‘Das haus am see:’ An unpublished memoir of a Baltic baron

Abstract

Already badly shaken by World War I and its aftermath, Baltic German civilization disappeared forever in the wake of the Hitler-Stalin pact and World War II. Providentially, however, a chorus of gifted writers emerged before 1939 to give final voice to a doomed culture. Born for the most part around the turn of the century in what were then the Russian Baltic provinces of Estonia, Livonia, and Courland, this was the last generation to come to maturity in the old homeland, the last to experience and portray for posterity their way of life which otherwise would have been consigned to oblivion. Who are these authors? Eduard von Keyserling and Werner Bergengruen come to mind immediately, as do Frank Thiess, Edzard Schaper and Fred von Hoerschelmann. But there were others, no doubt less well known, and among these a now almost completely forgotten master of the classic Novelle, Herbert von Hoerner, author of the memoir to be discussed here. From an old, ennobled family that had come to the Baltic in 1547 from Bohemia, Hoerner was born in 1884 in Courland on the ancestral estate called Ihlen, not far fron Jelgava (Mitau), the old ducal capital. Because of T sarist policy in the Baltic provinces, the language of instruction in the schools of Hoerner's youth was Russian. Thus he grew up with that language as well as his native German and some Latvian. An indication of Hoerner's proficiency in Russian is the fact that during the early 1 920s he published several polished translations: The memoirs of Count Witte, the Russian statesman, as well as works by Gogol, Turgenev, and A.K. Tolstoy, and it is probable that Hoerner's literary talent was honed by his exposure to these masters.' Translation was not the only way in which Hoerner was able to put his knowledge of Russian to good use. During World War II he was a court interpreter for the German army in occupied Ukraine and applied his skills for humanitarian purposes. Unwitting Russian and Ukrainian civilians who had innocently run afoul of the rules and regulations of the German occupation found a friend in Hoerner. He interpreted their testimony in such a way that it would lead to acquittal, perhaps even saving some lives in the process.2 For a long time Hoemer was unsure where his true talent lay. He felt drawn to the graphic arts, architecture, and music, as well as to literature. With a view to becoming a painter he studied art, first in Riga, then Munich,