Boris Pertel

Although born in St. Petersburg, Boris von Pertel was of Estonian descent. From 1907 he attended the Riga Polytechnic Institute, studying mechanical engineering. During this time he became acquainted with Latvian student shooters and joined the Āgenskalns Rifle Society (Hagensberger Schuetzengesellschaft zu Riga). In 1912 he competed in the individual trap event at the Stockholm Olympics. He did not complete his studies, being drafted to military service in World War I.

After the World War I he moved to Estonia. In 1930 he settled in Paide, his parents’ hometown, where he became a member of the city council. Although he had moved to Tallinn in 1935, he returned two years later and was re-elected. In 1933 he signed the draft radical authoritarian constitution prepared by the Estonian League of Freedom Fighters, which prepared the establishment of the regime of Konstantin Päts. In 1939 he left Estonia and was repatriated to Germany together with his wife Augusta Margarete Leontine (née Heldt), who came from a merchant family.