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Klaipėda Region

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The Memelland (also German:Memelgebiet, also referred to as Memel Territory or Klaipėda Region) was for over five centuries a part of Prussia and the German Empire.

Following World War I and the Treaty of Versailles in 1920 it was put under the administration of the Council of Ambassadors and was occupied by French troops. The Memelland was seized by Lithuania in the Klaipėda Revolt of 1923. It was declared an autonomous province of Lithuania, yet martial law was set in effect from 1926 until March 1939 when it was returned to Germany. In all elections, German language Memellandish parties had received 75% or more of the vote, thus also Lithuanian people had voted for these.


Geography

Historical map of East Prussia and Memelland

The Memelland area which was separated from Prussia is located north of Memel river (Neman, Niemen Nemunas) up to the city of Memel (Klaipeda). It comprised three counties of Prussia, Landkreis Memel in the north, Landkreis Heydekrug in the south west, and Landkreis Pogegen in the south east, with Schmalleningken as the easternmost village.

After World War II the territory became a part of the Lithuanian SSR. It is today contained within Lithuania's Klaipėda County and Tauragė County, but not identical to these.

The river remained as southern border, since 1945 to Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast.


History

The area has historically been a part of various political entities:

After World War I

Lithuanian claims

In the Act of Tilsit of November 1918, some Lithuanians demanded that Lithuania Minor, a part of Prussia, shoud be made part of a united Lithuania. Apart from the similar name and the Lithuanians living there, access of Lithuania to the Baltic Sea was demanded. This was possible at Palanga were Lithuania had all year round ice free access to the Baltic Sea. They did not build a large harbour there, though, unlike Poland did at Gdingen (Gdynia).

Treaty of Versailles

By the Treaty of Versailles in February 1920, the part of former East Prussia north of the Niemen River up to the the town of Memel was separated from Germany. It was designated as the "Memel Territory" (Territoire de Memel, Memelland) and passed to an interim supervisor of the states of the Council of Ambassadors. The administration and control of the region was exercised by France.

In some regions that used to be parts of Germany, plebiscites were held, but not in areas were the results were expected to be in favour of German speaking population, like in Alsace-Lorraine, South Tyrol and also in the Memelland. Decisions about these regions were made without regard to the opinion of the population there.

The Revolt

In January 1923, several hundred Lithuanians, both from Lithuania and from the Memel Territory, staged a coup against the French administration, called the "Klaipėda Revolt".

On January 19 the rebels asked for admission into Lithuania as an autonomous territory (where the Memel Territory would have a separate parliament and government, two official languages, be the administrator of taxes, duties, cultural and religious affairs, would oversee the local judical system, agriculture and forestry, and social security). Lithuania accepted this, and thus the Memel Territory became an autonomous part of Lithuania.

Further events

The Council of Ambassadors accepted the status quo and made a bid for the significant autonomy for the region, homologated its incorporation to the Republic of Lithuania. On May 8, 1924 the Convention on the Klaipėda region confirmed the cession and an autonomy agreement was signed in Paris. It was recognized as an integral part of the Republic of Lithuania by Germany in January 29, 1928 (Lithuanian - German border treaty). Klaipeda Region however remained an autonomous region inside Lithuania and had a significant German population, also a significant population of people who chose to identify themselves as Klaipėdians during censuses (see demography information below). Both the Lithuanian and German languages were official in the Region.

Resistance of the population

However, during the 16 years of administration the government of Lithuania faced with hearty opposition of the autonomic institutions. Certainly, there was a complex of occasions for this opposition. Seemingly, the fundamental was a political conjuncture in interwar Europe itself, necessitated the revanchistic temperature, reasoned by the desire to regain to the Memelland in all conceivable measures, in the territories, isolated from Germany. Sixteen years later Lithuania, firstly leaned upon the contingent of Lithuanian descent, tried to integrate and lithuanize the region, regardless of the substantial cultural and religious differences. Meanwhile, the public organizations of region, especially those financially supported by Germany prosecuted the disintegration in their movement only. This interwar collision, reflected on a political, cultural and even religious plane, was an essential historical topicality of the period. It was perfectly imaged by an authoress of the region Ieva Simonaitytė, who in the 1930s earned fame when she wrote her first novel about the centuries-old German-Lithuanian relations in the region.

Nonetheless, Lithuania fully used the makings of Klaipėda port, modernized and adapted it to export its agricultural products. The port reconstruction was certainly the largest long-term investment project realized by the government of Lithuania. Lithuanian officials, one per two workers, took charge of the harbour authority, in disregard of the Memel statute which had appointed Mr. Kjel­strup of Norway. Most of Lithuanias export was transported via Königsberg or Libau, despite Lithuanian claims that the port of Memel was vital to its economy .

In 1934, activities of all German parties were banned, while parties which were connected to the German Nazi party had never been permitted in the first place. According to british lawyer Sir Alexander Lawrence, the trial of 126 Memelland citizens mainly was done as deterrence.

The so-called proceeding of Neumann and Sass in 1934–35 in Kaunas was presented as the first anti-Nazi trial in Europe. However, the leaders of pro-Nazi organizations were not arraigned for their pro-Nazi ideology but for their undesirable relations with Nazi Germany. On account of political and economical constraint of Germany in 1936–38 the most part of these leaders were unbound: by late 1938 Lithuania lost control over the situation in region already. On March 22, 1939, after a political blackmail of Germany, Lithuanian minister of foreign affairs Juozas Urbšys and his colleague Joachim von Ribbentrop signed the Treaty of cession of the Memel Territory to Germany. Germany troops did not wait for Lithuanian ratification.

Despite of pledge to overlook after Klaipėda and help maintain its position as autonomous part of Lithuania, the United Kingdom was not interested in helping Lithuania, and therefore the Seimas was forced to approve the treaty about the return of the Memelland which already had been signed.

World War II and later

18,000 Jews and Lithuanians, for fear of executions, all Lithuanian institutions and organizations deserted the region. From 1939–45 Memel was a part of the Third Reich again. It was a navy base and a fortress. The failed German invasion of USSR determined the fate of entire East Prussia. During 1944–45 all inhabitants of Klaipėda without distinction had to forsake their homeland and were drawn to Germany. From 1944-45 the former Klaipėda region became a part of Lithuanian SSR.

Demography

According to 1925 census (by subdivisions):

Area inhabitants local Lithuanians
and "Klaipėdians" 		local Germans other locals foreign citizens
City of Klaipėda / Memel Stadt 35,854 30.3% 57.2% 5.5% 7.0%
Klaipėdos apskritis / Landkreis Memel 30,409 73.4% 23.7% 0.8% 2.1%
Šilutės apskritis / Landkreis Heydekrug 36,404 55.6% 41.8% 0.1% 2.5%
Pagėgių apskritis / Landkreis Pogegen 38,987 47.5% 49.2% 0.2% 3.1%
All apskritys, excluding Klaipėda/Memel 105,804 57.8% 39.3% 0.3% 2.6%
All regions, including Klaipėda/Memel 141,640 50.8% 43.8% 1.6% 3.8%

Overall, Lithuanians were more rural than Germans; the part of Lithuanians in the city of Klaipėda itself increased over time due to urbanization and migration from villages into cities and later also from remaining Lithuania (in the city of Klaipėda, Lithuanian-speaking people made up 21.5% in 1912, 32.6% in 1925 and 38.7% in 1932*). *these percentages exclude foreign citizens living in Klaipėda; including foreign citizens would slightly lower the percentages

Foreign citizens might include some Germans, who opted for German citizenship instead of Lithuanian (although at the time German government pressured local Germans to take Lithuanian citizenship, so that German presence would remain).

There were more Lithuanians in the north of the region (Klaipėdos apskritis) and the south west (Šilutės apskritis) than in south east (Pagėgių apskritis). Other locals included people of other nationalities who had citizenship of Lithuania, such as Jews.

Ethnic groups 1925 census census
German 45.2% 41,9%
Memellandish 24.2% 27,1%
Lithuanian 26.5% 26,6%
other 4.1% 4,4%
Religion
Lutheran 95 % 95 %
other 5 % 5 %

Elections

Landtagswahlen: Elections for the diet of the Memelland which had 29 seats, one per 5,000 inhabitants. Men and women of age 24 could vote.

In each election, at least 75% of the votes were for parties that had German language names, yet they named themselves with Memelland or Memelgebiet (Memel territory), not German or of Germany, thus putting emphasis on the identity of their homeland, in contrast to the term "Klaipėda Region" which was used by officials from Lithuanian. Among the parties designated as Lithuanian were also supporters of autonomy (Lithuanian Autonomists).

MLP
Memelländische
Landwirtschaftspartei 		MVP
Memelländische
Volkspartei 		SPM
Sozialdemokratische
Partei des Memelgebietes 		KPM / AP
Kommunistische Partei
Arbeiterpartei
des Memelgebietes 		others LA-LVP
Lithuanian
Parties
1925-10-19 38,1% - 11 seats 36,9% - 11 seats 16,0% - 5 seats 9,0% - 2 seats
1927-08-30 33,6% - 10 seats 32,7% - 10 seats 10,1% - 3 seats 7,2% - 2 seats 13,6% - 4 seats
1930-10-10 31,8% - 10 seats 27,6% - 8 seats 13,8% - 4 seats 4,2% - 2 seats 22,7% - 5 seats
1932-05-04 37,1% - 11 seats 27,2% - 8 seats 7,8% - 2 seats 8,2% - 3 seats 19,7% - 5 seats
United German Slate Deutsche Einheitsliste Lithuanian Parties
1935-08-30 81,2% - 24 seats 18,8% - 5 Sitze
1938-12-11 87,2% - 25 seats 12,8% - 4 Sitze

The rest of the votes up to 100% were for parties that did not gain a seat

Party abbreviations:

  • MLP = Memelländische Landwirtschaftspartei (Memel Territory Farmers' Party, centrist)
  • MVP = Memelländische Volkspartei (Memel Territory People's Party, German nationalist)
  • SPM = Sozialdemokratische Partei des Memelgebietes (Social-Democratic Party of Memel Region)
  • AP = Arbeiterpartei (Workers' Party, communist)
  • LA-LVP = Litauische Autonomisten - Litauische Volkspartei (Lithuanian Autonomists - Lithuanian People's Party)
  • DEL = Deutsche Einheitsliste (German Unity List, est. 1935, coalition of MLP and MVP)

References

External links

See also

Categories: