estonia‘s hobby army

In his normal life, Silver Niinemets plays the trumpet in the opera of Tallinn. But once a month, the 23-year-old musician trains for war - as do 26,000 other Estonians. They fear for their freedom, they say. Kaitseliit is a voluntary paramilitary organization that is historically deeply intertwined with Estonia's Soviet and Nazi occupation.

This series is part of a four-part multimedia series on EU’s Eastern borderlands published by Der Spiegel, produced in collaboration with Bartholomäus von Laffert and Moritz Richter.