Baltic Germans

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Baltic Germans are a historical community of German speakers living in the Baltic Sea region, mostly modern Estonia and Latvia. After 1945, their numbers drastically declined, with many relocating to Germany or elsewhere. Since the Late Middle Ages, native German-speakers formed the majority of merchants and clergy, and the large majority of the Baltic nobility who effectively constituted a ruling class over indigenous Latvian and Estonian non-nobles. By the time a distinct Baltic German ethnic identity began emerging in the 19th century, the majority of self-identifying Baltic Germans were non-nobles belonging mostly to the urban and professional middle class. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Catholic German traders and crusaders (see Ostsiedlung) began settling in the eastern Baltic territories. With the decline of Latin, Low German became the dominant language of official documents, commerce, education and government and later on High German. By the first half of the 20th century, the...

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