Young Latvians (Latvian: jaunlatvieši) is the term most often applied to the intellectuals of the first Latvian National Awakening (Latvian: tautas atmoda), active from the 1850s to the 1880s. "Jaunlatvieši" is also sometimes translated as "New Latvians," but "Young Latvians" is the more accurate term because it was modeled on the Young Germany (German: Junges Deutschland) movement led by Heinrich Heine. Originally a derogatory epithet applied to these nationalist intellectuals by their mostly Baltic German opponents, the term "Young Latvia" (German: "ein junges Lettland") was first used by Gustav Wilhelm Sigmund Brasche, the pastor of Nīca, in a review of Juris Alunāns' Dziesmiņas latviešu valodai pārtulkotas ("Little Songs Translated for the Latvian Language") in the newspaper Das Inland in 1856. Asking who could appreciate such literature in Latvian (Alunāns' book was the first major translation of classic foreign poetry into Latvian), Brasche warned that those daring to dream of "a Young Latvia" would meet the tragic fate of the boatman in Heine's poem "Die Lorelei," a translation of which appeared in Alunāns' anthology. The Young Latvians were also sometimes known as "Lettophiles" or "tautībnieki" ("ethnicists").
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Famous quotes containing the word young:
“We try to go back. You know I’ll probably die just a few miles from where I drew my first breath. That would have seemed like a horrible prospect to me, back when I was young and ambitious and gonna set the world on fire. But there’s comfort in knowing you’re gonna go full circle, end up where you started out. I’ve said before that I want to live my last days where folks know when you’re sick and care when you die.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)