The clergyman and man of letters August Johann Gottfried Bielenstein (Mitau/Jelgava 1826 – Mitau 1907) was an influential intellectual mediator in the traffic between Baltic Germans in Russia’s Baltic Provinces, Germany proper, and emerging Latvian intellectuals.

A theology graduate of Dorpat/Tartu (1850), Bielenstein’s philological works were initially intended to evangelize in the local language; he published practical language primers and church literature, and supervised the revised and modernized edition of the Bible in Latvian (1877). Other works targeted an international scholarly audience and for half a century served as the most important Latvian source for comparative Indo-European linguistics. Bielenstein’s linguistic method is close to that of August Friedrich Pott and August Schleicher; the first historical-dialect geography of Latvian was written in close cooperation with Königsberg Professor Adalbert Bezzenberger (Die Grenzen des lettischen Volkstammes und der lettischen Sprache in der Gegenwart und im 13. Jahrhundert, 1892). His efforts earned him honorary doctorates (in philology at Königsberg, 1883; in theology at Dorpat/Tartu) and corresponding membership of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg.

Bielenstein combined a conservative political stance with a Herderian belief in a unique Latvian nationality expressing itself in language, folklore (he published collections of folk songs, 1874-75, and riddles, 1881), and customs. Bielenstein also investigated place-names and participated in archeological excavations of castle mounds. His acquaintance with Adalbert Kuhn and his friendship with Wilhelm Mannhardt steered him towards Latvian mythology and “folk psychology”. For the 10th Pan-Russian Archeological Congress, held in Riga in 1896, Bielenstein mounted the first Latvian ethnographic exhibition, which formed the basis of the later national history museum. He was also involved in the first Latvian song festival in Courland (1870).

Bielenstein was a member (since 1853) and head (1864-95) of the influential Lettisch-Literarische Gesellschaft as well as honorary member of the Litauische Literarische Gesellschaft (in Tilsit), Gelehrte Estnische Gesellschaft (in Tartu), and Rīgas Latviešu biedrība (“Riga Latvian Society”, 1893).