Die Livländischen Privilegien: ihre Deutungen, Umdeutungen und praktischen Umsetzungen in der neueren baltischen Geschichte

Political Atmosphere in Dorpat in Emil Kraepelin’s Period

“…Although the Livonian Order founded by the Teutonic Order ceased to exist in the middle of the 16th century and the territory of today's Republic of Estonia, mainly inhabited by Estonians, was in the 17th century under the reign of Poland and Sweden, and since the 18th century of the Russian empire, the Germans maintained their privilege to rule in the area. The Russian empire even granted an extensive autonomy to the Estonian and Livonian Ritterschaften (Russian Baltic Sea provinces), which enabled to manage all the living spheres in German and guaranteed the superiority of the Lutheran church in the Estonian area (Schirren 1865, 1869, Pistohlkors 2006, Ungern-Sternberg 2013. The university that opened in Dorpat in accordance with the ukase of Emperor Alexander I in 1802 used German as the official language and its theological faculty propagated Lutheran religion.…”