Chapter 7.2.3: The Estophiles and the Pre-National Awakening.

By the beginning of the 19th century, Estonians had lived under foreign rule for 600 years. During those centuries they had been pushed to the lowest stratas of society, being ruled over by the Baltic-German upper class. Language and class were heavily tied, so even if some former serf managed to climb up the social ladder somehow, they would start speaking German daily, as speaking Estonian was something that only peasants did. The children of such a person would start considering themselves as German and try to hide the fact that they originated amongst the Estonians. This type of phenomenon was later called out as “kadakasakslus”, which essentially meant fake germanism.

There was no sense of nationhood amongst Estonians, they just considered themselves as the poor peasant class. They called themselves “maarahvas” or countryside people and Estonian was called “maakeel” or countryside language. In a sense, Estonians had forgotten their roots. To remind them who they were, there needed to be a nationwide awakening, hence the “national awakening”.

The period that is called the Age of Awakening was preceded by the Estophile Era and the Pre-Awakening Era.

The Estophile Era was around the years 1802-1832. Estophiles were generally Baltic-Germans, in some cases Germanized Estonians, who valued Estonians as a nation and thought that the language and culture should be cherished and preserved. They were in the minority however, most of the upper-class believed that Estonians and Estonian were too primitive to survive and that over time they would be inevitably “civilised” aka Germanized.

In 1813, Pastor Johann Heinrich Rosenplänter started publishing a magazine called Beiträge zur genaueren Kenntnis der estnischen Sprache (articles on the detailed knowledge of the Estonian language), which acted as hub for the estophiles. Many of them sent their contributions there. Rosenplänter believed that “us, Germans, should enrich Estonian, but not by copying our own ideals and spirits into it but instead cultivating the Estonian spirit itself and bringing it higher on the steps of perfection.”

Rosenplänter was one of the few estophiles that actually managed to include Estonians to the estophile movement. He taught some more talented peasant children at home in his free time, hoping to educate good teachers and writers. One of those children was Adam Holter, who would become the author of the first Estonian geography textbook. Rosenplänter also communicated with Kristjan Jaak Peterson, who is considered the first Estonian poet. Although Peterson died in 1822 at the age of 21, he wrote 21 poems in an effort to provide proof that Estonian was not only a rough language to be used on the field, but also could sound beautiful in poetry. One of his most famous poems is Kuu: “Does the language of this land not deserve to find eternity for itself in being risen to the sky in the wind of song?” (my rough translation of a verse). Peterson´s poems however remained unpublished as a result of some criticism and were forgotten; they were rediscovered in the archives in 1901.



K. J. Peterson (1801-1822).

The aforementioned criticism came from the rationalist Otto Wilhelm Masing, who disliked the romanticist approach Peterson took with his work. Masing was a germanized Estonian, who is known for bringing the letter “õ” into Estonian. He also tried to publish an Estonian newspaper between 1818-1825, but as the readership was not large enough, not even surpassing 200, the newspaper was not economically viable. It was not the first attempt of publishing an Estonian newspaper, as in 1806 there was one other, but that was shut down in the same year and all the copies were demanded to be destroyed. The reason given was the fact that the newspaper had negatively influenced the obedience towards the manor owners.

Beträge… was instrumental to laying the groundwork of future Estonian national ideologues. In 1828, Heinrich Georg von Jannau published an article titled “Über die Grund und Ursprache der Ehsten” (On the ancient language of the Estonians), in which he vividly described the “mighty power and glory” of ancient Estonians. According to him, Estonians had fallen far from the high culture they had before being subjugated, however, as they had been great, they could become great once more. Although his idea of ancient Estonia was not particularly accurate, his ideas did influence future Estonian intellectuals a fair amount.

The failures to have any wide scale influence on Estonians and the crushed Polish uprising of 1830 meant an end to the Estophile era in the 1830s. Beträge… stopped publishing in 1832 due to financial reasons, Masing died the same year. In 1831, Luce, one other estophile, wrote to Rosenplänter: “For the peasants this word, freedom, is so costly that they cannot afford to think about buying books or even think! Oh, those poor victims of deception.” (about the situation after the abolition of serfdom, which I covered in 7.2.1)

The Pre-Awakening period began in the second half of the 1830s, when a new generation stepped into the limelight, including the first consolidated group of Estonian intellectuals. The leader of the group was Friedrich Robert Faehlmann, a medical doctor who managed to rise to prominence as the leader of the national effort.


F.R. Faehlmann (1798-1850)

His motto was: “life is short, ideals are eternal.” As a doctor, he gave free treatment to Estonians and between 1842-1850 he was also the lector of the Estonian language at the University of Tartu. He criticised heavily the situation in the Baltic provinces, comparing the “dark centuries of slavery” and “the ancient happy era of freedom” of Estonians. One of his wishes was to return a heroic history to his people. Combining ancient Greek and Finnish gods and the motives of some folk tales, he created a false pantheon of gods for Estonians and made up some legends regarding them, like how animals got their voice by listening to the songs of Vanemuine, the god of song. These would influence Estonian national romantic art.


The Song of Vanemuine, Tõnis Grenztein, 1880s.



Koit ja Hämarik (Dawn and Dusk) by Amadus Adamson, 1895. Based on a legend written by Faehlmann in 1840.

Faehlmann had a close relationship with the liberal members of the Livonian knighthood. One of his closest friends was professor Alexander von Hueck, whose brother, Carl von Hueck, had been one of the first manor owners to sell his land to the peasants. He himself and other Estonian nationalists stayed out of the agrarian reform debate however, focusing more on the advancement and research of Estonian culture and language.

He was the founding member and first leader of the organisation Õpetatud Eesti Selts or Learned Estonian Society in Tartu. Established in 1838, the society strived to further knowledge about the past and present of the Estonian people, their culture and literature as well as the land inhabited by Estonians. One of the first issues raised was the need for a national epic for Estonians. Faehlmann gathered information about the folk tales about a mythical giant called Kalevipoeg, which could be heard in farms around the country. With the help of those, he set out the main narrative for the story. However, the work did not reach far and during Faehlmanns life the epic was never published. After his death, a fellow Estonian intellectual, Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald, continued his work.

By the early 1840s, signs of trouble within the Society emerged. The Estonian and German members had differing views on how to do things and would come into constant conflict. In the 1840s there was a wave of conservatism amongst the Batlic-Germans due to the unrest amongst the peasantry. As a result, the activity within the society started to wane and by the 1850s it crawled down to a halt. Faehlmann passed away in 1850 and thus the Pre-Awakening era came to an end. The intellectuals never managed to get their message outside of their own circle and as such did not have an immense immediate effect. Their work however laid the foundation for the real national awakening.

The situation in the 1840s became troublesome. The future of Estonians was deemed dark, it was very commonly believed that they could never develop into a nation. After pastor Eduard Ahrens developed a new Estonian orthography in the 1840s, which would become the basis of modern Estonian orthography, the teacher in the Gymnasium of Tallinn, Carl Meyer wrote a public letter condemning Ahrens. According to him, Estonians could never become a cultured people and any efforts in developing Estonian language or culture would be pointless and even detrimental, as they would delay what would be best for Estonians: fast Germanization. The support for the estophiles amongst the Baltic-German community twindeled. Even Estonian intellectuals themselves, like Faehlmann and Kreutzwald were sceptical about the vitality of the Estonian people.

As mentioned, Kreutzwald continued Faehlmann´s work Kalevipoeg, the prose draft was done by 1851, several sections of it included folk songs in verse. He filled in the gaps between the songs in verse as well and the epic was published in parts between 1857-1861 and the full epic came out in 1862.



Kreutzwald by Johann Köler, 1864.



The cover and the title page of the 1st full publication of Kalevipoeg.

Kreutzwald was the town doctor of Võru, and like Faehlmann, he was loved by Estonians. He would communicate with them in Estonian and treat them for free. Unlike Faehlmann, he was more passive in the activities of the Society, focusing more on writing rather than activism. He promoted the new orthography by Ahrens and criticised the use of old orthography. The orthography developed by Ahrens was based on Finnish orthography and included phonetic spelling. He also collected folk tales, which would be published in 1866 as “Eesti rahva ennemuistseid jutte” (The Ancient Stories of the Estonian people).