The Memel People's Party or MVP (german: Memelländische Volkspartei, lt, Klaipėdos krašto tautos partija) was a pro-German

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

in the

Klaipėda Region The Klaipėda Region ( lt, Klaipėdos kraštas) or Memel Territory (german: Memelland or ''Memelgebiet'') was defined by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles in 1920 and refers to the northernmost part of the German province of East Prussia, when as ...

(Memel Territory), autonomous region of

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

, from 1925 to 1938. Together with the Memel Agricultural Party, the party was established on June 13, 1925, by the Memel Cultural Union (''Memelländischer Kultubund'') in preparation for the first elections to the local county councils and the

Parliament of the Klaipėda Region The Parliament of the Klaipėda Region (''Chamber of Representatives of the Memel Territory'', lt, Seimelis) was the parliament of the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory), an autonomous region of Lithuania. The parliament was established by the ...

. The party leaders were Joseph Kraus, Richard Meyer, Robert Grabow. MVP represented mainly industrialists, merchants, craftsmen, clerks, city dwellers. The party received funding from Germany and was able to provide no-interest loans to its members, gaining significant influence in the region. MVP published newspaper ''Memeler Dampfboot''. In May 1926, the party won two seats (out of 85) in the

Third Seimas of Lithuania The Third Seimas of Lithuania was the third parliament (Seimas) democratically elected in Lithuania after it declared independence on February 16, 1918. The elections took place on May 8–10, 1926. For the first time the Lithuanian Christian ...

(representatives Robert Grabow and Max Jackstaidt). After the Nazi seizure of power in Germany in 1933, MVP lost its funding from Germany and began losing its members to the pro-Nazi Socialist National Community (''Sozialistische Volksgemeinschaft'' or SOVOG) and Christian-Socialist Workers Community (''Christlich-Sozialistische Arbeitsgemeinschaft'' or CSA). Some of the MVP activists retreated to Germany, others were arrested and tried for their anti-Lithuanian activities in the

Neumann–Sass case The trial of Neumann and Sass ( lt, Noimano-Zaso teismo procesas; german: Neumann-Sass-Kriegsgerichtsprozess) was the first and largest mass trial of Nazis in the early 1930s. The trial resulted in the convictions of the leaders of regional Nazi ...

. The weakened party ran in later elections under the unified German list (''Memelländische Einheitsliste'' in 1935 and ''Memeldeutsche Einheitsliste'' in 1938). Its activities largely ceased of the 1938 elections.

Election results

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite encyclopedia, last=Gliožaitis , first=Algirdas Antanas , title=Memelländische Volkspartei , encyclopedia=Mažosios Lietuvos enciklopedija , publisher=Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas , location=Vilnius , year=2006 , volume=3 , pages=61–62 , isbn=5-420-01470-X, language=lt Political parties in the Memel Territory Political parties established in 1925 Political parties disestablished in 1938