Recap | From Empire to Minority: Baltic Germans from the Late Nineteenth Century to the 1930s
The Yale Baltic Studies Program partnered last month with the University of Latvia and the Estonian Academy of Arts to hold an international conference titled “From Empire to Minority: Baltic Germans from the Late Nineteenth Century to the 1930s.” The conference took place in central Riga at the University of Latvia on January 23 -24, 2026.
Eighteen speakers on six panels addressed issues in the history of the Baltic Germans, the historical elite of present-day Latvia and Estonia, who, though a demographic minority, exercised local political dominance from the Middle Ages into the post-World War I period. Papers presented were focused on issues of identity, mobility, networks, and exchange, with a view overall on the Baltic Germans as a group “in between.”
In her opening statement, Kristina Jõekalda, Associate Professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts, stressed that although the Baltic Germans, their history and culture, have been studied extensively “there is little new research about Baltic Germanness as a whole. In-betweenness was characteristic of them in several ways – they found themselves between the Russian Empire, German Empire and the independent nation-states of Estonia and Latvia both temporally and ideologically.”
The Latvian organizers and speakers expressed particular satisfaction with the conference. Gustavs Strenga, Associate Professor at the Latvian Academy of Culture, and a co-organizer of the event with the Yale Baltic Studies Program, remarked: “The conference was well attended, and it did succeed in arousing the attention of numerous Latvian academics. This event was of considerable importance for the study of the nineteenth and early twentieth-century history of the Baltic Germans.”
The other Latvian organizer, Dr. Ginta Ieva Bikše of the University of Latvia, similarly emphasized the momentum the conference generated for future scholarship: “The interdisciplinary conference provided a highly productive environment for academic discussions demonstrating the importance of strengthening the research on Baltic Germans and the history of the region in general within a broader contextual and comparative framework.”
Baltic Studies Program Manager, and Professor of History at the University of New Haven Bradley Woodworth sees this conference as the first in a number of similar conferences that the Baltic Studies Program would like to hold in the Baltic countries. “We already have a line of proposals, people here wanting to collaborate with us in holding conferences,” he said.
Conference speakers included Kadi Kähär-Peterson (University of Tartu); Ivars Ījabs (University of Latvia and member of the European Parliament); Andris Levāns (University of Latvia); Mārtiņš Mintaurs (National Library of Latvia, Riga); Helen Bome (independent scholar, Tallinn); Denis Smetanin (University of Hamburg; Nordost-Institut, Lüneburg); Olev Liivik (University of Tartu; Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, Tallinn); Rūdolfs Rubenis (University of Latvia; University of Latvia Museum); Uģis Sildegs (Luther Academy, Riga); Kārlis Sils (Södertörn University, Stockholm); Rasa Pārpuce-Blauma (Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation); Kristiāna Ābele (Art Academy of Latvia, Riga; Latvian Academy of Sciences); Māra Grudule (University of Latvia; Latvian Academy of Sciences); Anja Wilhelmi (Nordost-Institut, Lüneburg); Maris Saagpakk (Tallinn University); Marika Selga (University of Latvia; National Library of Latvia); Iveta Leitāne (Tallinn University); and Bradley Woodworth (University of New Haven; Yale University). Panel chairs included Kristina Jõekalda (Estonian Academy of Arts, Tallinn); Gustavs Strenga (Latvian Academy of Culture, Riga); Ginta Ieva Bikše (University of Latvia); Baiba Vanaga (Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga); and Jörg Hackmann (University of Szczecin, and President of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies).
In addition to Professor Strenga and Dr. Bikše, conference organizers included Kristina Jõekalda, Bradley Woodworth, and European Studies Council staff.
