The Parliament of the Klaipėda Region (Chamber of Representatives of the Memel Territory, Lithuanian : Seimelis) was the parliament of the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory), an autonomous region of Lithuania. The parliament was established by the Klaipėda Convention of 1924 and the first elections took place in October 1925.
According to the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory) was detached from East Prussia, German Empire, and placed under temporary administration of the League of Nations. After the Klaipėda Revolt in January 1923, the region was transferred to Lithuania on condition that it would abide by the Klaipėda Convention, signed in May 1924 and fully effective in August 1925. [1] The Convention included the Statute of the Klaipėda Region, which described region's legislative, judicial, administrative, and financial autonomy. The Convention also established the framework of the autonomous institutions – the local parliament and the Klaipėda Directorate (executive branch). The parliament was to be democratically elected for three-year terms by the local inhabitants in the proportion of one representative per 5,000 residents. [2] The parliament confirmed and dismissed the Directorate, appointed by the Governor. The Directorate and the Lithuanian-appointed Governor could dismiss the parliament; in such a case, the new elections had to be called within six weeks. The Governor could veto laws passed by the parliament, but only if they violated the Convention, Constitution of Lithuania, or other international agreements. [2] Of the 165 laws passed between 1925 and 1938, 62 were vetoed. [3] The parliament was in charge of region's education, religious affairs, public health and welfare, local infrastructure, civil, criminal, and economic legislature, finances, court organization, etc. [4]
In all elections 29 representatives were elected, and pro-German parties won a clear supermajority. The pro-German parliament often clashed with the more pro-Lithuanian Directorate. The first three parliaments were dismissed by the Directorate and the Governor. [3] In the 1932 case, the Permanent Court of International Justice ruled that the Lithuanians erred in dismissing the third parliament. After the crisis surrounding the trial of the Nazi activists, the 1935 election was postponed by the Lithuanians beyond the six-week period allowed by the Convention in hopes to build a pro-Lithuanian momentum. [5] The election law was also changed – the voters now had to submit 29 separate ballots for each individual they preferred, rather than a single ballot for a party. The German parties submitted a single unified list, while Lithuanian parties presented six. [5] The parliament was disbanded after the ultimatum of March 1939 and subsequent Nazi German takeover of the region.
| Name | Period | Party |
|---|---|---|
| Joseph Kraus | 1925–1927 | Memel People's Party |
| Konrad von Dressler | 1927–1935 | Memel Agricultural Party |
| August Baldszus | 1935 | Unified German list |
| Christoph Dietschmons | (1936-1938) [6] [7] | Unified German list |
| Election date | Total | Lithuanian Parties | Memel Agricultural Party | Memel People's Party | Social Democratic Party of the Memel Territory | Memel Workers Party | Other | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | Turnout | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | |
| 1925-10-19 | 62,517 | 83.5% | 3,761 | 6.0% | 2 | 23,824 | 38.1% | 11 | 23,082 | 36.9% | 11 | 10,010 | 16.0% | 5 | 1,564 | 2.5% | – | 276 | 0.4% | – |
| 1927-08-30 | 54,746 | 7,311 | 13.4% | 4 | 18,776 | 34.3% | 10 | 17,636 | 32.2% | 10 | 5,712 | 10.4% | 3 | 3,844 | 7.0% | 2 | 1,467 | 2.7% | – | |
| 1930-10-10 | 49,630 | 8,817 | 17.8% | 5 | 15,810 | 31.8% | 10 | 13,709 | 27.6% | 8 | 6,780 | 13.7% | 4 | 2,062 | 4.2% | 2 | 2,452 | 4.9% | – | |
| 1932-05-04 | 65,767 | 11,968 | 18.2% | 5 | 24,468 | 37.2% | 11 | 17,930 | 27.3% | 8 | 5,104 | 7.7% | 2 | 5,401 | 8.2% | 3 | 896 | 1.4% | – | |
| Lithuanian lists | Unified German list [nb 1] | Part of the German list | None | |||||||||||||||||
| 1935-09-29 | 1,962,061 | 91.3% | 369,457 | 18.3% | 5 | 1,592,604 | 81.7% | 24 | ||||||||||||
| 1938-12-11 | 2,095,206 | 96% | 268,585 | 12.8% | 4 | 1,826,621 | 87.2% | 25 | ||||||||||||
Main source: Žostautaitė, Petronėlė (1992). Klaipėdos kraštas: 1923-1939 (in Lithuanian). Mokslas. pp. 70–71. ISBN 978-5-420-00724-2.
Klaipėda is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. It is the third largest city in Lithuania, the fifth largest city in the Baltic States and the capital of Klaipėda County, as well as the only major seaport in the country.
The Klaipėda Revolt took place in January 1923 in the Klaipėda Region. The region, located north of the Neman River, was detached from East Prussia, German Empire by the Treaty of Versailles and became a mandate of the League of Nations. It was placed under provisional French administration until a more permanent solution could be worked out. Lithuania wanted to unite with the region due to its large Lithuanian-speaking population of Prussian Lithuanians and major port of Klaipėda (Memel) – the only viable access to the Baltic Sea for Lithuania. As the Conference of Ambassadors favoured leaving the region as a free city, similar to the Free City of Danzig, the Lithuanians organized and staged a revolt.
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.
Hermann von Wartberge was a chronicler of the Livonian Order. Born in Westphalia, Wartberge was a Catholic priest and author of the valuable Latin chronicle Chronicon Livoniale covering the history of the Livonian Crusade from 1196 to 1378. Wartberge used previous chronicles, archival documents, and personal experiences. As the narrative became more detailed around 1358, it is believed that Wartberge joined the Order around the time and began describing the events as an eyewitness. For example, in 1366 he was sent on a diplomatic mission to Gdańsk (Danzig) and took part in numerous military campaigns against the pagan Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Wartberge provided extensive details on localities of the frequent raids and on construction of Livonian fortresses. The chronicle was preserved in the State Archives in Gdańsk and was first published in 1863 by Ernst Strehlke in Scriptores Rerum Prussicarum. Translations into Lithuanian and Latvian were published in 1991 and 2005.
The Klaipėda Convention was an international agreement between Lithuania and the countries of the Conference of Ambassadors signed in Paris on May 8, 1924. According to the convention, the Klaipėda Region became an autonomous region under unconditional sovereignty of Lithuania.
Erdmonas Simonaitis was a Prussian Lithuanian activist particularly active in the Klaipėda Region and advocating its union with Lithuania. During the staged Klaipėda Revolt of 1923, he headed the pro-Lithuanian government of the region. For his anti-German activities, he was persecuted by the Nazis during World War II. He survived the Mauthausen-Gusen and Dachau concentration camps. After the war he remained in Germany and rejoined various Lithuanian organizations. He was awarded the Order of Vytautas the Great and Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas.
The Directorate of the Klaipėda Region was the main governing institution in the Klaipėda Region from February 1920 to March 1939. It was established by local German political parties to govern the region between the signing of the Treaty of Versailles and establishment of French provision administration. Instead of replacing it, the French legitimized the Directorate. It mainly represented German interests and supported the idea of leaving the region as a free city, similar to the Free City of Danzig. Dismayed Lithuanian government and Prussian Lithuanian activists, who campaigned for incorporation into Lithuania, organized the Klaipėda Revolt in January 1923. The revolt was staged as a popular uprising against the unbearable oppression by the German Directorate. The revolt was successful and the region was incorporated into Lithuania as an autonomous region, governed by the Klaipėda Convention of May 1924.
The Memel People's Party or MVP was a pro-German political party in the Klaipėda Region, autonomous region of Lithuania, from 1925 to 1938. Together with the Memel Agricultural 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 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 in the Third Seimas of Lithuania. 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 and Christian-Socialist Workers Community. Some of the MVP activists retreated to Germany, others were arrested and tried for their anti-Lithuanian activities in the Neumann–Sass case. The weakened party ran in later elections under the unified German list. Its activities largely ceased of the 1938 elections.
The Lietuwißka Ceitunga was an influential Lithuanian-language newspaper published for Prussian Lithuanians, an ethnic minority of East Prussia, a province of the German Empire. It was established in 1877 by Martynas Šernius and Heinrich Holz in Klaipėda (Memel) and continued to be published until September 30, 1940.
Die Littauischen Wegeberichte is a compilation of 100 routes into the western Grand Duchy of Lithuania prepared by the Teutonic Knights in 1384–1402. The Knights waged the Lithuanian Crusade to convert pagan Lithuanians into Christianity since the 1280s. The crusade was characterized with frequent raids into the enemy territory to loot and pillage. Since Lithuania lacked a developed road network, local Lithuanian and Prussian scouts would describe and document the best and most effective routes for the military raids into Lithuania.
The Battle of Memel was fought between the Samogitians and the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Knights in 1323.
Wilhelm "Willi" Bertuleit was a Prussian Lithuanian active in the Klaipėda Region (Memelland). He supported Nazi Germany and its attempts to retake the region from Lithuania. He was a member of the NSDAP and SA. He was killed in action serving in the Wehrmacht in the Eastern Front.
Jonas Smalakys (1835–1901) was a Prussian Lithuanian landowner, soldier, and the first Prussian Lithuanian to be elected to the Reichstag.
The Lithuanian Conservative Election Societies were several loosely connected political societies of Prussian Lithuanians active from 1890 to the German Revolution of 1918–19. They sought to elect Prussian Lithuanians to the German Reichstag and Prussian Landtag and to defend the use of the Lithuanian language. The societies managed to get two representatives to the Reichstag and two to the Landtag. It is sometimes described as the first Lithuanian political party.
Dovas Zaunius (1845–1921) was a Prussian Lithuanian cultural and political activist.
Nusidavimai apie evangelijos prasiplatinimą tarp žydų ir pagonių was the second Lithuanian-language periodical. It was published from 1832 to August 1914 in Königsberg, East Prussia, by the Evangelical Missionary Society of Königsberg and mainly reported on Evangelical missions in Asia, Africa, South America. It was discontinued due to the outbreak of World War I.
Bitėnai is a small village in the Pagėgiai Municipality, in western Lithuania. According to the 2011 census, it had population of 76, a decline from 119 in 2001. It is situated along the Neman River near the Rambynas hill and is known as the location of the Martynas Jankus printing press. Jankus Museum and the visitors' center of the Rambynas Regional Park are located in the village.
Dovas Zaunius was a Lithuanian lawyer, politician and diplomat who served as Ambassador to Switzerland from 1925 until 1927 and Lithuanian Foreign Minister from 1929 to 1934.
The trial of Neumann and Sass, also known as the Kaunas Trials, was the among largest mass trials of Nazis in the early 1930s. The trial resulted in the convictions of the leaders of regional Nazi parties, Theodor von Sass, Ernst Neumann and other party members for their activity in the Klaipėda Region.
The Union of Christian Socialist Workers of the Memel Region or CSA was a far-right Nazi party in the Klaipėda Region.