Attempts of political participation versus loyalty manifestations? German women in the process of nationalization in the Baltic provinces of the Russian empire (1880–1920)

ABSTRACT

The political transformations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries changed the political orientation of the German population and their relationship toward the Russian tsar and the German Empire. This study examines three examples in which German women used public spaces for political and national statements: the new language policy of the Russian government with its new forms of teaching in the 1890s; the Revolution of 1905/06, when associations initiated by German women were founded; and the care for prisoners of war during WWI. This paper argues that the path from national indifference to national self-understanding was closely related to fluid gender constructions in public discourses as well as to individual gender identification.

KEYWORDS:

• Baltic Germans
• national indifference
• political participation
• gender
• nationalization
• minority

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Marie Steinwand (1886 Dorpat–1963 Erlangen), teacher and leader of a girls’ school in Dorpat

2. Gertrud Adolphi (1893 Riga–1975 Lüneburg), teacher in Riga.

3. Gertrud von der Brincken (1892 Brincken-Pedwahlen–1982 Regensburg), writer.

4. Polly Anna Charlotte Kieseritzky (1860–1919), teacher.

5. Theophile von Bodisco (1873 Reval–1944 Bad Schachen).

6. Else Frobenius (1875 Lasdohn–1952), journalist and writer.

7. Anna von Baranow (1877 Lechts–1968 Bad Pyrmont).

8. Marie-Luise Baronin von Koskull (1880s–1974), writer.

9. Monika Hunnius (1858 Riga–1934 Riga), writer and singer.

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Notes on contributors

Anja Wilhelmi

Anja Wilhelmi is a research fellow at the IKGN e.V. at the University of Hamburg (Nordost-Institut), where she also is member of the editorial staff of the journal Nordost-Archiv. Zeitschrift für Regionalgeschichte. She studied History and Literature at the University of Osnabrück, Germany, and defended her PhD in 2005 at the University of Hamburg. Her research interests are concentrated in the fields of social history, gender, family and education in the Baltic area in the 19^th and 20^th century. She is author of Lebenswelten von Frauen der deutschen Oberschicht im Baltikum (1800–1939), (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2008). Other recent publications include: “Elisabeth Schiemann, die Deutschbaltin” in Elisabeth Schiemann 1881–1972. Vom Aufbruch der Genetik und der Frauen in den Umbrüchen des 20. Jahrhunderts ed. by Reiner Nürnberg et. al. (Rangsdorf: Basilisken-Presse 2014).