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Kristupas Lekšas
Kristupas Lekšas (31 August 1872 – 30 March 1941) was a Prussian Lithuanian activist from Klaipėda Region. Born to a farmer's family in East Prussia, Lekšas completed only primary education. He joined Prussian Lithuanian political and cultural life. He campaigned for pro-Lithuanian candidates to the Landtag of Prussia and Reichstag of Germany and attempted to establish a political party in 1914. After World War I, he supported the unification of the Klaipėda Region with Lithuania. As a representative of the National Council of Lithuania Minor, he was coopted by the Council of Lithuania in March 1920. During the Klaipėda Revolt in January 1923, Lekšas became a member of the first pro-Lithuanian Directorate of the Klaipėda Region and was later elected to the Parliament of the Klaipėda Region until 1938. Lekšas supported and represented small farmers, and helped organizing a number of local farmers' associations. Lekšas wrote poetry and published it in various Lithua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East Prussia
East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's Free State of Prussia, until 1945. Its capital city was Königsberg (present-day Kaliningrad). East Prussia was the main part of the Prussia (region), region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Sea, Baltic Coast. The bulk of the ancestral lands of the Baltic Old Prussians were enclosed within East Prussia. During the 13th century, the native Prussians were conquered by the crusading Teutonic Knights. After the Northern Crusades, conquest the indigenous Balts were gradually converted to Christianity. Because of Germanization and colonisation over the following centuries, Germans became the dominant ethnic group, while Polish people, Poles and Lithuanians formed sizeable minorities. From the 13th century, the region of Prussia was part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birutė Society
The Birutė Society was the first cultural non-religious society of Prussian Lithuanians. Established in 1885 in Tilsit, East Prussia (present-day Sovetsk), the society was intermittently active until the outbreak of World War I. The society sought to preserve Lithuanian language and culture and protect them form Germanization. While it discussed linguistic and cultural subjects, the society never raised issues of social inequality or protested against the political regime of Kaiser Wilhelm II. The society prompted the division of Prussian Lithuanians into two main groups: religious conservative versus secular liberals. Birutė is best remembered for organizing festivals and celebrations that featured Lithuanian-language performances of various folk and patriotic songs as well as amateur theater performances, including the first Lithuanian-language theater performance in 1895. History Establishment and early activities The Lithuanian Literary Society was established in Tilsit in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1939 German Ultimatum To Lithuania
On 20 March 1939, Nazi Germany's foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop presented an oral ultimatum to Juozas Urbšys, foreign minister of Lithuania. Germany demanded that Lithuania give up the Klaipėda Region (also known as the Memel Territory) which had been detached from Germany after World War I, or the Wehrmacht would invade Lithuania and the '' de facto'' Lithuanian capital Kaunas would be bombed. The Lithuanians had been expecting the demand after years of rising tension between Lithuania and Germany, increasing pro-Nazi propaganda in the region, and continued German expansion. It was issued just five days after the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. The 1924 Klaipėda Convention had guaranteed the protection of the ''status quo'' in the region, but the four signatories to that convention did not offer any material assistance. The United Kingdom and France followed a policy of appeasement, while Italy and Japan openly supported Germany, and Lithuania accepted the ultim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evangelical Church Of The Old-Prussian Union
The Prussian Union of Churches (known under multiple other names) was a major Protestant church body which emerged in 1817 from a series of decrees by Frederick William III of Prussia that united both Lutheran and Reformed denominations in Prussia. Although not the first of its kind, the Prussian Union was the first to occur in a major German state. It became the biggest independent religious organization in the German Empire and later Weimar Germany, with about 18 million parishioners. The church underwent two schisms (one permanent since the 1830s, one temporary 1934–1948), due to changes in governments and their policies. After being the favoured state church of Prussia in the 19th century, it suffered interference and oppression at several times in the 20th century, including the persecution of many parishioners. In the 1920s, the Second Polish Republic and Lithuania, and in the 1950s to 1970s, East Germany, the People's Republic of Poland, and the Soviet Union, impos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Katyčiai
Katyčiai is a small town in Klaipėda County, in northwestern Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, 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, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P .... According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 526 people. References Towns in Lithuania Towns in Klaipėda County {{KlaipėdaCounty-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Šilutė
Šilutė (; previously ''Šilokarčiama''; ) is a city in the south of the Klaipėda County in western Lithuania. The city was part of the Klaipėda Region and ethnographic Lithuania Minor. Šilutė was the interwar period, interwar capital of Šilutė County and is currently the capital of Šilutė District Municipality. Name Šilutė's origin dates to an Public house#Inns, inn (Krug, locally ''karčema'') catering to travelers and their horses which was located halfway between Klaipėda and Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast, Tilsit (Tilžė). The German name of ''Heydekrug'' referred to a ''Krug'' (an archaic word for inn) in the ''Heide'' (heathland). The inn was known for being in the region where most people spoke the Memelland-Samogitian dialect ''Šilokarčema''. History A famous fish market was opened in Šilutė almost 500 years ago, when Georg Tallat purchased the inn together with the land and fishing rights in 1511. The town was a gathering place for peasants from nearby ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pagėgiai
Pagėgiai (, ) is a town in south-western Lithuania. It is located in the medieval region of Scalovia in the historic region of Lithuania Minor. It is the capital of Pagėgiai municipality, and as such it is part of Tauragė County. Name The name of the town literally means "at Gėgė" (: grove of alders, hay meadows, fields) and it is believed that the Gėgė river (also Gäge, Jäge) once flowed through the town. History The settlement dates back to the Middle Ages. In 1454, King Casimir IV Jagiellon incorporated the region to the Kingdom of Poland upon the request of the anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation. After the subsequent Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) the village was a part of Poland as a fief held by the Teutonic Knights, and thus was located within the Polish–Lithuanian union, later elevated into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. From the 18th century, it was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, and from 1871 it was also part of Germany, within which it was adm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lithuanian Riflemen's Union
The Lithuanian Riflemen's Union (LRU, ), also referred to as Šauliai (''the Riflemen''; from for ''rifleman''), is a paramilitary organization supported by the Government of Lithuania and regulated by the dedicated law. It is active in three main areas: military training, sport and culture. In Peace, peacetime, it prepares Lithuanians, Lithuanian citizens for armed and civil resistance as well as supports state institutions with volunteers during national emergencies. During the state of war, its armed formations fall under the direct command of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. History Establishment The Lithuanian Riflemen's Union was established in Kaunas on 27 June 1919 as a shooting section within the Lithuanian Sport Union. Several historic events determine its establishment – Lithuania had just declared independence and was asserting it in wars against the Bolshevik Red Army, the West Russian Volunteer Army and the young Polish Armed Forces. Vladas Putvinskis and Matas Š ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Act Of Tilsit
The Act of Tilsit () was an act, signed in Tilsit by 24 members of the National Council of Lithuania Minor () on 30 November 1918. Signatories demanded unification of Lithuania Minor and Lithuania Proper into a single Lithuanian state. This would mean detaching the northern areas of East Prussia, inhabited by Prussian Lithuanians, from the German Empire. The part of East Prussia north of Neman River, the Memel Territory up to the city of Memel (Klaipėda), was detached by Polish efforts by the Treaty of Versailles and placed under the supervision of the League of Nations. The rest of East Prussia, located south of the Neman River, including the town of Tilsit, where the act was signed, remained within Germany. The Act was not signed by the main pro-Lithuanian oriented Prussian Lithuanian leaders Wilhelm Storost and Wilhelm Gaigalat. The latter was elected as chairman of the Prussian Lithuanian Council, but refused to take the position. He was replaced by general secretary Erdmo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lithuania
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, 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, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, and the Russian exclave, semi-exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast to the southwest, with a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Sweden to the west. Lithuania covers an area of , with a population of 2.89 million. Its capital and largest city is Vilnius; other major cities include Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys. Lithuanians who are the titular nation and form the majority of the country's population, belong to the ethnolinguistic group of Balts and speak Lithuanian language, Lithuanian. For millennia, the southeastern shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Balts, Baltic tribes. In the 1230s, Lithuanian lands were united for the first time by Mindaugas, who formed the Kingdom of Lithuania on 6 July ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mandate Of The League Of Nations
A League of Nations mandate represented a legal status under international law for specific territories following World War I, involving the transfer of control from one nation to another. These mandates served as legal documents establishing the internationally agreed terms for administering the territory on behalf of the League of Nations. Combining elements of both a treaty and a constitution, these mandates contained minority rights clauses that provided for the rights of petition and adjudication by the Permanent Court of International Justice. The mandate system was established under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, entered into force on 28 June 1919. With the dissolution of the League of Nations after World War II, it was stipulated at the Yalta Conference that the remaining mandates should be placed under the trusteeship of the United Nations, subject to future discussions and formal agreements. Most of the remaining mandates of the League of Nat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
