International Science and Local Conditions on the Ground: The Agricultural Sciences and Baltic German Identity, 1845–1905

Abstract

Questions of how agricultural science would be defined, who would conduct the research, where investigations and teaching would take place, and whose interests it would serve became significant issues in the Baltic provinces in the nineteenth century. The Baltic German elite made repeated efforts to bring scientific agricultural practices into the region and to build institutions that would disseminate them in ways that suited local interests. While previous studies have defined Baltic German endeavors in the agricultural sciences as successes, this study focuses on the frustrations, cultural complexities, ideological controversies, and even violence that came with efforts at agricultural modernization.