International Law and Justice Working Papers - IILJ

German colonization (Bulmerincq’s own term) in the 13th century and establishing the
civilizational superiority as the ultimate justification for the act of colonization:
“We leave aside the question whether since the 9 th century the Estonians, Latvians and Livonians
had to pay tribute to the Russians. In any case the mere duty to pay tribute could not be the basis
of a closer and more efficient relationship. Therefore, the recently raised fight about the priority
of civilization in the Baltic sea provinces “through the Russians or the Germans?” is superfluous
since even if Russia has made civilizational attempts, in any case to the Germans as the more
civilized ones there remained and still remains enough work to do.” 101
Bulmerincq pointed out that at the arrival of the German colonizers the native peoples were
almost exclusively heathens. “The level of the culture was low.” One could not really speak of
science and art – only Latvian and Estonian folk songs and tales witnessed of some sort of
cultural development of the native peoples. The native peoples had not yet learned to write. As
far as their material life was concerned, only shipbuilding was to a modest extent developed. 102
Contemporary authors have pointed out how the most outstanding Baltic German lawyers and
historians (e.g. Arbusow) up until the early 20 th century held the view that only through the
arrival of the German colonizers in the 13 th century did the Baltic lands gain access to the culture
and the history. 103 Bulmerincq constituted no exception in that regard.
101 Russland, p. 2.
102 Ibid., p. 2.
103 Michael Garleff, Stereotypen im wechselseitigen deutsch-baltischen Kulturtransfer, in: Hans Henning Hahn (Hg.)
Stereotyp, Identität und Geschichte: die Funktion von Geschichte in gesellschaftlichen Diskursen, Frankfurt a. M.:
Lang, 2002, pp. 349-363 at 352.