, the article shows how the situation changed for ethnic minorities following the emergence of a right-wing anti-German force during the economic crisis. Initially, the response of local Germans to Konstantin Päts’ authoritarian rule in 1934 was surprisingly diverse. However, the economic elites swiftly adapted to maintain their status in the newly created corporate society. For conservative factions of the local German population, parliamentary democracy was never a matter of desire anyway. Despite the state’s de- cidedly anti-German propaganda, which emphasised Estonia’s historical ‘great battle for freedom’ against the Baltic Germans and promoted national cohesiveness, the sys- tem of minorities’ cultural self-government remained largely intact. While this may have benefited German elites, we still do not know precisely how non-elite Germans experienced Päts’ rule.

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