On 11 May 1835, according to the new style, Kārlis Baumanis, known as Baumaņu Kārlis, was born at the Indriķi half-manor in Viļķene, Valmiera county. He became a teacher, publicist, activist of the Young Latvians movement, and the first Latvian professional composer of original music. His “Dievs, svētī Latviju” first became a national song and later the national anthem of Latvia, turning a 19th-century song into a lasting symbol of statehood.

Baumaņu Kārlis worked at a time when the Young Latvians sought to prove that Latvians were a nation with their own language, culture, and political self-awareness. His songs and journalism helped the national awakening sound publicly, especially in the milieu of the Song Festival movement and Latvian intellectual circles in St. Petersburg.