Ron Hellfritzsch

Deutsches Optisches Museum

Ron Hellfritzsch, born in 1988, is a German historian. He studied history, political science and modern history at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena and the Latvijas Universitāte in Riga. In 2022, he completed his doctorate at the University of Greifswald at the Chair of Eastern European History on the topic “Älteste Kolonie” und “neues Ostland”. Deutsche Siedlungspläne im Baltikum 1914 –1919 (“Oldest Colony" and "New Eastern Lands". German Settlement Plans in the Baltic States 1914 -1919). Ron Hellfritzsch is a member of the Baltic Historical Commission and the board of the Deutsch-Baltisches Kulturwerk/Carl-Schirren-Gesellschaft e.V. in Lüneburg. He works as a provenance researcher at the German Optical Museum in Jena.

B.,v. [d. i. Max von Blaese]: Kapitalbedarf, Wirtschaftseinrichtung und Ertragsanschlag für einen in Kurland neu zu gründen Bauernhof mit 20 ha Gesamtfläche, Berlin 1916

Background Article

On the Road to the “New Eastern Lands”

Plans for the German colonization of the Baltic states during the First World War

During the First World War, the German Empire had far-reaching plans for expansion in Eastern Europe. The Baltic states in particular were destined to become a German settlement colony known as the “Neues Ostland” (new eastern lands). With hindsight, some of these plans appear as forerunners of...