Paul Schiemann

Carl Christian Theodor Paul Schiemann ( Latvian Pauls Simanis; * 17 Märzjul / March 29 1876greg in Jelgava, .. † June 23, 1944 in Riga ) was a politician deutschbaltischer.

Before the First World War

Paul Schiemann was born the son of a lawyer Julius Schiemann and nephew Theodor Schiemann's 1876 in a Baltic German family. After attending school in Germany he took the studies at the University of Dorpat, but put this after the Russification of academic life in Germany continues. After completing his law studies, he returned to the Baltic States to be in Reval theater critic before 1907, the opportunity arose to work as a critic for the Gulf of Riga Rundschau. There he quickly rose to on the basis of his talent, which he used to be against the conservative stands to turn (especially the knighthoods ). Such was his hope at the outbreak of the First World War, that no power may triumph. Only in the democratization he saw an option for the future. However, he warned - regarding the events in Russia - 1917 a proletarian revolution that would only lead to anarchy. At the same time he joined the German Baltic Democratic Party.

Minority politicians

Towards the end of the War, Schiemann was in Berlin, where his acquaintance with a variety of personalities of the liberal bourgeoisie, such as Max Weber, Friedrich Naumann, Theodor Heuss, and Hans Delbrück made ​​. His stay, he used to stand up to the German Government for the support of democracy in Latvia and Estonia. Back in Latvia, he participated in the National Committee under Karlis Ulmanis, which ultimately meant his entry into national politics. Besides his work in the Gulf of Riga Rundschau, as its editor, he served from 1919 to 1933, he now became involved increasingly in the political Deutschbaltentum. So he stood in front of a list, with the German Baltic began the parties together to elections.

For all the criticism of communism, he leaned on the question of nationality policy in the ideas of Austrian Marxists like Karl Renner and Otto Bauer. At the same time he was in this area of activity that should be a passion for him in the following years. The postwar period posed a number of problems, of which the coexistence of nations was one of the newly created states. It also saw Schiemann a threat to the future and developed his theory of " Anational States." He called for the overcoming of national states and the establishment of national states, those same " Anational States." This idea he presented to the European Congress of Nationalities newly established, which met from 1925 to 1938 year. Inspired by the Treaties of Locarno and the peace policy of Stresemann saw Schiemann a way to enforce interests of minorities. But this confidence was not long after, more and more authoritarian and fascist regimes came to power in Europe. In 1924, Schiemann had warned of a victory of the nationalist movement in Germany, which would mean the end of Germanness in the Baltic States; a prediction which ultimately came. Coinciding with the rise of National Socialism came a shift in the ethnic Germans away from a spirit of cooperation. But not from this side only got Schiemann on the defensive, but also directly by Hitler's seizure of power. When in 1933 he sought recovery because of an illness in Austria, he took this as an opportunity to withdraw from the Gulf of Riga supported by the Foreign Office Rundschau. After giving up his parliamentary mandate, he was isolated on the Congress of Nationalities within the German ethnic groups, their association in 1938, Konrad Henlein took over.

Back in Latvia

Drawn by disease, he decided to avoid direct confrontation with the Nazis, and returned after the "Anschluss " of Austria home to Latvia. As also showed Hitler's expansionist policy effect and the German population was resettled during the German -Soviet Border and Friendship Treaty in 1939, he steadfastly refused to leave his home. As a last attempt to gain a foothold in the policy failed because of the Latvians and finally the Soviet invasion of 1940. During the German occupation he showed last time courage and hid a Jewish woman who later film sociologist Valentīna Freimane. Exhausted died of minority politicians shortly before the return of the Red Army in Riga. 2000 awarded him the Yad Vashem with the title Righteous Among the Nations.