Baltic German nobility

The Baltic German nobility was a privileged social class in the territories of modern-day Estonia and Latvia.

Most of the nobility consisted of Baltic Germans, but with the changing political landscape over the centuries, Polish, Swedish, Russian, Danish, and even Scottish families also became part of the nobility, just as Baltic German families re-settled in locations such as the Swedish and Russian Empires.

This nobility was a source of officers and other servants to Swedish kings in the 16th and particularly 17th centuries, when Couronian, Estonian, Livonian and the Oeselian lands belonged to them.

The agrarian legislation introduced in Estonia on 10 October 1919 and in Latvia on 16 September 1920 reflected above all a determination to break the disproportionate political and economic power of the German element.

Paul Schiemann's later polemic against the Bank of Latvia came to the conclusion that 90% of Baltic Germans wealth had gone into the coffers of the Latvian State.

Broadly speaking, the system was built on a sharp division between the landowning, German-speaking nobility and the Estonian- or Latvian-speaking peasantry.

However, almost immediately following the declaration of independence of Estonia and Latvia, both countries enacted far-reaching land reforms which in one stroke ended the former dominance of the Baltic nobility on the countryside.

[5][6] Baltic German nobles not only shaped the agricultural landscape but also significantly contributed to the region's cultural and architectural heritage.