Historical speech by Jakob Hurt

n his speech given at the First Song Celebration in Tartu on June 19, 1869, Jakob Hurt, a young church minister, collector of Estonian folklore, and one of the leaders of the Estonian national awakening, made three calls: to remain loyal to our nation, to develop the nation’s sense of unity through joint actions, and to promote education in the mother tongue. Although Hurt had to cut his speech by a third due to torrential rain, and the paper suffered water damage, his thoughts
still reached the crowd. The ideas and calls delivered in his speech became the building blocks and guidelines for the Estonian national ideology.

In the same speech, Hurt spoke at length about the need to create an Estonian-language high school. The discussions of the committee of the initiative, known as the Alexander-School movement, have been considered the beginning of the Estonian parliamentarism

Location: The Song Celebration Museum