Ambiguous activists. Estonia's model of cultural autonomy as interpreted by two of its founders: Werner Hasselblatt and Ewald Ammende

Abstract

Baltic Germans who were active on behalf of especially German minorities throughout Europe during the 1920s have already found some recognition in especially German-language studies. Now they are receiving a wider coverage. Two of these men, Werner Hasselblatt and Ewald Ammende, came from Estonia and played a part in the development of the cultural autonomy legislation enacted in 1925. Traditionally this has been counted a positive contribution to the management of Europe's minorities during the inter-war period. During the 1930s at the latest, however, both Hasselblatt and Ammende drifted towards German National Socialism. Through an investigation of the ideas of these men, this paper attempts to interpret lives which helped to create apparently progressive legislation in the 1920s, but which compromised with a dreadful political movement soon afterwards. What were the motives behind their actions?