15 Facts About Paul Schiemann

Paul Schiemann was a Baltic German journalist, editor and politician who was known for his commitment to minority rights.

Carl Christian Theodor Paul Schiemann was born in Mitau in Courland, then part of the Russian Empire.

Paul Schiemann was educated in Germany, and underwent military training in the Imperial Russian army on the territory of what is Lithuania.

Paul Schiemann served in the Caucasus and later underwent officer training in what is Lithuania.

Paul Schiemann resumed his studies only in 1902, when he wrote his PhD thesis at the University of Greifswald.

Paul Schiemann was one of the founders of the German association in Estonia.

In 1919, Paul Schiemann returned to Riga, now capital of the fledgling Republic of Latvia and again became editor of the Rigasche Rundschau.

Paul Schiemann became a member of the first provisional Latvian parliament, the Tautas Padome.

Paul Schiemann led a coalition of Baltic German parties, the Committee of the Baltic German Parties, for most of the inter-war period.

Paul Schiemann was a member of all four Latvian parliaments until the Saeima's dissolution following the coup d'etat of 15 May 1934 by K Ulmanis.

In 1927 Paul Schiemann had even been offered the post of prime minister but he declined, on the grounds that he would have insufficient support.

Paul Schiemann declined to do so, and was one of the few voices of authority in the Baltic German community that argued for the rights of Jews.

Paul Schiemann suffered from tuberculosis throughout the 1930s, and frequently visited Davos to recover.

In 1933 supporters of National Socialism took over the Rigasche Rundschau and Paul Schiemann was forced to leave the newspaper.

Paul Schiemann died in Riga shortly before the Soviet Red Army occupied Latvia for the second time.