What is Baltic Germans?
'''Baltic Germans''' were German speaking people who lived the eastern shores of the [[Baltic Sea]], in what today are [[Estonia]] and [[Latvia]]. [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] agreed with [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] in 1939 that they should be moved to German territory as part of the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact|Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]. Families were transported by sea from the [[Baltic states|Baltic States]].<ref>Lynn H. Nicholas, ''Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web'' p. 194 {{ISBN|0-679-77663-X}}</ref> Now there are not many people with any German identity in Latvia or Estonia. Since the [[Middle Ages]], most of the of merchants and clergy were German-speakers. So were the large majority of the local landowning [[nobility]] who were a ruling class over the Latvian and Estonian people. By the time the idea of a Baltic German ethnic identity appeared in the 19th century, most Baltic Germans were not nobles. They were mostly the urban and professional [[middle class]] and lived in the cities ==References== {{reflist}} [[Category:History of Estonia]] [[Category:History of Latvia]] [[Category:German people by location| ]]