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56Reviews Biography. a Noblesse Oblige out of Step with Time 56reviews Biography. A noblesse oblige out of step with time Thomas von Vegesack HIS IS THOMAS von Vegesack’s istry in Germany. During his student days, he had feel at home in Sweden either. He was Utan hem i tiden. story about his father, Arved already begun showing some characteristics peculiar pained by the lack of knowledge about Berättelsen om Arved. von Vegesack, but it is also a to his personality and social position. His time at the the world that he encountered there, Tstory about an entire genera- university in Tartu was divided between participating and the fact that the Swedish picture of [Not at Home in Time. tion of Baltic Germans whose lives were in the survival of aspects of the old order — including Europe included only its western parts. The Story of Arved]. far removed from ours, though their a life in the German student unions with duels over After some initial reverses, Arved Stockholm: Norstedts time was not. matters of honor — and in the ideal of the new era, i.e. got a position in Sweden as a researcher 2008. 175 pages. Arved von Vegesack lived at a time being a successful student and researcher, dedicated at Munkfors Bruk (Munkfors Mill), a when the Baltic-German nobility was to serving science. His studies were interrupted by the position he kept for the rest of his life. losing its position. From being socially, tumultuous years around 1905 when political activism His research resulted in several patents JOHAN EELLEND politically, and economically dominant, among the workers and the peasantry unsaddled the on steel edging, but these were too Received his Ph.D. in and representing the Latvian and Esto- Baltic Germans and forced them to appeal to the Tsar- advanced to be of commercial value 2007 with a thesis on nian peasantry, the nobility ended up ist army for help in restoring order. As was the case for during his life time. We learn little about agrarianism and alternati- in a position of disintegration, when a many Baltic-German families, the unrest had dire con- Arved the scientist and innovator from ve thoughts on modernity cosmopolitan life-view was opposed sequences for the von Vegesacks, economically as well this book, perhaps because a prior in Estonia around the to the nation-state. As a child, Arved as personally. Manors that Arved had visited as a child work, by E. Börje Bergsman (1988), has turn of the last century. was taught that he belonged to a select were burned down and two of his maternal uncles fell already dealt with this aspect of Arved’s Works at the Institute of and privileged social class, that he was victim to the violence. life. There might be another reason, as Contemporary History superior to those who served him. He well. Arved’s professional life may not at Södertörn University was inoculated with the Baltic-German LIKE SO MANY BALTIC Germans, Arved von Vegesack have belonged to the world he describes with the research project virtues: a deeply rooted concept of left the Baltic region after 1905, in his case to gain a in the letters that Thomas von Vegesack on political populism in honor and great loyalty to authority. He chance to develop and employ his expertise in Ger- uses as a source. The letters slant the the Baltic region and in was indoctrinated with the idea that it many. Here also, he is torn between the prospects of book’s narrative, towards a focus on the the security policy on the had, since the early middle ages, been research and the responsibility he feels for his home war years and Arved’s youth. Thomas theme of the emergence the lot of the Baltic-German nobility to and for Livonia. It seems certain, though, that his time von Vegesack does, however, succeed of a multipolar security rule and administer the Baltic region is characterized by a feeling of uprootedness. He finds in capturing the spirit of the time, by complex in the Baltic and to bring German enlightenment himself placed between a Livonia, where the Baltic weaving in the lives of his father’s moth- region during the interwar and culture to the region. As a grown Germans’ star is fading, and a Germany, where the er and siblings. Historically, the book period. man, he suffered the indignity of seeing Baltic Germans do not have the best of reputations. is a balanced, personal account whose this image used against him, of seeing Was it, perhaps, this feeling of uprootedness that author is not afraid to mention the in- “Baltic-German” become synonymous caused him to settle in Sweden in 1911, after his mar- justices that the Baltic, feudal society with exploitation and repression. riage to the Swede Inga af Segerström? But his feelings stood for — but who, on the other hand, of loyalty interpose themselves, and he soon returns cannot entirely reconcile himself to the HIS FAMILY PRObabLY belonged to the to what is now the Russian province of Estonia. Up idea that the right to live in a country is mid-tier of the Baltic-German nobility — until the outbreak of the war, he occupies himself with not the same as the right to rule it. well-off, but living in a wooden manor, research and planning peat-digging operations. and sometimes dependent on family Because Arved was unswervingly loyal to the Rus- IN THE INTRODUCTION to the book, the ties to help them through crises, fam- sian state, he fought as a cavalry officer on the Russian author describes his father as difficult ily ties that could be traced back many side during World War I, even though he knew that to approach, and alienated from the generations and through several noble some of his relatives and close friends were fighting Swedish society in which he lived until lines. Arved grew up and received his on the German side. He gives a moving description his death. Arved von Vegesack’s life education in the late 1800s. During this of the war, including his initial fascination with the symbolizes so much of what was Baltic- time, the social climate became increas- war as an adventure, his faith in his own capabilities, German: a patriarchal feeling of respon- ingly harsh in the Baltic area, with grow- and, finally, his awakening to the fact that the war was sibility to the country that was ruled, a ing ethnic, political, and economic an- a meaningless and endless nightmare. The Russian moral obligation and a consciousness tagonism. The Russian state’s attempt capitulation released Arved from his obligations to of honor and social standing, but also to Russianize the whole Empire put Russia. He could once again turn his loyalty to Livonia an ability to constantly keep up with Baltic-German culture and education and participate in the Estonian liberation struggle on the times and conform to new demands in the shade. This culture and educa- the side of the nationalists. and new rulers. These were character- tion had formerly given them a “natural In a poignant chapter, we can read Arved’s own istics that were not always appreciated right” to high positions in the army and account of his time as a captive of the Bolsheviks in in the emerging welfare-state of Swe- administration. German, which had Tartu, and of an occasion when many lives were saved den. ¯ been spoken everywhere in the public because an execution of prisoners was interrupted sphere, was now being replaced by by Estonian troops approaching the city. The end of johan eellend Russian. With ever-greater regularity, World War I also became the end of Arved’s life in the the central government would question Baltic area. But instead of beginning a new life in Ger- the Baltic Germans’ loyalty to the Rus- many, where his expertise was in demand, he rejoined sian Empire. In spite of this, Arved von his family in Sweden. Vegesack was among those who stayed Like many other Baltic Germans, he probably did in the Baltic region and received their not feel at home in interwar Germany, with which he education there, though he did, after- shared little but the language. But according to his son wards, take his doctor’s degree in chem- Thomas, a renowned Swedish publisher, he did not .
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