Pastor and writer who headed Latvia's pro-German government of 1919
"Not clever speeches or treaties but force decides a nation's fate," he declared at his 1924 treason trial.
A leading Latvian novelist and Lutheran pastor, he headed the pro-German government backed by von der Goltz after the Liepāja coup of 1919. His regime fell after Cēsis, he fled to Germany and, returning in 1924, was tried for treason and expelled.
Career timeline
1890–1899Studied theology at the University of Dorpat (Tartu)
1903–1906Edited and published the journal Austrums in Cēsis
1906–1918Lutheran pastor in the Matīši, Kalsnava and Vietalva parishes
1917Co-founded the Latvian Farmers' Union, member of its board
1919.05–06Prime Minister of the pro-German provisional government
1924Convicted of treason, then expelled by presidential pardon
1926–1930Pastor of a German congregation in Altstadt, East Prussia
Baltic Landeswehr strike-troop commander who led the Liepāja coup and fell at Riga
In the assault on Riga he led a small detachment across the Daugava bridge toward the citadel holding hundreds of anti-Bolshevik prisoners; he fell in the charge, but his men reached the citadel and freed them.
A Baltic German baron from Courland who fought as a Bavarian uhlan officer in the First World War, he became a staff officer and strike-troop commander of the Baltic Landeswehr in 1919. On 16 April he led the Liepāja coup against the Ulmanis government, and on 22 May he was killed at twenty-five in the attack that retook Riga from the Red Army.
Career timeline
1913Read law at Heidelberg University
1914Volunteered for the 2nd Bavarian Uhlan Regiment; served on the Western and Eastern fronts
1915Promoted to lieutenant
1917Company commander, 18th Bavarian Infantry Regiment, Western front
1919.01Took command of the Baltische Landeswehr shock troops
1919.04Led the coup that toppled the Ulmanis government at Liepāja
