Introduction: German community – German nationality? Baltic German perceptions of belonging in the nineteenth and twentieth century

The aim of this special issue is to explore whether the term “National Indifference” can be applied to the Baltic region, and in particular to the Baltic Germans. In the second half of the nineteenth century and during World War I, their rootedness in German culture and language brought them into conflict with national perceptions of “Russianness” in the Russian Empire. After becoming citizens of interwar Estonia and Latvia, their national affiliation continued to be questioned by nationalists. The authors of this volume investigate Baltic Germans’ perceptions of belonging during the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth Century. The articles explore aspects of national flexibility and identity perceptions beyond the national paradigm in an era when the nation-state became the norm.