Van der Bellen in Estonia: Child of Refugees Back in the Motherland of Parents

PeopleDiplomats ♦ Published: May 30, 2018; 16:43 ♦ (Vindobona)

Austrian Federal President Van der Bellen is on an official visit to the Estonian capital Tallinn. As a child of Russian-Estonian refugees born in Vienna, some melancholic emotions cannot be excluded.

According to an article by the Newspaper "Die Zeit", Van der Bellen has described himself as a child of refugees. / Picture: © Estonian and Austrian crossed flags by Vindobona

The grandparents of Van der Bellen, father, and uncles moved in 1919 from Pskov, which has been occupied by the Bolshevik Red Army, to newly independent Estonia, 20 kilometers away.

In 1931, Van der Bellen's divorced father married Estonian native Alma Siebold. He acquired naturalised Estonian citizenship in 1934. after Estonia was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1940, the Van…