Courlandians are the people who once lived around the Curonian lagoon (there are still low numbers of some old Courlandians remaining, but they are almost died out), especially in the Curonian spit. They were primarilly fisherman. Frequently they are considered to be Latvians and that was the reason for Latvian claims over Curonian spit, Memel and some other territories of East Prussia immidietly after it regained independence from Russia after the World War 1. Later these claims were removed however. Curonian Spit map The Curonian Spit (Lit. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... East Prussia (German: Ostpreu en; Polish: Prusy Wschodnie; Russian: Восточная Пруссия — Vostochnaya Prussiya) was a province of Kingdom of Prussia, situated on the territory of former Ducal Prussia. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...
Courlandians might also mean anybody originating from Courland. Estonia, Livonia and Courland from a 1740 map Courland (Latvian: Kurzeme, German: Kurland, Polish: Kurlandia, Latin: Curonia / Couronia) is a historical Baltic province now part of Latvia. ...
Curonian spit and some villages in the east of the Curonian lagoon as well as ones on the coast of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by the Courlandians.
Thus the Lithuanian-speaking areas gradually became Germanised due to the migration of wealthy Germans from other parts of the country into the Lithuanian areas and the fact that the German language was perceived to be more prestigious than Lithuanian.
In the 18th century Germans already made a majority of population in the southwest of what is now Kaliningrad Oblast and significant minorities in the other parts of the area as well.
Courlandian and Semgalian farmers generally sold fresh milk to the Hebrews for two or three silver kopecks per stops (a measure of volume which equals 1.275 liters).
This helps to explain why the military structures of Kurzeme as far back as in the days of the duchy took on the role of protecting the Hebrew minority with tolerance and even sympathy, in spite of existing law - a situation which was not duplicated elsewhere in the Baltic region.
In fact, the atypically tolerant attitude of the Courlandians, given the centuries old and strongly respected negative attitude toward the Hebrews which was prevalent elsewhere in Europe, earned them the sobriquet of "kings of the Jews" in one account /24/.
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