Latvia is a country on the Baltic Sea coast with a unique natural beauty and geographical location. The Latvians and Livonians are indigenous people who are living here. It is also a place where for many centuries the paths of travellers and merchants, warriors and refugees, entrepreneurs and scientists, day labourers and artists, and also of lovers crossed and where people came together. As a result, the current population is ethnically very heterogeneous - influenced by the personal biographies of people and by the policies of nation states. The unique cultural environment of Latvia was developed through the contact and exchange with foreign ethnic groups – Germans, Russians, Poles, Jews, Sinti and Roma, Belorussians and others – and it is still influenced by the Scandinavian and other European countries. Also the involvement of the ethnic minorities in the population and their national characteristics have continuously had an impact on the development of Latvia and its socio-cultural environment. According to the last census from 2012, Latvia has 2,217,053 inhabitants. According the Latvian Migration Authority, 4630 of them are Germans.
The participation of the Germans in Latvian society, their biographies and professional activities have left their marks in different areas, both in peaceful and in turbulent times: in art, music, literature, science, medicine and in other areas.
Source: Verband der Deutschen in Lettland (Association of the Germans in Latvia) / Aina Balasko
1,800 (Pan) / 3,465 (Euromosaic)
German (1.800 Speaker)