of young people chose to emigrate. By 1934 there were 16.346 Baltic Germans in Estonia, 1.5% of the total population. Estonia allowed German schools in German language, they were overseen by the Gesellschaft Deutsche Schulhilfe, which was part of the Union of German Societies in Estonia. After adoption of the Minority law of February 5, 1925 the Baltic German Cultural Council was created on November 1, 1925. In 1928, German schools were attended by 3,456 pupils. Latvia In Latvia, Baltic Germans remained a politically active and organized ethnic group, although they lost some influence after the 1934 Latvian coup d'état. A couple of times Germans received ministerial posts in coalition governments. Commander of Latvia's Navy between 1919 and 1931 was Admiral Archibald Count von Keyserling. Six, later seven, German parties existed and formed a coalition in the Saeima. The leading politicians were Baron Wilhelm Friedrich Karl von Fircks, leader of the Baltic-German People's Party and Paul Schiemann, editor in chief of the Rigasche Rundschau newspaper and leader of the Baltic-German Democratic Party. Increased activity of National Socialist supporters in the German community led to the resignation of Schiemann from the Rigasche Rundschau in 1933. Minority cultural affairs were overseen by the Ministry of Culture and the German section was led by pastor Karl Keller (1868–1939) and later by Dr. Wolfgang Wachtsmuth. In 1923, there were 12.168 pupils in German schools. The Herder Institute, a private German university with three faculties (Theology, Jurisprudence and Political Science and Philosophy) was established. In 1926, the German community introduced voluntary self-taxation, asking all Germans to contribute up to 3% of their monthly income to community activities. In 1928, the Baltic German National Community was established as the central representative body of Baltic Germans in Latvia. Educational autonomy of Germans was severely limited in 1931–1933, when the Minister of Education Atis Ķeniņš introduced a policy of latvianization in minority schools. On July 18, 1934 the autonomous German schools were brought under complete control of the Ministry of Education. After the May 15, 1934 coup all associations and independent business organizations had to shut down, this affected the German community especially hard, as they lost their ancient communal centers – guilds, and all of their property was nationalized. Then followed a wave of takeovers of Jewish, Russian and German businesses – banks, factories and trading companies were purchased by state owned banks at set rates in