The Image of the Baltic: A Festschrift for Nils Blomkvist

282 Pages·2012·53.157 MB·English, German

by  Michael F. Scholz, Robert Bohn, Carina Johansson (eds.)

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a Festschrift for Nils Blomkvist

When the time-honored leader

of the Baltic Rim seminar, Professor Nils
Blomkvist, had his 65th birthday in 2008
a “celebration conference” under the title
The Image of the Baltic – a Thousand-
Years’ Perspective was arranged within
the permanent Baltic Rim seminar series
at Gotland University. Consequently,
many of his old scholarly friends from the
Photo: Anita Körner von Kern
Baltic Rim fields of study – and some new
ones – had gathered in order to highlight
this chronological landmark and to discuss the role of images in the historical
disciplines. The participants came from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Poland,
Germany, Denmark and Sweden, not to mention the many Gotlanders among the
Swedes. In 2010 Nils Blomkvist finally retired from his professorship in Medieval
History at Gotland University.
Now a selection of the papers that were presented at the Baltic Rim seminar have G
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been converted into a Festschrift, including Nils Blomkvist’s own lecture Peter of tla
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Dacia and the Urban Revolution, which he gave at the closure of the conference. d
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This anthology is his colleagues’ way of honoring him. n
iv Michael F. Scholz
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Gotland University Press 10
Gotland University Cramérgatan 3 Phone: [phone] E-mail: [email protected]
Address: S-621 67 Visby Fax: [phone] Web: www.hgo.se

The Image of the Baltic
a Festschrift for Nils Blomkvist
Professor Nils Blomkvist on the rostrum.
Photo: Anita Körner von Kern
The Image of the Baltic
a Festschrift for Nils Blomkvist

Gotland University Press 10
Editors: Michael F. Scholz
Robert Bohn
Carina Johansson
Publisher: Gotland University Press 2012
Address: Gotland University
S-62156 Visby
Web: www.hgo.se Phone: [phone]
ISSN: 1653-7424 ISBN: 978-91-86343-06-4
Editorial Committee: Åke Sandström and Lena Wikström
Cover design: Daniel Olsson and Lena Wikström.
Cover picture: ”Tvekamp af Elbogen”, in Visby,
during Medieval Week 2011, Carina Johansson

Contents
Preface ....................................................................................................... 7

The Colours of the Middle ages
The Baltic on the mental map of the Old Russian annalist ...........................11
Elena Melnikova
Livonia and the Holy See in 13th – Early 15th Centuries: Centre and
Periphery of Christendom ..........................................................................23
Eva Eihmane
Architetonische und künstlerische Verbindungen zwischen Visby
und Riga im 13 Jahrhundert .......................................................................41
Elita Grosmane
Between Wolin and Truso: the Southern part of the Baltic Rim at
the time of Rise of the Polish State (an archaeological perspective) .............53
Andrzej Buko
Models of Settlements Formation in Polatsk Region ...................................71
Marat V Klimau

Images of History
Störtebeker. Die Karriere eines Geschichtsbildes ........................................85
Robert Bohn
Auf den Spuren der Ritter und Zaren: Reval im Blick russischer
Touristen unter Nikolaj I ............................................................................101
Karsten Brüggeman
Der Beginn der Neuzeit in der Geschichte Lettlands: zu Problemen des
Dialogs mit der Vergangenheit in der lettischen Historiographie ................111
Valda Kļava
The Face of the Enemy? The Image of the GDR in the Danish Media .......125
Thomas Wegener Friis, Marius Hansen, Jesper C. M. Henriksen, Jesper
Thestrup Henriksen, Frank Jensen, Rune E. H. Smidt
The Medieval in the Modern: The Cathedral and the Skyscraper in
Fritz Lang’s Metropolis .............................................................................145
Erik Tängerstad
Von Schweden über die Ostsee in das Heilige Römische Reich Deutscher
Nation. „Der Löwe aus Mitternacht” als Retter des evangelischen
Glaubens in Deutschland .........................................................................165
Jens E. Olesen

Gotland – the Pearl of the Baltic
Peter of Dacia and the Urban Revolution ..................................................185
Nils Blomkvist
The Conception of an Egalitarian Gotlandic Peasant Society ....................203
Tryggve Siltberg
Frustration and Revenge? Gotland strikes back – during the long
15th Century, 1390’s–1525 ........................................................................229
Hain Rebas
Multiple visions from a Baltic shoreline – Richard Berghs quest for
a school of Swedish painting in Vision, scene from Visby ..........................247
Lars Wängdahl
Das deutsche Konsulat in Visby im zweiten Weltkrieg. Ein Archivbericht ...255
Michael F. Scholz
Nils Blomkvist’s scholarly production .......................................................271
Authors ....................................................................................................279
Preface
Over 16–18 October 2008, a conference was arranged within the permanent
Baltic Rim seminar series at Gotland University under the title, The Image of
the Baltic – a Thousand-Years’ Perspective. The invitation to the event had
made it clear that this was a special occasion, even a “celebration conference”.
The motive for this was also stated – the time-honored leader of the Baltic Rim
seminar, Professor Nils Blomkvist, had his 65th birthday during the summer
holidays, and some of his colleagues had taken over the arrangements in order
to highlight this chronological landmark. Consequently, many of his old scholarly
friends from the Baltic Rim fields of study – and some new ones – had gathered
to discuss the role of images in the historical disciplines. The participants came
from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, Denmark and Germany, not to
mention many Gotlanders.
Nils Blomkvist received his PhD at the University of Uppsala in 1979. His
dissertation dealt with the genesis of the Swedish city of Kalmar in the 12th–14th
centuries. The book aroused interest among students of the Hanse, and since
1980 Nils has been a member of the Hansische Geschichtsverein . His early
production deals mainly with medieval urbanism and trade. Working as an
archivist for ten years and almost as long as head of research at the National
Board of Antiquities in Stockholm, he returned fully to Academia in the late 1990s
with the intention of fulfilling a gradually maturing research idea that all of a
sudden had become possible to carry out, namely the comparative study of the
medieval process of Europeanization east and west of the Baltic.
With generous support from the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation
he was able to form the multinational and interdisciplinary research project,
“Culture Clash or Compromise?” (CCC), subtitled The Importance of Regional
Survival Strategies in the Europeanization of the Baltic Rim. The project involved
some twenty scholars – archaeologists, historians and human geographers –
representing seven countries on the Baltic Rim. The CCC project was in working
existence from 1996 to 2005 when it formally ended, although its final publication
appeared as late as in 2009. Its rich results are presented in 11 volumes of
compiled CCC papers. The project’s introduction and conclusion were however
published as number 11 and 12 of the series Acta Visbyensia.
Apart from its scholarly residue the CCC project has been important in building
up modern links between researchers east and west of the Baltic, and Nils has
over the years become an international authority on medieval matters concerning
the Baltic and its Rim. He has contributed to many specialist conferences, and in
2007 he was invited to the Oxford Round Table, for which occasion he wrote a
paper on the longue durée development of the Baltic Rim until the 21st century. It
was accepted for publication in Forum on Public Policy under the title,
The Baltic from European Sea of Trouble to Global Interface.
As is seen in Nils’ list of scholarly productions, brought together by his wife
Carin, he has published more than one hundred works on medieval topics,
often focusing on processes of change in Scandinavia and the Baltic region
as a whole. His major work is “The Discovery of the Baltic: The Reception of a
Catholic World-System in the European North (1075–1225)”, published in 2005
by Brill’s of Leiden & Boston (782 pp), wherein many classical scholarly problems
are revisited. And, a new approach to the period’s narrative sources brings to life
Scandinavian, German, Russian, Finno–Ugrian and Balt attitudes and daily toils
in the midst of a change of epic dimensions.
Besides his work as a researcher, Nils Blomkvist has also been a highly
appreciated and valued teacher at Gotland University since its establishment
in 1998. A good bit of his lecturing time has of course been devoted to various
aspects of the Middle Ages, having developed courses such as “The long Middle
Ages”, “The Golden Age of Gotland” and “The Birth of Europe”. As with all
teachers working in smaller universities, Nils has however also taught in fields
outside of his speciality and has developed a particular interest in interdisciplinary
courses. His teaching has covered most historical periods, and he has supervised
the writing of many theses at all student levels while carrying out his share of the
university’s administrative burdens.
Now a selection of the papers that were presented at that occasion have been
converted into a Festschrift , including Nils Blomkvist’s own Högtidsföreläsning
(“festive lecture”), Peter of Dacia and the Urban Revolution, which he gave at
the closure of the conference. In 2010 Nils finally retired from his professorship
in medieval history at Gotland University. This anthology, together with the
conference that was its origin, is his colleagues’ way of honouring him at the
moment when he leaves us to manage on our own.
Finally, we want to address a special thanks to the society DBW (De Badande
Vännerna) and the Gotland University for their engagement and the financial
support that made the conference and this book possible.
Erika Sandström, Carina Johansson, Michael F. Scholz, Gotland University
Robert Bohn, Universität zu Flensburg