In recent years, Baltic German literature has experienced something of a renaissance on the Estonian literary scene. Siegfried von Vegesack’s work “Jaschka and Janne”, translated from German by Silva Lilleorg, was published last September in the Loomingu Library. Liina Lukas, professor of literature at the University of Tartu and an expert on Baltic German literature, says in the afterword of the new translation that “Jaschka and Janne” differs in brightness from other Baltic German works with predominantly tragic overtones.
Why read Baltic German literature?
As an Estonian, it’s easy to look at Baltic Germany with an alienating side eye. It carries an oppressive weight reminiscent of centuries of slavery. Yet Baltic Germanness is strongly intertwined in our daily lives. The cultural influences of Baltic Germany are reflected in the food, culture and customs. For example, Baltic Germans laid the foundation for the tradition of Estonian student guilds, Baltic German estophiles helped consolidate Estonian folklore. Baltic Germanness is not something distant and foreign, but rather something very close.
Siegfried von Vegesack
The Baltic German writer Siegfried von Vegesack (1888-1974) was born in Latvia and belonged to the original Baltic nobility. The writer is best known to Estonian readers thanks to his magnum opus “The Baltic Tragedy”, which, among other things, was considered the “Truth and Right” of the Baltic Germans.
In the work “Jaschka and Janne”, Vegesack tells the story of two young people who found themselves against the background of fun student life in Tartu. One of them is the future German majority, the extroverted Jaschka, and the other is a simple Estonian girl who is a seamstress. Two people from different worlds will remain together until the end of the tragedy of history and the tensions of public disapproval. However, “Jaschka and Janne” is not only a love story, but also a good overview of Tartu in that period and the living situation of Baltic Germans in general.
Estonian Tartu and German Dorpat
From the first pages of the book, Vegesack distinguishes the different worlds of Jaschka and Janne: the Estonian Tartu and the German Dorpat, both of which formally belonged to the head of the Russian double eagle. If Dorpat has an ancient and prestigious university, companies and fancy parties, rural Tartu is something dark, dirty and dark. Dorpat, the old city, is the home of the nobles, while the camp of the common people is located on the opposite bank of the Emajõki.
The two conflicting Tartus were bordered by Emajõgi, and the Saxons were not permitted to swerve onto the wrong bank. Vegesack writes: “But with color in your head, you could not show your face there, on the opposite bank of the Emajõgi, in Trans-Embach, Ülejõi, where there were dark rooms, vulgar taverns, dubious saunas and even worse establishments. .” (p. 16) It seems incredible that such different worlds can coexist in one city, unfortunately parallels of such segregation can still be found in Estonia today.
Love in Baltic German literature
In the epilogue of “Jaschka and Janne”, Liina Lukas writes about the difference in the representation of Estonian-German love relationships in Estonian and Baltic German literature: “If in a Baltic German novel an inappropriate relationship is mostly represented as romantic love and social differences are balanced by the noble human qualities of the lovers, then in Estonian literature the emphasis is more on the “sociology of love”, on the colonial relationship between “German” and “non-German”. (page 58)
This is how “Jaschkas and Jannes” paints an ideal picture of the Estonian woman: she is ambitious and surpasses Jaschka in her ingenuity. At the end of the book, Janne becomes a real lady. Janne’s character describes herself: “It was truly admirable what the little Estonian dressmaker had become in these twenty years: a perfect lady with the best social manners, cultured, eloquent. In addition to German, she also spoke French perfectly.” (page 48)
If Baltic German literature generally portrays rural peasants as good believers, urban Estonians are rather in a bad light. In “Jannes and Jaschkas” this distinction emerges well: Estonian girls were suitable for fun pastimes in the twilight, but not for marriage. Uncle Gottlieb admonishes Jaschka: “From time to time we also went to the other side of the Mother River and had fun, you can believe it. But we always paid.” (pages 41—42)
Attitude towards Estonians
The Baltic Germans called the peasants hawks, and were despised even when “these strange hawks were in astonishing need of education and filled the university halls in increasing numbers every year.” (p. 6) On the very first page Vegesack explains how the thin layer of German elites came together year after year in the face of the Estonian onslaught: “The Germans formed only a thin upper layer, which melted more and more every year and was increasingly rejected by the Estonians who flocked from the countryside to the cities.” (page 5)
Janne, on the other hand, is admired for her independence and self-confidence to the point that she eventually gets over Jaschka and actually begins to support the man herself. Although Jaschka wanted to support Janne and propose to the girl, Janne wanted independence and an independent career as a seamstress.
One of the things that perhaps pushed the Estonians forward and slowed down the Baltic Germans – at least the lazy students – was work. Janne, for example, senses that Jaschka’s problems stem from a non-existent work habit. Jaschka even admits that everyone could learn something from Janne: “We could all learn something from her, but I’m afraid I’ll never learn to work and earn money!” (page 39)
The spirit of Tartu
While people usually went to study in Tartu mainly for fun and student life, and their actual studies were continued elsewhere in Europe, there were of course those who remained in Tartu for lifelong learning. Jaschkal also has a great liking for Tartu. A young man who suffered his entire childhood under the harsh hand of an alien mother finds freedom and brotherhood in Tartu.
In Tartu, Jaschka earned the respect of his fellow students when he helped them get out of debt with the majority’s money. “Why would he go abroad, to a foreign city, where there are no two-horse buildings and where no one pays the colorful blanket of the Livonian the respect he deserves?” (page 8) Jaschkat was attracted to Tartu by his “real life”. Tartu was sincere, it was possible to meet ordinary people there. Unlike large European cities, Jaschka was a big fish among Tartu’s small towns. Jaschka was more attracted to Estonian “Taara dance parties” than to German ballrooms, where it was easier for his heavy leg to go to Kaera-Jaan.
Jaschka liked the perpetual student life and found it difficult to identify with the old major, whose leadership had been assigned to him by tradition. So the man breathes a sigh of relief when the Bolsheviks pass over Tartu and he loses everything: “The revolution not only freed me from fat, but also from majorade, with which I could do nothing practical!” (page 48)
Historical background
Historical context often shines through in Baltic German literature: the tragedy of the Baltic Germans lies in the merciless course of history. The Baltic Germans were caught in the wheels of history, they were a nation whose disappearance no one even noticed.
However “Jaschka and Janne” looks beyond the tragic background of the story to the final pages. In the work the characters live in their own bubble, in a student paradise separated from reality, where different rules apply. To this day, company culture is a perfect example of living in such a bubble. With their customs, multinationals resemble the old world, an attempt to close themselves in a parallel reality. Therefore, “Jaschka and Janne” is an interesting read just to make sense of businesses and student life in Tartu in general. The colorful guild ribbon symbolizes German life, student joy in Tartu, where “we lived in another time and another world”.
Style
“Jaschka and Janne” is a light story, written in a whirlwind of memories. Vegesack wrote it when all he had left of his homeland were his memories. Like “Baltic Tragedy”, the writing of “Jaschka and Janne” allowed the author to return home. It’s no secret that Vegesack also includes autobiographical moments in his works. Just like in “Baltic Tragedy”, there is a moment in this story when character I becomes blind in one eye during the fight for the measurement.
“Let’s keep it the old fashioned way!”
The male protagonists of “Jaschka and Janne”, the narrator and Jaschka himself, belong to the Livonian guild. The motto of this brotherhood is “Let’s keep it the old fashioned way!” unfortunately it sums up quite well the mentality of the Baltic Germans, which blinded them as a nation and perhaps created a more favorable terrain for the decline of the entire nation.
The Baltic Germans did not adapt to the changes, their little world seemed to remain unchanged until the end of time. “If everything has remained the same up until now, why shouldn’t it be the same in the future?” (p. 12) When the change came imperceptibly, it had a tragic effect on them and the little bubble burst: “We sat together silently and devastated and had no idea that already next autumn not only our beautiful student life in Tartu , but the whole world we lived in also grew protected.” (page 46)
“Jaschka and Janne” is like a light and cheerful introduction to the Baltic German masterpiece, Vegesack’s “Baltic Tragedy”. There is humor in the story of Estonian-German love and, until the end of the book, the ruthless course of the story can be overlooked with blue eyes.
2024-01-01 13:07:00
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