The Nationalization of Latvians and the Issue of Serfdom: The Bal ...

Erich Donnert²⁴ has analyzed serfdom from a number of different perspectives in both the former DDR and reunified Germany. In 1933 Nicolai Wihksninsch’s dissertation²⁵ investigated Aufklärung (Enlightenment) and the Agrarfrage (the agrarian and social reform issues) in Livonia. His work was a comprehensive analysis, the influence of which was marred by the political and ideological dictates of his time. It is the view of Wihksninsch that the problem central to the Aufklärung in Livonia in the latter half of the eighteenth century was the Agrarfrage. The Agrarfrage was characterized by the dual issues of serfdom and the abnormal conditions of the Livonian peasantry. In the nineteenth century, Alexander Tobien’s seminal work²⁶ for its time detailed the Agrargesetzgebung in Livonia in a comprehensive historical work with readier access to primary and contemporary sources of the late nineteenth century.

In addition to this, authors such as Reinhard Wittram,²⁷ Georg von Rauch,²⁸ Gert von Pistohlkors,²⁹ and Hubertus Neuschäffer ³⁰ have explored and considered various aspects of the Livonian agrarian constitution, especially the institution of serfdom and Baltic German society. Pistohlkors, in particular, has analyzed the nineteenth-century Baltic German attitudes to the Latvians and Estonians filtered through the perspective of their privileged position while also considering arguments that incorporated ethnic, national, and social station dimensions.³¹

Contributions from diverse areas of Latvian scholarship can be broken into a number of periods in which the discussion must be viewed in the context of the ideological dictates of the times. The first period of independent Latvian scholarship correlated with the timeframe of the first independent Latvian Republic—mostly in the late 1920s and 1930s. Topics explored the nature of indigenous peasant—Baltic German relations in a number of ways. Authors such as Arveds Švabe investigated the Baltic German nobility’s rights in Courland. In addition to this, authors such as Fr. Balodis examined the Latvians and Latvian culture in prehistorical times.³²