Some Aspects of the Nationality Question in the Lutheran Church of Estonia, 1918-39

Abstract

Estonian church history in this century is not a well-researched field and our scholarly knowledge is rather limited. It is based on only a few books and some articles, most of which were written after the Second World War. These treat the subject on a rather general level and mostly neglect any deeper analysis. Understandably it was not easy to make a comprehensive and objective study of Estonian church history at a period when almost all the primary sources were in closed archives in Soviet Estonia. Now the archives have finally opened for almost everyone interested. This study is based on material found in Estonian, German and Swedish archives. Today most Estonians are not officially members of any Christian Church. In 1995 no more than about 12 per cent of the Estonian people were members of the Lutheran Church, and for the Orthodox Church the number was even lower. A hasty conclusion would be that atheistic education had achieved its goals; but that is only a partial truth. All in all, it would be inaccurate to claim that the Lutheran Church is the national Church of Estonia. Neither can we say that for the Orthodox Church, which is deeply divided into an Estonian and a Russian part. The situation was very different in the 1920s and the 1930s, when Estonia was an independent state for the first time in its history. At that time almost 80 per cent of the popUlation belonged to the Lutheran Church. The remaining 20 per cent were for the most part Orthodox. The numbers suggest that we could rightfully regard the Lutheran Church at that period as the national Church of Estonia. This conclusion, however, would not be correct. It would be more accurate to say that the Lutheran Church of Estonia was on the verge of becoming a truly national Church when the Second World War and the Soviet occupation following the war put a definite stop to that development. Why did the Church take so long to reach that stage? What prevented it from assuming a positive national role earlier? The answer lies in the ethnic composition of the Lutheran clergy. In 1919, one year after Estonia had declared its independence, more than half the Lutheran clergy were Baltic Germans.' Of the overall popUlation the Baltic Germans made up just about two per cent. Their influence within the Church was thus rather disproportionate. Previous research has given quite a harmonious picture of the relations between the Estonian and the Baltic German clergy within the Lutheran Church in Estonia. I believe that the reality was quite the opposite. I would even go so far as to claim that for the Estonian Church in the interwar period the nationality question was one of its biggest problems. I believe that understanding the nature and history of the