‘Ethnicity is not a Physiological Moment’: German Minority Elite’s Constructivist Perceptions of Ethnicity in Interwar Estonia

The emergence of nation-states in Central and Eastern Europe at the beginning of the 20th century created the need to manage ethnic diversity and issues with drawing boundaries between ethnic communities. This resulted in the minority activism, aimed not only at protecting the interests of minorities, but also at ensuring their survival. This article focusses on the latter aspect. The article shows that research on country-level minority activism helps better understand majority-minority relations and their impact on the society by analysing the example of interwar Estonia. The German minority elite’s perceptions of ethnicity will be discussed, based on the documentation reflecting the inclusion policy of the German Cultural SelfGovernment, the autonomous institutional body of the German minority in Estonia. The article demonstrates the remarkably constructivist views of the German minority elite and explains their genesis and background. It will be argued that first, German elite’s constructivist perceptions had historical roots; second, the elite needed to be pragmatically open rather than primordially protectionist for their dwindling community to survive; and third, they had no reason for protectionism stemming from the fear of malicious infiltration of members of other ethnic groups. Since such an open inclusion policy turned out to be relatively successful, itcan be concluded that the German minority, which formed the ruling elite in Estonia earlier centuries, continued to be attractive, and this, in turn, caused significant social tensions, making the Estonians, now being in a dominant position and in the numerical majority, doubt their own survival. The results of this article ultimately highlight the relevance of instrumentalisation of ethnic ambiguities in forming minority activism and drawing boundaries between majority and minorities.