What connects Germany with the Baltic states?
Historically speaking, of course, first and foremost “a long history of misfortune and debt that we Germans are responsible for,” as the great poet Johannes Bobrowski put it in the 1960s. Bobrowski refers to the long colonial history since the days of the Teutonic Order, but it applies particularly to the 20th century. As a German, one should never forget this when dealing with the Baltic States. At the same time, however, there is also a centuries-long history of cultural interdependence. The first printed books in Latvia and Estonia, whose 500th anniversary is currently being celebrated, were Luther Bibles, which were produced in close collaboration with Wittenberg. The first publications in the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian languages were largely driven by German-speaking Enlightenment thinkers in the 18th century. One example of this is the magnificent Lithuanian verse epic ‘The Seasons’ by Christjonas Donelaitis. Lessing, Herder, Humboldt and other Enlightenment thinkers discovered in the poetry of the national languages of Lithuania and Livonia (now Latvia and Estonia) the model for vernacular literature and culture that was fundamental to their Enlightenment programmes.
Currently, quite a few political actors in the three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – see the Federal Republic of Germany as one of their most important partners in Europe. This naturally concerns economic and security policy cooperation first and foremost. But this can only work if there is mutual cultural understanding and mutual recognition of different perspectives. It should also be noted here that the terms ‘Baltic states’ or ‘the Baltic region’ are very general terms that are also influenced by colonial history. Similar to how the category ‘Scandinavia’ obscures the fact that Danes, Swedes, Norwegians and Finns would object to being simply lumped together, the same applies to the Baltic states. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are independent states that are going their own way within the European Union. Estonia, for example, has very close ties with Finland. What all three Baltic states have in common is that, as former Soviet republics, they faced enormous transformation tasks and have tackled these in a very open, flexible and innovative manner. With all due caution when making historical comparisons, just as the Baltic region was a centre on the periphery for many reform ideas during the Age of Enlightenment, the same is true today with regard to new digital media, technologies and forms of knowledge.
The cityscape of Riga reflects all historical layers, from the old German-Baltic Order houses to the Art Nouveau district of the early 20th century to Soviet housing estates and the Shoah memorial. On the other side of the Daugava River, however, stand the library building, constructed in 2004, and the new university campus, symbols of the city and the country of Latvia as a modern, democratic knowledge society.
Have there been connections between Potsdam and Riga for a long time?
Cooperation between the universities of Potsdam and Riga began over a decade ago in the form of a strategic university partnership within the Erasmus programme. In 2014/15, we began researching ‘media practices of the Enlightenment.’ This included, for example, examining 18th-century periodicals in order to shed light on the coexistence of different media from today's perspective. In the Baltic region, there were numerous handwritten publications that had a great influence despite their alternative format, which proves the importance of manuscripts. This finding suggests a more nuanced view of the Gutenberg model and is also relevant to the current media revolutions: the model of a mere succession from manuscript to book to digital formats is complemented by a view of the complex coexistence of different media formats. Despite digitalisation, more books are being published today than ever before.
From 2018 onwards, we were able to continue the partnership thanks to further Erasmus funding, with a focus on the ‘future of cultural heritage in Europe’. Now, in 2025, the collaboration has culminated in the founding of the Interdisciplinary Centre for German Studies, which is supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German Embassy in Latvia and the Goethe-Institut, among others.
At the same time, there has been a DAAD German Studies Institute partnership with the University of Tartu for six years, which was extended to Riga in January this year.
What is the new ‘Interdisciplinary Centre for German Studies in Riga’ building on?
The centre builds on this research and also brings together various initiatives in the fields of Latvian-German and Baltic-German cooperation in order to promote synergies.
In terms of structure and tasks, the centre rests on three pillars: Firstly, it enables multi-perspective research into the shared cultural history of the Baltic region, the history of the Enlightenment and the centuries that followed. This research is complemented by joint courses that promote interdisciplinary and international perspectives.
Secondly, the centre assists with training: there is a current need for highly qualified German teachers in all three Baltic states. Teacher training is promoted through an international exchange model, with the University of Potsdam contributing its expertise in teacher training. This supports not only language teaching but also cultural understanding.
Finally, we want to establish a platform that goes beyond the humanities and serves as a transfer hub for Baltic-German cooperation initiatives in other faculties and beyond the academic sphere.
How does the centre work in concrete terms?
The centre is part of the University of Latvia in Riga and is primarily anchored in the Faculty of Humanities. We are involved in the partnership; I am also a member of the board of trustees and the scientific advisory board. In addition to joint research, our cooperation between the participating universities in the centre is based on teacher exchanges and workshops. Furthermore, the Erasmus exchange programmes enable Baltic students to study in Germany. Local foundations could provide additional funds to better equip semesters abroad.
We solicit research projects from various German foundations and the European Union. For example, there are programmes that enable structural support measures in Riga through the funding of thematic projects. This is a particular concern for several reasons: it serves to compensate for asymmetries resulting from historical imperial and colonial conditions that continue to exist today in the form of economic inequalities. But it is also a wise investment in innovative local initiatives from which we can learn in turn. At a time when German studies departments are closing down one after the other in the USA and Western Europe, and when sympathy for our country is declining in many Eastern and Southern European countries, the University of Latvia has set a counterpoint with the establishment of the centre, which we want to support with all our might.
What are your plans with your partners for the coming period?
There is no shortage of challenges, plans and ongoing projects. Our regular autumn school with students and teachers from the universities in Riga and Tartu has just taken place at the University of Potsdam. We are pursuing cooperation projects such as the historical-critical edition of the works of Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, always with the involvement of the students. Klinger, alongside Goethe and Lenz, the most important ‘inventor’ of Sturm und Drang, spent the second half of his life as a science organiser in the Baltic region and played a key role in shaping the academic and cultural space between St. Petersburg and Mitau (today Jelgava) – what Goethe was in Weimar in this respect, Klinger was for the Baltic region. The edition is being published in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Tartu and Humboldt University and offers students opportunities for international cooperation as well as concrete practical experience in publishing and editorial studies as part of internships. We are expanding the cooperation in this field that has existed since the Kant Year 2024 with a project entitled ‘Kant in the Baltic States’, in which we are tracing the connections between economic history and the Enlightenment, among other things, on the basis of Kant's Riga publisher Hartknoch. And together with the Latvian National Library, we are examining various aspects of Jewish cultural history – for example, using the Yiddish and Hebrew collections of the Riga Library. Here, too, the University of Potsdam, with its focus on Jewish studies and the Moses Mendelssohn Centre, can make a meaningful contribution. In addition to this ongoing ‘core business’ in the field of intellectual and cultural history projects and support for the training of German teachers, we are currently working intensively on further structural and personnel networking of the centre in the direction of current issues of digitisation, challenges of democracy and European integration.
Further information:
On the founding of the Interdisciplinary Centre for German Studies: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/medieninformationen/detail/2025-07-01-deutsch-baltische-partnerschaft-interdisziplinaeres-zentrum-fuer-deutschland-studien
On the work of Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Iwan-Michelangelo D'Aprile: https://www.uni-potsdam.de/de/kulturen-der-aufklaerung/index