Krišjānis Valdemārs

Krišjānis Valdemārs

Krišjānis Valdemārs (* November 20 ^jul. / 2. December  1825 ^greg. In Erwahlen ( Ārlava ) in Courland Governorate , today community Valdgale , † November 25 ^jul. / 7. December  1891 ^greg. In Moscow ) was a Latvian journalist, Writer and promoter of seafaring as well as co-founder of the Jungletten movement . In his German texts his author is Christian Woldemar , in Russian Христиан Мартынович Валдемар .

Life

Krišjānis Valdemārs as a promoter of seafaring on a Latvian postage stamp

Krišjānis Valdemārs was born on the Vecjunkuri farm in the Ārlava parish as the son of pastor Mārtiņš Valdemārs and his wife Marija. After attending the school in Lubezers , he served as a teacher at the Sasmaken School (today Valdemārpils ) at the age of 15 . He then worked as a community clerk in Ruhenthal ( Rundāle ) and Edwahlen ( Ēdole ). In 1853 he published the school book 300 Stāsti ... (300 stories ...). In his didactic intentions, he refers to the German pastor Gotthard Friedrich Stender (1714–1796, called the old Stender ) and his son Alexander Johann Stender (1744–1819, called the young Stender ). In 1854 he finished high school in Libau ( Liepāja ) and began studying at the University of Tartu . His major was economics ( cameralistics ).

In the corporate state of the Russian Baltic Sea provinces there was no distinction between nationalities. This is why his commitment to being Lette (Latvietis) caused a sensation, because education was firmly linked to belonging to the German language. At the university, together with Juris Alunāns , he organized meetings of like-minded people and advocated research into Latvian customs.

After graduating in 1858, he worked in the Ministry of Finance in St. Petersburg . During this time he also wrote as a correspondent for the German-language St. Petersburgische Zeitung . In 1862 he became editor of the newspaper Pēterburgas Avīzes , which was directed as a radical Latvian voice against the German-Baltic authorities and the remnants of the feudal estate economy. This newspaper became the organ of the developing young Latvian movement. Russian censorship put an end to this organ in 1865. However, this ban did not interrupt the movement of young people. Juris Alunāns and Krišjānis Valdemārs are considered to be the founders.

In 1864 Valdemārs supported the establishment of a naval school in the coastal town of Haynasch ( Ainaži ). In the period that followed, further naval schools were set up in the Latvian coastal cities. Free education in these institutes gave new opportunities to many of the sons of farm laborers and had a significant impact on the economy. Shipbuilding was promoted and a merchant fleet developed.

In later years Valdemārs was involved in polemical arguments with Baltic Germans . He campaigned for seafaring and published the first Latvian marine encyclopedia. From 1867 he was active as a journalist in Moscow. In 1870 he headed the newly founded Moscow German newspaper . At his suggestion, Fricis Brīvzemnieks organized the Moscow Latvian Reading Evenings , from which the connection akadēmiskā vienība Austrums (Academic Association East) developed. Folkloric research was continued by Krišjānis barons . Valdemārs died in Moscow and was buried in Riga . The city of Valdemārpils was renamed after him and a street in Riga bears his name. The naval school founded by Valdemārs in Ainaži now houses the Ainažu jūrskolas muzejs museum .

family

Krišjānis Valdemārs was one of ten children of his parents. Only he and two siblings survived the age of 15:

• the older brother Johann Heinrich (Indriķis) Woldemar (1819–1880), historian and archivist, who moved to Germany.
• the younger sister Marija Medinska (1830–1887), who became a writer.

In February 1864 Krišjānis Valdemārs married the German-Baltic writer Luise Johanna von Ramm (1841–1914) in Saint Petersburg. The couple did not have their own children, but took on three foster daughters.

Agitation and colonization

During his time in Moscow, Valdemārs agitated for the Russification policy of the Tsarist government. He perceived a rapprochement with Russia as a liberation from the German-speaking authorities in the Baltic provinces. Valdemārs himself has emphasized for German-speaking readers that he has no reservations about Baltic Germanness. His efforts to "liberate" the Latvians culminated in a colonization project. He tried to settle thousands of Latvian farmers in Russia. However, this project failed. Pastor Rudolf Schulz from Mitau ( Jelgava ), from 1854 to 1864 President of the Latvian Literary Society , was a bitter opponent of the young Latvians and contributed to the failure of the colonization with his polemics. Valdemārs explains the failure in his work, Latvian Emigration, because the censors intervened in his notices, which resulted in disinformation and led thousands of landless Latvians to believe that they could get land of any size for free, along with money and other privileges.

Diverse services

Bronze sculpture for Krišjānis Valdemārs in the port city of Ventspils , designed by Miervaldis Polis, 2000

On Valdemārs' 100th birthday in 1925, Oskar Grosberg dedicated an obituary to him . He emphasizes his perfect command of the German language. In accordance with his training, Krišjānis Valdemārs wrote his writings in the various languages ​​of the Russian Baltic provinces of that time. In German, Valdemārs wrote poems and prose, a long verse epic “Nature and Man” and more than 15 political writings. His Slavophile aspirations turned out to be utopias. As editor he also commented on German authors such as B. Garlieb Merkel with the work “Wannem Ymanta. A Latvian legend ” . Writings on linguistics and multilingual dictionaries show him as a linguist. As a journalist, he influenced current politics. As a critic he was part of the contemporary literary scene. Lasting achievements lie in his research on training, especially in nautical science and the tough demands for an efficient merchant navy for the Russian Empire and especially for the Baltic ports. Together with Atis Kronvalds, Valdemārs is the creator of many new words in the Latvian language, which were originally introduced as replacements for foreign words and which are now part of the established vocabulary of Latvians.

Works

Title page Farmer States , 1862

Title page Latvian-Russian-German Dictionary , 1879

• 300 stāsti, smieklu stāstiņi && un mīklas, ar ko jaunekļiem un pieaugušiem lusti uz grāmatām vairot gribējis. (300 stories, funny short stories and puzzles to stimulate interest in books among young people and adults), Liepāja 1853
• About the attraction of the Latvians and Estonians to the sea, together with notes and aphorisms in relation to the industrial, intellectual and statistical relations of the Latvians and Estonians and the three Baltic provinces in general in the Dorpater magazine Inland (1857), then printed under this title as a brochure .
• Baltic, especially Livonian, peasant conditions (Leipzig, 1862; initially published anonymously)
• Contributions to the history and statistics of the scholarly and school institutions of the Imperial Russian Ministry of Public Enlightenment St. Petersburg: Röttger & Schneider, 1865. - VII, 271 pp.
• The Latvian emigration to Novgorod in 1865 and the Baltic German press , Schmaler & Pech, Bautzen, 1867
• Patriotic and Charitable Matters , Book 1 (255 pages) and Book 2 (352 pages), Moscow, Imperial University Printing House, 1871
• Russian - Latvian - German dictionary (1872)
• Latvian - Russian - German dictionary (1879)
• Russian - Latvian Dictionary (1890)
• Nautical pocket dictionary Russian - English - French - German - Italian - Danish - Norwegian with supplements in Dutch and Spanish (Moscow 1881)
• Raksti (works, 2 volumes) Riga 1936–1937.
• Tēvzemei (The Fatherland) Riga 1991 ISBN 5-401-00651-9 .
• Apceres, raksti, vēstules (On the 170th birthday: reflections, notes, letters), Riga 1995.

literature

• Jānis Andrups, Vitauts Kalve: Latvian literature . M. Goppers, Stockholm 1954.
• Ilze Bernsone: Latvijas Jūrniecības Vēsture . Rīgas vēstures un kuģniecības muzejs / Preses nams, Rīga 1998. ISBN 9984-00-301-9 .
• Antons Birkerts: Krišjānis Valdemārs un viņa centieni. Biografiski-kritiska studija . A. Raņķis Publishing House, Riga 1925.
• Oto Čakars, Arvīds Grigulis, Milda Losberga: Latviešu literatūras vēsture no pirmsākumiem līdz XIX gadsimta 80. gadiem (Latvian literary history from the beginnings to the 1880s ); Zvaigzne Publishing House, Riga 1990. ISBN 5-405-00403-0 .
• Viktors Hausmanis et al .: Latviešu literatūras vēsture, trešais sējums . Zvaigzne publishing house, Riga 2000. Published by Latvijas Universitātes Literatūras, folkloras and mākslas institūts . ISBN 9984-17-033-0 .
• Ulrike von Hirschhausen : The limits of commonality. Germans, Latvians, Russians and Jews in Riga 1860–1914 (= Critical Studies in History . Vol. 172). Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2006.
• Friedrich Scholz: The literatures of the Baltic States. Their creation and development . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1990. ISBN 3-531-05097-4 .
• Ināra Stašulāne (ed.): Latviešu rakstniecība biogrāfijās . Zinātne Publishing House, Riga 2003. ISBN 9984-698-48-3 .
• Alexander von Tobien: The Livonian knighthood in their relationship to tsarism and Russian nationalism , Volume 2. Verlag Walter de Gruyter & Co, Berlin 1930.
• Andrejs Vičs: Krišjānis Valdemārs . In: Ludis Bērziņš et al. (Ed.): Latviešu Literatūras Vēsture sešos sējumos , Volume 2. Literatūra Publishing House, Riga 1935.
• Augusts Zandbergs: Atmiņas par Krišjāni Valdemāru, viņa isa biogrāfija, idejas, ciņa pret Baltijas muižniekiem un darbu saraksts. Extended edition 1928.
• Ērika Zimule: Literatūra Rokasgrāmata skolēniem un studentiem . Zvaigzne Publishing House, Riga 2004. ISBN 9984-36-839-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Krišjānis Valdemārs / Teodor Zeiferts. Latviešu rakstniecības vēsture.
2. ↑ GF Stender's last will was that the inscription LATWIS be carved on his grave slab . In it he was a model for Valdemārs, who called himself Latweeetis (according to today's spelling Latvietis , in German: Lette). In his memoirs, Krišjānis Barons writes that Valdemārs attached a business card to his student room at the University of Dorpat with the following text: C. Waldemar, stud. cam. Latweetis
3. ↑ Friedrich Scholz judges as follows: The most important Latvian publicist of the second half of the 19th century was Krišjānis Valdemārs [...]. He has also written poems and folk tales in Latvian and numerous journalistic writings and essays in German.
4. ^ EEVA digital text collection biography and works of Johann Heinrich Woldemar
5. ^ Baltic Historical Commission (ed.): Entry on Johann Heinrich Woldemar. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital
6. ↑ Vita Zelče: Marija Valdemāre – Naumane – Medinska: unfinished biography of a woman of the 19th century (Latvian, with a German summary; PDF; 1.1 MB).
7. ↑ Anton Birkerts: Krišjānis Valdemārs un viņa centieni. Biografiski-kritiska studija . A. Raņķis Publishing House, Riga 1925, p. 299
8. ↑ Pārsla Pētersone, Vita Zelče. Luīzes Valdemāres dzīvesstāsts - Krišjāņa Valdemāra biogrāfijas papilddaļa. // Latvijas Arhīvi. 2007. No. 4. ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Biography Luise von Ramm; Latvian with German summary; PDF; 1.0 MB) 
9. ^ Quote from Hirschhausen, page 295: Clear this [German] power, this only insurmountable obstacle, and the [Latvian] people will flourish. I see the only means of breaking the power of the barons in the Russification policy. In my opinion, the Latvians should rather stammer in Russian than stammer in German ... If the Latvians and Estonians have to suffer from Russification, they are used to it - they had to suffer from the Germans, now they will suffer from the Germans too Russians suffer. However, the suffering among the Russians will bring freedom and human rights to the Latvians in the future and will ultimately cease. Because the Russian will soon let loose the reins because he cannot hold out himself. We Latvians ... can only achieve liberation from the German yoke in this way. Do you not feel that the autocracy in Russia cannot last much longer? A parliament can come and the Baltic States could become an autonomous province! Will the Latvians then no longer use the Russian language than the German?
   The quoted biography, written by Andrejs Vičs, can be found in the chapter Tautiskās atmodas ideoloģija (The ideology of national awakening) in Latviešu literatūras vēsture , edited by Ludis Bērziņš, Rīgā 1935, volume 2, page 176. The doctor Dr. Augusts Zandbergs, a friend of Valdemārs', quotes his opinion before the Moscow Latvian Assembly: Nobildiet no ceļa šo varu, šo vienīgo nepārspējamo Šķērsli, un tauta tūdaļ uzplauks. Es par vienīgo radikālo līdzekli, kā lauzt baronu varu, atrodu pārkrievošanas polītiku. Pēc manām domām, labāk, lai latvieši lauž krievu valodu nekā buldurē vāciski. Latvieši arvien sevi turēs parākus par krieviem, bet viņi padosies vāciešiem, jo ​​vācu autoritāte un iespaids ir lielāks. Krievu kulaks nekad nav tik bīstams un nekad nevar tik dziļi iezīsties latviešu miesā un garā un nomākt tos, kā to dara vācu krama nagi. Ja arī latviešiem un igauņiem būs jācieš no pārkrievošanās, --- tie jau pieraduši ciest, --- bija jācieš no vāciešiem, cietis ari no krieviem. Ciešana no krieviem taču Reiz atnesīs latviešiem brīvību, līdzīgas cilvēku tiesības un galu galā beigsies. Krievs drīz grožus atlaidīs, jo pats neizturēs. Mēs, latvieši un igauņi, tikai panāksim atbrīvošanu no vācu jūga. Vai tad jūs nemaniet, ka Krievijā vairs ilgi nespēs turēties neaprobežotā patvaldība. Krievijā var nākt parlaments un Baltija var kļūt autonoma province! Un vai latviešiem krievu valoda nenoderēs vairāk kā vācu?
10. ↑ “Latvian emigration”, page 17: Valdemārs quotes a sentence from Pēterburgas Avīzes : We don't want to know anything about a national fraternization of Latvian and Russian elements that leads to the motto: Death to the Germans on the Baltic Sea, because we don't ourselves want to put the rope around your neck.
11. ↑ Quotation from Tobien, page 148: Waldemar had bought a piece of uncultivated, but mostly arable land in the Novgorod governorate in 1863 and after his own admission in the newspaper "Peterburgas Awises" asked the Latvians to buy small plots; C. Woldemar: "The Latvian Emigration to Novgorod in 1865 and the Baltic German Press", Bautzen 1867, p. 9.
12. ^ Birkerts, page 96: Pastor Rudolf Schulz distributed a lithographed leaflet as early as 1856 with the content: Brothers in Christ! It takes our own interest, it is high time we took all measures to forestall the danger that threatens us! It is not the “houseguest” [meaning Mājas viesis ] that is as dangerous to us as certain emotions among the people. We need to get them on the right track ... Now, brothers! now or otherwise it is too late! ...
13. ↑ “Latvian emigration”, page 32: The message communicated by Pastor Schulz, my bitter and open enemy known for years, that the land bought only contains moorland and swamps instead of arable land, that not even a tree grows there, etc.
14. ↑ “Latvian emigration”, page 12
15. ^ Rigasche Rundschau of November 28, 1925 Oskar Grosberg: Christian Waldemar. A Latvian folk man.
16. ^ A collection of German-language writings by Krišjānis Valdemārs, digitized in the Latvian National Library:
    • Christian Woldemar: Patriotic and Charitable Matters , Volume 1 (Moscow, 1871)
    • Christian Woldemar: Patriotic and Charitable Matters , Volume 2 (Moscow, 1871)
17. ↑ Birkerts, page 299: Valdemārs also had a humorous side, as the following ending of a poem shows:
    “But because the verses do not work as desired
    , I must now plead for mercy for them;
    - And in order to gain hope in favor,
    I must bring a true and true confession here.
    And whoever has written it
    ruefully confesses And openly, humbly and sadly, call him!
    I myself. "
18. ↑ Birkerts, page 288: Valdemārs left the work “Nature and Man” as a manuscript in four volumes from 1854. It was published by Valdis Bisenieks and Dace Plīkša and partly printed in “Krišjānis Valdemārs un Talsu novads” , edited by Rojas zvejniecības muzejs and Latvijas Jūrniecības savienība , Riga 1994
19. ↑ Birkerts, page 341ff.
20. ↑ Garlieb Merkel: Wannem Ymanta (Vanem Imanta). and in "Patriotic and Charitable", Volume 1, page 87:
21. ↑ "Patriotic and Charitable", Volume 2, page 252: Comparisons of languages
22. ↑ Call for practical activity to increase our sweets, especially in the Baltic Sea (1846) PDF 86 MB
23. ↑ Andrejs Bankavs / Ilga Jansone: Valodniecība Latvijā: fakti un biogrāfijas . Publishing house LU Akadēmiskais apgāds, Riga 2010. ISBN 978-9984-45-183-1
24. ↑ Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster Christian Woldemar: Baltic, namely Livonian peasant conditions (Leipzig, 1862, facsimile as PDF, 45 pages)
25. ↑ The Latvians emigrated to Novgorod in 1865 and the Baltic German Press / C. Woldemar. PDF, 97 MB
26. ↑ Collected works in Latvian, digitized in the Latvian National Library:
    • Krišjāna Valdemāra raksti 1. sējums
    • Krišjāna Valdemāra raksti 2. sējums