George Waschkies

Last updated
George Waschkies
Member of the Lithuanian Parliament
for Klaipėda Region
In office
1926–1927
Personal details
Born(1875-08-22)August 22, 1875
Ußlöknen, Province of Prussia, German Empire
Died April 26, 1954(1954-04-26) (aged 78)
Bremen, West Germany
Resting place Bremen-Lesum chapel
53°10′18″N8°41′27″E / 53.17167°N 8.69083°E / 53.17167; 8.69083
Political party Memel Agricultural Party
Occupation Farmer
Military service
Years of service 1897–1900
Unit 12th Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment, Imperial Germany Army

George Waschkies (Lithuanian : Jurgis Vaškys, August 22, 1875 – April 26, 1954) was an ethnic German politician in Lithuania. Waschkies was a farmer from Ußlöknen, East Prussia, who represented the Memel Agricultural Party in the Lithuanian parliament for a short stint in 1926–27.

Lithuanian language language spoken in Lithuania

Lithuanian is a Baltic language spoken in the Baltic region. It is the language of Lithuanians and the official language of Lithuania as well as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.9 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 200,000 abroad.

East Prussia province of Prussia

East Prussia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 ; following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's Free State of Prussia, until 1945. Its capital city was Königsberg. East Prussia was the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast.

Memel Agricultural Party or MLP was the largest and most influential pro-German political party in the Klaipėda Region from 1925 to 1934. Leaders of the party were Heinrich Conrad, Konrad von Dressler and James Gubba. Together with the Memel People's Party, the party was established on June 13, 1925, by the Memel Cultural Union in preparation for the first elections to the local county councils and the Parliament of the Klaipėda Region. The party represented farmers, war veterans, fishermen, and some clerks. It published Memel Rundschau, Lietuviška ceitunga, Memeler Dampfboot and controlled several agricultural and credit institutions, including Agraria, Landschaftsbank, Vereinsbank, and Raiffeisenbank. MLP was able to offer discounts to its members and thus gained significant influence in the region. In May 1926, the party won three seats in the Third Seimas of Lithuania. After the Nazi seizure of power in Germany in 1933, MLP became increasingly right-wing and encouraged its members to join the pro-Nazi Socialist National Community. For their anti-Lithuanian activities SOVOG and MLP were outlawed in 1934. Some of MLP members were arrested and tried in the Neumann–Sass case. The party ceased its activities; its former members ran in later elections under the unified German list.

Contents

Youth

Waschkies was born on August 22, 1875, in Ußlöknen (Užliekniai  (lt )). [1] He attended school in his home village and worked at his father's farm following his confirmation. [1] [2] Waschkies did military service 1897–1900 in the 12th Lithuanian Uhlan Regiment  (de ). [1] [2] Waschkies took over the family farm after his father's death in 1903, but had to sell the property soon thereafter. [2] He married in 1904 and moved to his wife's town of Blausden (Blauzdžiai). [1] [2] The couple had 14 children; as of 1927 eleven were alive. [2]

Career

Waschkies was one of the founders of the Wießen (Vyžiai  (lt )) Credit Association in 1907. [1] In 1912 he was named director of the association. [1] In January 1916 he was named juror, and in 1917 he was named church warden. [1] In 1919 he became a member of the Heydekrug town council and in 1924 a member of the town board. [1] In 1919 he took charge as parish superintendent in Wießen and in July 1925 he became a parish council member. [1]

Šilutė City in Lithuania Minor, Lithuania

Šilutė (also known as Heydekrug) is a city in the south of the Klaipėda County, Lithuania. The city was part of the Klaipėda Region and ethnographic Lithuania Minor. Šilutė was the interwar capital of Šilutė County and is currently the capital of Šilutė District Municipality.

Waschkies was elected to the Third Seimas of Lithuania in the June 1926 parliamentary election as a Memel Agricultural Party candidate in the Klaipėda Region constituency. [1] The Seimas was dismissed in April 1927. [1]

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 Democratic Party were forced to remain in opposition. The coalition government made some unpopular decisions and was sharply criticized. Regular Seimas work was interrupted by a military coup d'état in December 1926 when the democratically elected government was replaced with the authoritarian government of Antanas Smetona and Augustinas Voldemaras. The Third Seimas was dissolved on March 12, 1927 and new elections were not called until 1936.

Klaipėda Region Area of East Prussia

The Klaipėda Region or Memel Territory was defined by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles in 1920 and refers to the most northern part of the German province of East Prussia, when as Memelland it was put under the administration of the Entente's Council of Ambassadors. The Memel Territory, together with other areas severed from Germany was to remain under the control of the League of Nations until a future day when the people of these regions would be allowed to vote on whether the land would return to Germany or not. Today, the former Memel Territory is controlled by Lithuania, who has organized it into the Klaipeda, Taurage, Marijampole, and Alytus counties.

He was a member of the Parliament of the Klaipėda Region 1932–1934. [1] On July 26, 1934 he took charge as acting vice speaker of the assembly. [1] He was removed from the assembly in August 1934. [1] His seat was left vacant. [3] In September 1935, during the local elections, 14 men, including Waschkies, attacked the election officials and smashed the ballot box in Juknaičiai  (lt ). [4] On October 13, 1936, the appeal court found the men guilty and sentenced Waschkies to 11 months imprisonment. [5] [6]

The Parliament of the Klaipėda Region was the parliament of the Klaipėda Region, an autonomous region of Lithuania. The parliament was established by the Klaipėda Convention of 1924 and the first elections took place in October 1925. In all elections pro-German parties received more than 80% of the vote. The major parties included the Memel Agricultural Party, Memel People's Party, and Social Democratic Party of the Memel Territory. The pro-German parliament often clashed with the pro-Lithuanian Klaipėda Directorate and the first three parliaments were dismissed before the end of their full three-year term. The parliament was disbanded after the ultimatum of March 1939 and subsequent Nazi German takeover of the region.

World War II and later period

Waschkies became a member of the NSDAP or Nazi Party on April 1, 1939. [1] He was a member of the Wiesenheide local unit of the party. [1] After the war he moved to Bremen, where he died on April 26, 1954. [1] He was buried at Bremen-Lesum chapel on April 30, 1954. [7]

Nazi Party Fascist political party in Germany (1920-1945)

The National Socialist German Workers' Party, commonly referred to in English as the Nazi Party, was a far-right political party in Germany that was active between 1920 and 1945, that created and supported the ideology of National Socialism. Its precursor, the German Workers' Party, existed from 1919 to 1920.

Bremen Place in Germany

The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany, which belongs to the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, a federal state of Germany.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Mads Ole Balling (1991). Von Reval bis Bukarest: Einleitung, Systematik, Quellen und Methoden, Estland, Lettland, Litauen, Polen, Tschechoslowakei. Dokumentation Verlag. p. 171. ISBN   978-87-983829-3-5.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Fritz Wertheimer (1927). Von deutschen Parteien und Parteiführern im Ausland. Zentral-Verlag. p. 85.
  3. ↑ Mads Ole Balling (1991). Von Reval bis Bukarest: Ungarn, Jugoslawien, Rumänien, Slowakei, Karpatenukraine, Kroatien, Memelländischer Landtag, Schlesischer Landtag, komparative Analyse, Quellen und Literatur, Register. Dokumentation Verlag. p. 724. ISBN   978-87-983829-5-9.
  4. ↑ "Įvairios žinios". Trimitas (in Lithuanian). 42: 1010. October 19, 1936.
  5. ↑ Europa Ethnica. W. Braumüller. 1937. p. 149.
  6. ↑ "Kas nauja Lietuvoje". Karys (in Lithuanian). 43 (918): 1098. October 26, 1936.
  7. ↑ Das Ostpreussenblatt. May 8, 1954
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