Ants Oidermaa

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Ants Oidermaa (until 1935 Hans Oidermann ; * 8 November July / 20 November  1891 greg. In the rural community of Sauga ; † after June 1941) was an Estonian journalist and politician.

Early years

Ants Oidermaa was born as the ninth of ten children of farmers Juhan (1841–1921) and Mari Oidermann (née Nidermann, 1854–1930). He graduated from high school in Pärnu in 1912 . He then studied Ancient Languages at the university in the Russian capital Saint Petersburg .

In 1914 Oidermaa volunteered in the tsarist army and took part in the First World War. He then fought in the Russian Civil War under Admiral Kolchak in Siberia and in the Far East against the red troops.

After Estonian independence was declared, Oidermaa returned to his Estonian homeland in 1920. He initially worked as a journalist for the newspaper Kaja ("Echo"). In 1922 he joined the foreign service of the young Estonian state. Oidermaa mainly worked in the Ministry's information department. In 1926/27 he was Estonian chargé d'affaires in Kaunas, Lithuania, for eight months . Oidermaa had been withdrawn from Tallinn because he was involved in a personal dispute with the well-known journalist and politician Eduard Laaman , whose first wife Helmi (née Nankin) married Ants Oidermann in September 1928.

politics

From 1927 to 1935 Oidermaa was general secretary of the " Union of Farmers " ( Põllumeeste Kogud ), the largest agricultural party in Estonia in the interwar period . From 1931 to 1934 he was also editor of the party-affiliated newspaper Kaja ("Echo").

In March 1934, the head of state and government, Konstantin Päts, from the farmers' union, seized power in a bloodless coup . Oidermaa became one of the closest confidants Pats' and head of the 1935 created propaganda department of the government ( Riikliku propaganda Talitus ). It was directly subordinate to the head of government and outside of state budget control. The unit was responsible for the public image of the government. She also organized major cultural and sporting events designed to strengthen the patriotic spirit. In the second half of the 1930s she was in charge of the estonization of place names and personal names in the country.

1937 Oidermaa member of Rahvuskogu , the Constituent Assembly of Estonia that a new, tailor-Pats constitution worked out.

After the political parties were banned from operating, Oidermaa was a board member of the Fatherland Union ( Isamaaliit ) from 1935 to 1940 , which de facto functioned as a unified party in the authoritarian ruled Estonia. From 1937 to 1939 he was one of the editors-in-chief of the pro-government newspaper Uus Eesti ("New Estonia"). From 1938 to 1940 Oiderma was also a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Estonian Parliament ( Riigivolikogu ) .

From January 1939 to October 1939, Oidermaa was the minister responsible for propaganda in the cabinet of Prime Minister Kaarel Eenpalu . He then held the same office until June 1940 in the cabinet of the Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Uluots .

Soviet occupation and death

With the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Oidermaa was tracked down and arrested on December 9, 1940 in Aegviidu . On July 2, 1941, he was sentenced to death in Tallinn . His further fate is unclear.

literature

  • Eesti elulood. Tallinn: Eesti entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti Entsüklopeedia 14) ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , pp. 335f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Postimees , No. 24, January 25, 1939 , p. 1
personal data
SURNAME Oidermaa, Ants
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oidermann, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Estonian politician, member of the Riigikogu and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH November 20, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Rural community of Sauge
DATE OF DEATH after June 1941