- Garlieb Merkel
Garlieb Helwig Merkel (
31 October 1769 ,Lēdurga ,Latvia –9 May 1850 ,Riga ) was a Baltic Germanwriter andactivist and an earlyEstophile andLettophile .Merkel was born into the family of a rural priest in
Livonia . From the age of 17 he worked as a tutor for upper-class families. In 1790 he joined the circle of Riga intellectuals. Influenced by the ideas he found there, he published the book "Die Letten" ("Latvians") in 1794, which described in the darkest terms the life of the peasantry and the atrocities of the German landowners and called upom the Imperial Russian government to intervene and ameliorate the lot of the Latvian people.Merkel's book caused a storm of anger among the landowners of Livonia, and Merkel was forced into exile. He moved to
Weimar , then in 1800 toBerlin , where he was the co-editor withAugust von Kotzebue of the weekly "Der Freimutige" (1803-1806).In 1816 Merkel returned to Livonia. He published the book "My Ten Years in Germany" (1818) and "Images and Characters from My Life" (two volumes, 1839-1840). He also wrote the pamphlet "Free Latvians and Estonians" (1820), which was published in
Leipzig .References
* Raun, Toivo U. (2003). [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1469-8219.00078 Nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Estonian nationalism revisited] . "
Nations and Nationalism " 9.1, 129-147.
* Merkel, Garlieb. "Die Vorzeit Lieflands: Ein Denkmahl des Pfaffen- und Rittergeistes". 2 vols., Berlin: Vossische Buchhandlung, 1807.
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