“A big friend of the Belarusian people”: Eugen von Engelhardt and his Odissey

Abstract

The paper examines the life and legacy of Eugen von Engelhardt (1899– 1948), a German-Baltic aristocrat, author of the first German-language monograph on Belarus. A truly adventurous person, Engelhardt had been a soldier, landowner, forestry specialist and he traveled around the world before choosing an academic career. Born and raised in the southeast of Courland, in the places of compact residence of Belarusians, he developed an early interest to the Belarusian problem. Deeply involved in the Nazi movement, Engelhardt was one of the theorists of the so-called “soft line” of occupation policy during the War in the East. It envisaged a number of economic and political preferences for Belarusians, with the aim of fostering collaboration between them and Germans. In his concept, Engelhardt, a native landlord, used a Pre-Modern pattern of feudal relationship between the benevolent German nobles and obedient Belarusian serves, which was in no way compatible with the nature of Nazi politics in the East. Moreover, Engelhardt’s approach contained a number of serious flaws. Nevertheless, his main work, “Weissruthenien: Volk und Land”, for a long time remained the only work on this region.

For citation
Barinov I. I. “A big friend of the Belarusian people”: Eugen von Engelhardt and his Odissey // Slavic Almanac. 2020. Issues 1–2. P. 249–280. DOI: 10.31168/2073-5731.2020.1-2.1.14