Mõnda baltisaksa elulugudest ja mis seal sees leida võib
Baltic-German autobiographies as a valuable source material

Summary/Abstract: The article addresses Baltic-German autobiographical texts as an organic part of Estonian cultural history and memory literature, which is, however, a severed and forgotten part of the collective historical memory. First, the article introduces the volume of the survived Baltic-German textual heritage, and analyses, in a historical perspective, how, why and on what grounds Baltic-German autobiographies have been collected and published. Secondly, the article examines the available Estonian translations of and the present state of research into Baltic-German autobiographies. Thirdly, some concrete biographies are used to exemplify the variety of possible study approaches. The Baltic-German autobiographies offer a different, sometimes opposite view of what is found in their Estonian counterparts. They supplement and vary the general picture, revealing certain aspects which were beyond the Estonians’ experience. Also, they imply that the local cultural field may have been much more intervowen than some people can think of or wish to admit.

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