27 Veski Street (Photo: Robert Varik)

Karl August Hermann (TM F 134:8)

Veski 27

• The residence of the publicist Karl August Hermann.

Veski 27 and Karl August Hermann

Karl August Hermann (1851-1909), the man of music, language, and literature, bought the property on the plot of the current 27 Veski Street in 1892, from the director of the local German theatre. Back then the area had only recently been separated from Tähtvere Manor’s lands and it took many years before it expanded into what is currently known as the Tähtvere district.

Hermann’s home became an important meeting point for Tartu’s intelligentsia at the time, with a German-speaking and Russian-speaking cultural atmosphere prevalent in the city. As the lecturer of the Estonian language at the University of Tartu, and chief editor of the ‘Postimees’ newspaper, he was one of the most highly-regarded and important ringleaders of Estonian cultural life in the 1890s. 

Peeter Grünfeld, a writer and a contemporary of Hermann, remembers: ‘As an individual, Hermann was a very good man who occasionally invited the editorial staff into his home. He was a good violin player and his home was the gathering spot for all young Estonian students and intellectuals of the time. I am not exaggerating when I say that quite a few of our university-educated men have found their feet thanks to Hermann’s support.’