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Identiteto raida. Istorija ir dabartis

Vygantas Vareikis Memellander/Klaipėdiškiai Identity and German­ Lithuanian Relations in Minor in the Nine­ teenth and Twentieth centuries

Santrauka

XXa. lietuviųistoriografijoje retai svarstytiKl.aipėdos krašto gyventojų(klaipėdiškių/memelende rių), turėjusių dvigubą, panašų į elzasiečių, identitetą klausimai. Paprastai šioji grnpėtapatinama su lietuviais, o klaipėdiškių identiteto reiškinys, jų politinė orientacijaXX a. pirmojepusėje aiškinami kaip aktyvios vokietinimo politikos bei lietuvių tautinės sąmonės silpnumo padariniai. Straipsnyje nagrinėjami klausimai: kaipPrūsijoje (Vokietijoje) gyvenęlietuviai, išlaikydamikalbą ir identiteto savarankiškumą, vykstant akultūracijai, perėmė vokiečių kultūros vertybes ir socialines konvencijas; kokie politiniai veiksniai formavo Prūsijos lietuvių identitetą ir kaip skirtingas Prūsijos (ir Klaipėdos krašto) lietuviškumas veikė Didžiosios Lietuvos lietuvių pažiūras.

l.

The history of Lithuania and Lithuania Living in a German state the Mažlietuvis was Minor began to follow divergent courses when, naturally prevailed upon to integrate into state during the Middle Ages, the Teutonic political life and naturally became bilingual in conquered the tribes that dwelt on the eastern German and Lithuanian. Especially after the shores of the . living in industrialisation and modernization of the lands governed by the Order and then by the Mažlietuvis was bilingual. This bilingualism the dukes of Prussia (after 1525) were strongly is a constant characteristic to the end of affectedby , lifestyle and cul­ War Two, when Zero Hour changed the ture. The acculturation process increased dur­ demographic and geopolitical situation in the ing and following the . Gradually easternBaltic . Many Lithuanian inhab­ the Prussian Lithuanian adopted German cul­ itants of Lithuania Minor found it difficult to tural values and social conventions whilst retain­ answer the question: "what is your native ing a separate identity and the Lithuanian lan­ tongue, German or Lithuanian"? In the second guage. What factors, then, formedthe Prussian half of the as a result of Bismarck's Lithuanian and what effect did the differenti­ Kulturkampf, German came to dominate ­ ated Prussian and Klaipėda Region Lithuanicity lic life according to national law and Lithuanian have on the national consciousness of those liv­ began to be pushed out of Prussian schools. ing inside the Grand Duchy of Lithuania Thus it is no surprise that German entered the ( Greater Lithuania, Didžioji Lietuva)? daily life of the ethnically Lithuanian family The Mažlietuvis was formedunder many primarily through the influence of the school­ years of political allegiance to German Prussia. room, when returnedfrom their classes

54 Identiteto raida. Istorija ir dabartis

to speak plattdeutsch with their parents. By 1900 lawed, and thus little by little he came to regard Lithuanian pupils usually spoke German. Ac­ himself mare as Polish. cording to official statistics in 1871 , fromthe 18th century, had Lithuanians led other imperial national minori­ been stronger as a cultural medium in Lithuania ties in the table of who spoke good German: than in .In contrast to the Latinized no­ 45% of Lithuanian schoolchildren spoke Ger­ bility of the Polish Kingdom, the nobility of the man well, as opposed to 32% of Moravians, 9% Grand Duchy of Lithuania had the Polish lan­ of wallons, 16% of in Western guage as a means of setting themselves apart Prussia, 17% of , 32% of . The best from the Lithuanian or Ruthenian peasantry. figures were achieved by Dutch schoolchildren Under the Polish became a (99% )1, but Dutch is of the same linguistic fam­ forcefor unity, it united the nobility with ily as German, which is distinctly separate from peasantry, pushing them together towards a the Baltic Group. These statistics reveal not that common cultural heritage. The Polish language Lithuanians are mare linguistically capable but became an essential touchstone for the Polish that their degree of acculturation was higher, nationality. In the phrase of the Polish paet their ethnic consciousness lower that those of Julian Tuwim's (1894-1953) it was their Czechs, Poles and those Lithuanians dwelling "Ojczyzna-Polszcyzna" (Their Motherland and in the Grand Duchy, then part of the Russian their Polish Essence ).2 For the Lithuanian peas­ Empire. The national movement that took root antry of the Grand Duchy too language became in the Grand Duchy in the second half of the synonymous with the idea of motherland, not 19th century was essentially an ethno-linguistic merely by association but it also naturally be­ movement devoted to the preservation of the came the touchstone of the newly emerging . Following the failed Up­ modern Lithuanian identity. In the Grand rising of 1863 the imperial prohibition of books Duchy in second half of the nineteenth century printed with characters in the Russian to speak Lithuanian was to pronounce one's Empire encouraged the illegal publication and ethnic national identity as separate from the distribution of Lithuanian texts in eastern Poles. Czeslaw Milosz characterises the Prussia. Lithuanians as a people born of philology. The practical centre of national revival was Lithuania 2. Minor, although the revivalist ideas that strengthened Lithuanian identity culturally and, Polish aspirations and opposition to Ger­ after 1918, politically, had no echo in Lithuania man language and the influence of German in Minor. Western Prussia was also conditioned in part The Lithuanian language and its preser­ by reaction to Bismarck's legislation towards the vation were not such pressing problems in and Polish Minority. This Lithuania Minor as in the Grand Duchy where policy led Polish villagers to forma Polonische language expressed common identity and was Wirtschaft to counter the influence of the de­ the one real element uniting the nation. ln polonised nobility which Bismarck attempted Lithuania Minor Lithuanians was drawn into to exploit. The Polish peasant may well have bilingualism. This social stratum was dominated remained faithful to the Kaiser if his religion by blent with Lithuanian had not been persecuted and his language aut- loanwords. In the words of Eduard Gisevius the

55 Identiteto raida. Istorija ir dabartis

lietuvininkai spoke "a motley blend of guage, mythologising and politicising its essence Lithuanian and German". so as to provide a weapon to fight the "alien" German was a natural means of commu­ Polish tongue. To a Lithuanian subject of the nication in the linguistically diverse Baltic re­ Kaiser living in eastern Prussia German was not gion fromthe days of the Hanse. Low German an alien tongue and he did not need to stress to was linguafranca in Baltic, David Kirby write, heavily language in his claim to be homo the language of commerce and , and lituanicus as did his cousins in the Grand Duchy. on occasion of diplomacy. It was also the lan­ This provides us with a clear example of the dif­ guage of a colonising ruling class. The influxof ference between Lithuanians on either side of settlers from Germany into the eastern Baltic the Nemunas River. The Lithuanians of east­ lands was weaker than in the southern Baltic ern Prussia were connected with Lithuanians and the rigid exclusivity of the German urban across the Nemunas by a passive language rather upper classes and the landowners placed ­ than an active national revival mythology.5 s tacl es in the way of any wholesale of the native population. 3 Tuose 4. who did not speak German became excluded frommany activities. Other languages were little In the Klaipėda Region which between spoken in Lithuania Minor. There were not 1924 and 1939 was an autonomous region of many in the and contact with them the Lithuanian , bilingualism was natu­ took place at a commercial rather than a cul­ ral. Language inthe Lithuania Minor was a very tural . flexible means of communication, with speak­ In the Grand Duchy, the westerngubernias ers moving easily fromone language to another. of the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th A microcosm of this situation can still be found century Lithuanian was peripheral in the when after a long period of separation two eld­ polyethnic, multicultural that were home erly Memelland matrons, one fromLithuania, to Jews, Poles, and and it the other from Germany, meet. They speak seemed doomed to extinction in those places. Lithuanian and German as need arises, even Norman Davis poignantly describes what though German dominates the exchange. seemed to be a hopeless situation: A similar situation occurred in villages within the Grand Duchy in the middle of the The Lithuanian language, like the Gaelic lan­ last century when Lithuanian began to replace guage of the Scots in Scotland, had only sur­ Polish and a hybrid dialect, po prastu developed, vived in the remoter rural areas, and in cer­ tain segments of the peasantry.It was nonnally intertwined with Russian words. However, in the spokenby any significantgroup in the country's Lithuanian Republic ( especially following , (Wilno), whose Lithuanian A.Smetona's coup in 1926) Polish was spoken population at the last Tsarist Census in 1897 only by Poles and Polonophiles. For a reached only 2 per cent. It had no settled writen Lithuanian it became natural and a sign of his > fonn, and no literature of note< ... No seri­ patriotic sentiment to speak Lithuanian.(In the ously imagined that theycould become a seri­ villages of the Klaipėda Region Lithuanian and ous political factor. But theydid. 4 German were used freely as need dictated. It Leaders of the Lithuanian national revival was natural fora Memellander to be Lithuanian stressed the importance of the Lithuanian lan- and speak Germa� - this at a time when to be

56 Identiteto raida. Istorija ir dabartis

Lithuanian and speak:Polish amounted to trea­ lished in Germany. Evangelical fellowships was son and anti-national activity in Greater certain societies of worship the members which Lithuania. It would be useful, perhaps, too di­ say prayers at home. In Lithuania Minor these gress a little and fillin the political background congregations date from 1732 when German to lifein the Klaipėda Region between 1923 and colonists, who did not want to convert Catholi­ 1939. Longaeval subjection to the German cism emigrated from to Lithuania Reich formed a paternalist tradition: loyalty to Minor. The congregational were a unique phe­ the King-Kaiser and squire. Peasants nomenon not only in Lithuanian religious his­ in Lithuania Minor were conservative, obedi­ tory, but also in North-East European Protes­ ent to authority and inclined to maintain their tantism. The centres of congregational traditional ways of life. Although encounter movement were towns of Priekulė in the Šilutė strong strains of self-respect among the peas­ district and Tilsit (Tilžė). In Priekulė at the end antry influencedby , the sense of of 18th century the old type of congregation duty and loyalty inspired by congregational ( main principles of the old fellowships were preachers was even stronger. The German jour­ worship, poverty, fast, kindness, justice, honesty nalist fromViena Otto Glagau wrote this of the and patience) called klimkiškiai was foundedby and obedience of the Lithuania Klimkus Grigaitis (1750-1825). Minor peasant: The klimkiškairequired rejection of bodily pleasures and worldly delights: abstinence from The Prussian Lithuanian is not only a faithful subject but also an easily trained soldier. For alcohol, tobacco, satanic card playing, wicked his dutifulness and obedience, verging on the books, physical pleasure. The old congregation powerless, you could not wish for better mus­ forbadeits members to read the secular press, ter material; he fights valiantly and fearlessly sing folksongs, attend concerts or dances, sports in all battles; ifhe has servedin the anny he is grounds or take part in the activities of certain eternallyproud of his achievement and bears German and Mažlietuvis organisations (Birutė himselfwith such decorum which isclear from his words and actions on every relevant and or the Tilsit Lithuanian Songsters Association). German entertainments and dances earned i"elevant opportunity.6 their displeasure as did modern European fash­ In his ethnographic studies of Lithuania ions in dress, all this in their eyes was backslid­ Minor Eduard Gisevius (1798-1880) says that ing and sin. The principles of the Religion bound the village youth of Bitėnai were very keen to the congregational with the village, the land, adom themselves with caps and native language and stressed the superiority of pipes which were the essential outfit of the vil­ (Lithuanian) tradition over modern German lage dandies.7 Military with its smart influence. Lithuanian spirit was maintained by uniformattracted Prussian Lithuanians and was the members of this close organization in ac­ an object of . cordance with strict requirements for the

5. Lithuanian language and by permitting (giesmės) in Lithuanian only. Lithuania Minor was home to a strong con­ The new gathering kukaitiškiai was gregational movement - the evangelical fellow­ founded by Kristupas Kukaitis (1844-1914) in or Versammung - led by preachers. These the Tilžės district. This new gathering was not were similar to the pietist movements estab- so strict in secular life ( entertainments, cloth-

57 Identiteto raida. Istorija ir dabartis

ing, education in German cities, like ported by the congregationalists ), was the pres­ Kčmigsberg) as the old one, klimkiškiai, had erva tion of the right to teach children been. Lithuanian in schools (threatened by Bismarck's The congregational movement in reforms). The essential need to preserve the Lithuania Minor, Arthur Hermann asserts, at­ Lithuanian language (and Lithuanian Ehre) was tracted approximately 40% of Lithuanian expressedpoetically, expressivelyand sentimen­ adults. 8 Such a spontaneous, unofficial church tally not by a Lithuanian but by a German, movement was unique. In the Grand Duchy Georg Julius Justus Sauerwein (1831-1904), there was no strong Christian movement inde­ who wrote the Mažlietuvis : pendent of the Catholic Church. V.Gaigalaitis, J.Pauper, F.Tetzner regarded the congregation­ Litauer sind wir geboren alists as servants of Lithuanissness who Als Litauer soll'n wir bestehn. preached the Word of God in the native lan­ Die Ehre ist uns angeboren. Sie daif uns nie verloren gehn. guage and thereby halted the Germanisation process. However, since the congregationalists Lietuvninkai mes esam gimę, also preached obedience to the Powers that be, Lietuvninkai mes turim būt. duty and opposition to modem , they Tą garbę gavome užgimę, quelled any sense of opposition among the Prus­ Tą ir neturimleist pražūt. 9 sian Lithuanians and induced them to surren­ der to fate. Fearing that children might aban­ Under the influence of the 18th century don their national traditions, the congregation­ Enlightment ideals Sauerwein depicted them as alists attempted to prevent children being sent suffering aborigenes whose rights became the to larger towns such as Konigsberg to attend subject of increasing liberal inter­ school or make a career. Moreover the est during the 19th century. The way of life of represented a den of iniquity to the village mind. the Prussian Lithuanian, his archaic traditions The congregationalist movement turned the and most especially his archaic language which Mažlietuviai in on themselves. There formedan fascinated German philosophers such as obedient, devout, Godiifearing, honest Herder, who included eight Prussian Lithuanian Lithuanian type who did not seek a career or songs in in collection Stimmen der Volker in higher education. On the one hand the preacher Leidem, ethnographers, joumalists, writers such tradition made independent, on the other he as Sudermann, who realistically introduced a became dutifully obedient thanks to his loyalty positive image of theMažlietuvis into his descrip­ to the powers that be ordained from God on tions of Lithuania Minor in the German cul­ earth. Moreover, the congragationalists were set tural Lithuanian local colour ( ethnic against Catholic Lithuania which they termed chic) served Sudermann's artis tie requirements "Muscovite". All the national revival and thus the real Lithuanians, fisherfolk, farm­ movement's ideas were alien to them. ers in the almost sterile , and their real lives appeared only superficially in his works. 6. For Sudermann Lithuania Minor was a stage In the 19th century the aim of the more setting forhim to out his stories in a mix­ politically active Prussian Lithuanians, as ex­ ture of High German and Lokalfarbung. pressed through the petitionary movement (sup- Sauerwein was an exception to this tradi-

58 Identiteto raida. Istorija ir dabartis

tion among German Lithuania-fanciers. He was Lithuanian language was part of his German a genuine Lithuanophile. Like other Germans consciousness. Sauerwein's sentimental in the Baltic and Central , he sought to Lithuanian verse may be regarded as the Ger­ defendthe rights of local native populations and man Lithuanophile's paternalist view of the rasie their cultural and moral level. The first Mažlietuvis as lesser beings with a deeply inbred efforts at Estonian literature were made by sense of duty and loyalty to the Kaiser. The Estophile Germans such as J .Luce and poem published in the Lithuanian "The Dawn A.Huppel. Through the latter some Estonian (Aušra) Calendar" of 1884, Als Litauer sind wir folk songs were included in Herder's famous geboren where he invites people to speak collection. Later the first Estonian song festi­ Lithuanian boldly, ends with a eulogy to the vals which took on the form of national demon­ Kaiser: s tr ations, were supported likewise by the Baltdeutschen. Johan Voldemar Jannsen had Den Kaiser wollenwir wohl ehren, organized the firstsinging festival (1869) with Sind auch dem Reich ergeben stets, the full consent of the German ecclesiastical and Doch kann dem Henen niemand wehren Das Innigste - nur litau 'isch geht's. lay authorities. In fact, Germans figuredas rep­ resentative patrons of the festival , which was Vis ciecorių viernai mylėsim, held to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary Mylėsim ciecorystę vis, of the liberation of the peasants.10 Tikt, kas širdy yr' iškalbėsim The founders of the Czech organisation Lietuviškomis lūpomis. 12 Sokol which took on a nationalist character were also of German origin: Miroslav Tirsch, Sauerwein wrote German and Lithuanian Heinrich Fugner, German businessmen of verses forthe Lithuanian Girls' Delegation. This , who later became "Czechs".11 delegation was received in 1878 by At the end of the 19th century a whole host the Kaiser, Wilhelm l and his wife,Victoria. This of German philologists and historians Ch. delegation begged favour to preserve the Bartsch,0. Kolberg, A. Nesselmann, A. Lithuanian language fromextinction and, stand­ Schleicher, F.Tetzner, E. Gisevius, A. in g by Otto Glagau's words concerning Bezzenberger inter alios collected Lithuanian Mažlietuvis loyalty to the and pride in folklore,tales, sayings and translated Lithuanian serving in the Prussian army, stressed that after material into German. They were interested invaded Prussia in 1806 only the mainly, of course, by the archaic ( one hesitates Lithuanians remained loyal to the House of to say primitive) nature of Lithuanian language : and customs, folklore elements, peculiarities. Such interest sprang fromthe Sturmund Drang Auch, als einst durch Gottes Walten movement, and the traditions of Deutschlands Sternzu Boden lag, Herder, when the highest value was placed on a Hat der Littau' r Treu'g ehalten, Bis der Feind zusammenbrach. man's right to express himself in his native lan­ guage, the characteristics of each people's cul­ Vokietija veik pražuvo ture, customs, folklore,language. We may con­ Valdantsyk jau neprieteliams, sider Sauerwein as part of this long tradition Vien lietuvninks viernas buvo too. For him defence of the rights of the Viern's kareiviamsvokiečiams. 13

59 Identiteto raida. Istorija ir dabartis

7. In later elections (1898, 1901) two Lithuanian The Lithuanians of Lithuania Minor were members were elected to the Reichstag. politically indifferent. As a result, a sharp dis­ Lithuanian voters tended to support German cussion of nationhood did not arise: there was Conservative representatives. The Lithuanian no radical choice "Either Lithuanian or Ger­ language was championed most actively by Dr man, not both" to be made. However, at that Vilius Gaigalaitis who was elected to the Prus­ time in the Grand Duchy the choice between sian for Šilute. He held that seat until being a Lithuanian or a Pole was marked modus 1918. His speeches in the Landtag in support of vivendi: the Vincas Kudirka moved the language was a moral exhortation rather from almost being a fanatic Polonophile, than a political demand. The aims of Lithuanian ashamed to speak Lithuanian like a peasant, to politicians were exceptionally cultural in nature. become a fanatical Lithuanophile, and leader There were no political aspirations, the more of the liberal wing of the national revival move­ so as even in nationally more active Greater ment. At the end of the nineteenth century the Lithuania politico-territorial aspirations, where Prussian Lithuanian held no ambition to remove Lithuania Minor was concerned, were unreal­ Lithuania Minor from Prussia and during the istic. Moreover the congregationalists regarded period of national revival remained doubtful as unnecessary worldliness, which dis­ generally of any need toalone unite the terri­ tracts men fromGod. tory with the Grand Duchy. Vincas Kudirka At the end of 1917, assessing the scolded the Mažlietuviai for their passivity and Lithuanian Act for Restored Independence (ll1h for writing comparatively little in the Lithuanian December, 1917), according to whichLithuania prints: was to be restored in union with the , after Antanas Smetona's lecture on the Finding scant information about the German Question for the BerlinAdlonas, Vilius Mažlietuviai in , it seems Gaigalaitis said that "it does not enter the head that they do nor know these newspapers, of a single Prussian Lithuanian to secede from that theyare separate from the Lithuanians Prussia and snuggle up to the new Llthuania".16 living under the Muscovite yoke or, that in Lithuania Minor there are no Lithuanians The petitionary movement in the Baltic who care for their Lithuanicity, who would began in in 1864. It was di­ be able to write something about the state rected against the influence of the German of their brethren there. 14 Ritterschaften and in favour of the propagation of the German language. In 1864 Estonian del­ Lithuanian candidates to the Prussian egation, comprising representatives from 24 Landtag and the Reichstag barely gained communities, presented a petition to he Rus­ enough votes at the end of the century to be­ sian Tzar with demands such as legal reforms come members of these bodies. In the 1893 to give the Estonian equal rights and to make Elections J. Smakalys recieved 19% of the vote of the courts. To limit the in the Memel-Heydekrug constituency, the role of German language, the Estonian delega­ farmer gained 4.5% for the Tilsit tion proposed that Russian should be taught - seat, Simonas Angaitis at Ragnit - even in the village schools. Pilkaln - 3%, and in Labiau - Wehlau Jurgis Lithuanian activists in Lithuania Minor Lapaitis managed to scrape a mere 41 votes.15 with the assistance of German Llthuanophiles

60 Identiteto raida. Istorija ir dabartis

organised a mass collection of signatures for tricts, were inscribed on the 1896 petition con­ Prussian Authorities, seeking to defend the use ceming the teaching of Lithuanian in schools. of Lithuanian in schools and churches. Such This was the largest petition. petitions were organised in 1879, 1882, 1892, 1902 and 1904. The signing and presentation of 8. a petition was a legal formof and was in In the second half of the nineteenth cen­ accordance with the Lithuanian tradition of loy­ tury Lithuanian life and traditions were sharply alty and respect for the Prussian Authorities. In influencedby industrialisation processes which the autocratic Russian Empire the struggle for had begun in Germany. Germany's central and rights ( especially as concemed religion) took on western provinces experienced an economic the form of bloody uprisings against the repres­ boom after 1871 while the eastern German sive structures of Russian rule. The attempt provinces entered a depression. Eastem Prussia made by the Russian authorities in 1893 to de­ was flooded with cheap products from western stroy the church, convent and graveyard at parts of the Reich. The floodof cheap grain to Kražiai provoked the opposition of the local Europe fromAmerica and proximityto another Žemaitijan population which was subdued by agricultural giant, , weakened ­ Cossack troops. In Varpas (The ) of 1892 ing potential of . In the second half Vincas Kudirka commented on the Petition of the century market prices for grain fell con­ delivered to the Prussian Education Ministry in stantly. As peasant farmers suffered from the the following way: "blessed are the Lithuanians crisis, migration began from Prussian peasant of Prussia! They can petition. Under the Musco­ to the western industrial provinces vite yoke Lithuanians cannot and dare not do where there were jobs and wages were twice the that, for theyknow in advance that each petitioner size of those in the east. The outflow of sea­ is regarded by the authorities as a rebel" .17 The sonal farm labour in the ( their wages were right of petition was legalised in Russia in 1904. lower in Prussia but still higher than those in The petitionary movement included a sec­ Žemaitija) also fosteredemigration to the ­ tion of politically active and most nationally em provinces. According to the calculations of conscious Prussian Lithuanians. The movement the Polish historian A. Miinch 17,000/18,000 became more popular as a result of Prussian peasants migrated annually to for sea­ repressive measures under the Kulturkampf sonal labour .18 The Lithuanian population also programme. From c.1870 Prussian policy in decreased as a result of social mobility, since Lithuania Minor changed. By edict of Bismarck emigration from Gumbinė (Gumbinnen), the and the Prussian Minister of Religion and Edu­ most heavily populated Lithuanian district, was cation Falck fromOctober 15, 1872 all foreign the highest. Migration processes merely served languages ( especially Polish) were forbidden in to consolidate the national-social structures Prussian schools. In 1876 German was made which had formed in Lithuania Minor: state language in Prussia, although exceptions Lithuanians remained villagers because village were made for Lithuanians and Mazurians. In emigration to the west where Lithuanians, free 1879 16,000 Lithuanians signed a petition to fromtheir native village influence, assimilated Kaiser Wilhelm l and the 1892 petition bore heavily, and Germans remained in the towns.19 19,537 signatures. 27,765 signatures, mostly of In the 1870s 6% of the burghers of Ragainė people fromthe Tilžė, Klaipėda and Šilutė dis- (Ragnit), 5% of those in Klaipėda, 4% of the

61 Identiteto raida. Istorija ir dabartis

population of Tilžė (Tilsit), where the main cally Lithuanian customs) as the Gestus des Lithuanian presses were and which formedthe Sprechens in his work. "l grew up by the beart of the literary activities of the Lithuanian Nemunas where Poles, Lithuanians, Russians, national revival movement, were Lithuanian.20 Germans dwelt together and everywhere there Asthe depression deepened the towns required were Jews'', wrote Bobrowski.21 However, he no additional members of the work force and was a German employing local colour, mixed Lithuanians became enclosed in the villages. vocabulary and feeling a strong tie to his home­ The traditions and of the Mažlietuviai lan d. called himself a also changed under German urban influence, Lithuanian even though he composed verse in traditional clothes were no longer worn and in German: their place were simplifiedversions of new Eu­ Ich bien deutschland hergekommen, ropean fashions. Doch neugeboren Litauersohn, We notice wider economic contacts be­ Bin lieb Litauen angenommen - tween Lithuanians and Germans although /m Herzenbin ich Liatuer schon. closer cultural and intellectual relations did not exist between members of these two ethnic Aš, norint vokietis, rods gimtas Persigimdžiau lietuvninku. groups. Mažlietuvis culture was village culture Meilingai Lietuvoj priimtas which regarded German urban traditions as 22 Lietuvninks širdžia pats esu. alien and the anti-town congregationalist move­ ment regarded urban values as sinful. Until But really he remained a German. there arose large political conflicts with the was another German who Lithuanian majority in the Klaipėda region, the wrote sympathetically of Lithuanians. Vydūnas, German view of local Lithuanians was warm­ who wrote about Germans was himself a heartedly paternalistic.The paucity of contacts Lithuanian, as was the most famous writer of between the two ethnic groups was underscored Lithuania Minor, Ieva Simonaitytė. further by the lack of a joint Lithuano-German Local people, bith Lithuanians and Ger­ intelligentsia. In Polish and Lithuanian relations mans, were linked by a genius loci and shared there existed a borderline group of those who traditions. The Klaipėda Region regarded themselves as gente pafonus, natione (Memelland) was the distant of East lituanus. They carried on the gentry traditions Prussia, noted only for its part in the emancipa­ of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth­ tion of the Prussian serfs. SiegfiedLenz, living Mykol Romer, Ludwik Abramowicz, Jozef on the cultural frontier of German and Mackiewicz (and today, Czeslaw Milosz). There Mozurian depicts the simplicity of his native were people who lived on the German­ land in the Sa zartlichwar Suleykenthus:

Mozurian, German-Polish cultural frontier and Heimat lag sozusagen im Rucken der expressed a dual identity and strong cultural Geschichte; sie hat keine beruhmten essence: e.g. Giinter Grass (born in Gdansk) Physiker hervogebracht, keine and SiegfriedLenz from Mozuria. Rollschuhmeister Prasidenten; was hier viel me hr gefunden wurde, war das However, Lithuania Minor had no ­ unscheinbare Gol d der menschlichen lectuals with a sense of dual identity. The paet Gesellshaft: Holzarbeiter und Bauer, and writer (1917-1965) of Fischer, Deputatarbeiter, kleine Tilsit used local colour (words, scenes, specifi- Handwerker und Besenbinder.

62 Identiteto raida. Istorija ir dabartis

The sense of and common tistics from 20, 1925 in the Klaipėda exchange in German united Germans and region 59,315 declared themselves German, Lithuanians in Lithuania Minor. Here formed 37,626 Lithuanian and 34,337 called themselves lhe Memellander/Klaipėdiškis type, mostly of Memellander/Klaipėdiškiai.25 Lithuanian schol­ Lithuanian origin, strongly influenced by ars from the interwar author Rudolfas German culture and language. He is similar to Valsonokas to modem authors such as Petronėlė lhe Alsation ( of German origin but dominated Žostautaitė and Zigmas Zinkevičius regard the byFrench cultural values) type. Such a type may Klaipėdiškiai simply as Lithuanian.26 The exist­ be found also in central European towns such ence of a local identity is relegated by these as Prague. The Czech revival leader Heidrich authors to the realms of weakness of national Fiigner described himself as: „l was never a consciousness. German. A am a citizen of Prague, a By the the Klaipėda Germanophone citizen of Prague". 23 Region was cut offfrom the German Reich and Memellanderers definedthemselves sepa­ following the 1923 Lithuanian coup d'etat was rately not by ethnicity but by birthplace. Tradi­ handed to Lithuania. The Memel Convention tionally they were more enclined towards the of May 8 1924, signed at by Representa­ German element and German structures but tives of the British Empire, , and they did not regard themselves as German. They Ja pan, granted the region autonomous status did not regard themselves as Lithuanian either within the Lithuanian Republic. East Prussia - those they called Žemaitijans or Russian became a German , a strong centre of Lithuanians who were different from them and , surrounded by Polish and they stressed this difference by their way of life, Lithuanian territory. German cities as Tilžė and work ethic, order, and the Protestant Religion. Klaipėda were characterised by a chauvinistic After One German at­ spirit. In the German communities of the tempted to heighten these differences, assert­ Klaipėda Region as in other places in East ing that between Russian Lithuanians, Prussia, the Deutschtumelei became strong. Žemaitijans and the Lithuanian population of Between 1919 and the Paris Convention the Reich there lies a vast cultural and economic of 1924 there was considerable diplomatic and gulf, as between and Europe. Simonaitytė political struggle over the separate status of the writes in her memoirs, that while still an ado­ Klaipėda Region. In the Region there grew up lescent she understood that Catholic a strong Arbeitsgemeinschaftfur den Freistaat Žemaitijans are not the same as we Protestants. Memelland which enjoyed the support of the According to her, these Žemaitijans "endlessly majority of the local population. At the end of praised German order and hated Luther".24 1921 the Arbeitsgemeinschaft organised a ref­ erendum and petition among local inhabitants 9. in favour of a freistaat. According to established According to the pre-war Lithuanian roles, every local inhabitant, resident in the view, the Memellanders were Germanised Region since January 10 1920, or those whom Lithuanians who should be re-Lithuanised. Tr a­ had been permitted by the Evacuee Commit­ ditional Lithuanian historical scholarship, also tee to reside there, had the right to take part in failed to leave separate room for Memellander, a plebiscite. The supporters of the movement accounting them Lithuanian. According to sta- for a Freistaat ( among whom there were no

63 Identiteto raida. Istorija ir dabartis

Lithuanians) issued the Yellow Book "Memel" putes arose mostly out oflanguage, educational in 1922 to support their demands. This Yellow and religious questions. The ecclesiastical dis­ Book stressed the separate political, economic pute over the affiliation of the Evangelical and cultural nature between the Region and the Church in the Klaipėda Regionwas even termed Lithuanian Republic as established in 1918. The a Volkstumkampf. It was stressed that Pastor community of local and regionai identity was V.Gaigalaitiswas expelledfrom the Konigsberg stressed rather than the German past and Consistory in 1919 for having taken part in the Germanicity of the Region. This propagatory Prussian Lithuanian Council which sought to text employs such terms as "Wir Memellander" join the Region to Lithuania. However, in 1923 and "memellandische Bevolkerung".27 he spoke out against the enforced introduction Lithuanian influence in the region was of Lithuanian into schools in the Region. Eth­ weaker between the Wars than the German. nic tension between inhabitants of the Region The political determination of theKlaipėdiškiai during the Ecclesiastical dispute was greater to vote for German parties rather than but it should be stressed that parishes did not Lithuanlan ones was stable and strong: between divide into etnic camps. In March 1939 the ma­ 1925 and 1939 Lithuanian parties never won jority of Memellander greeted the reunion with more than 20% of votes in elections to the Re­ the Reich with joy. In 1945 following the Soviet gionai Landtag and in the 1926 Lithuanian Gen­ appropriation of the Region, the Klaipėdiškiai eral Election all five seats in the Region fell to experiencedpersecution and exile.The German German Members. -Lithuanian dispute over the Region and long Between the Wars German and Lithuanian tradition of coexistence between the Germans, disputes were particularly sharp in the Region Lithuanians and Mažlietuviai came to the end. in matters of religion and culture. These dis-

Išnašos

1 K Dakenis Auszra ir jos gadynė. -Marijampolė: 10 Uustalu E. The History of Estonian People .: Dirva, 1933, p. 13. Boreas Publishing Co., 1952, p. 129. 2 Davies N. God's Playground. A .1795 to 11 Nolte C. Our Task, Direction and Goal. The the present. Oxford: Oxford university press, Vol. 2, 1981, Development of the Sokol National Programm to World p. 21. 3 War. In.: Die Slawische Sokolbewegung Beitrage zur Kirby D. Northem Europe in Early Modem Period. The Geschichte von Sport und Nationalismus in Osteuropa.Hg. Baltic World 1492-1772. London and New : D. Blecking, : Forschungsstelle Longman,1993, p. 25. 4 Ostmitteleuropa, 1991, p.38. Davies N. lbidem, p. 69. Sauerwein- 5 Ž 12 Gedichte. Ididem, p. 26 - 27. Kavolis V. Epochų signatūros. Kn.: mogus is­ 13 Sauerwein- Gediche.Ibidem, p.102 -103. torijoje.Vilnius: Vaga,1994, p. 447. 14 Kudirka V. Tėvynės varpai 1892/2. Kn.: Kudirka V. 6 Otto Galgau. Kn.: Lietuvninkai. Apie Vakarų Lietuvą ir Raštai. Vilnius: Vaga, 1990, t. 2, p. 503. jos gyventojus XlX amžiuje. Vilnius: Vaga, 1970, p. 242. 15 Vileišis V. Tautiniai santykiai Mažojoje Lietuvoje ligi 7 lbidem, p.117. Didžiojo karo istorijos ir statistikos šviesoje. Kaunas: 8 Hermann A Das NationalbewuBtsein der litauischen Politinių ir socialinių mokslų instituto leidinys, 1935, p. Lutheraner in PreuBisch - Litauen und in Litauen. - 169 -170. Sonderdruck, Lutherische Kirche in der Welt, 1988/35, p. 16 Ivinskis Z Lietuvos padėtis 1917 metais ir vasario 16 d. 123. akto genezė. - Židinys, 1938/5-6, t. XXVII, p. 627. 9 Sauerwein- Gedichte. Rugštaus vyno eilėraščiai. Hg. 17 Kudirka V. Jbidem, p.503. & Alferd Franzkeit. Vilnius: Ewald Hein l 18 Gudas K Mažosios Lietuvos lietuvių tautinė padėtis XIX Melinda-Bucherverlag, 1993, p. 26-27. a. pabaigoje kanclerio O.Bismarko administracijos valdymo

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metais (1871-1890). Vilnius: Valstybinis leidybos centras, �imonaitytė l. Ne ta pastogė. Vilnius: Vaga, 1962, p. 379. 1992, p. 20. i2>Lietuvos statistikos metraštis 1927-1928 m. Kaunas, 1929/ 19 See: Vareikis V. Migrationsprozesse und der Wandel 2, p. 4 -5. der sozialen Struktur Kleinlitauens. In.: Selbstbewusstsein @ Valsonokas R Klaipėdos problema. Klaipėda: Rytas, und Modemisiemng. Sozialkultureller Wandel in Preuf3isch­ 1932, p. 267-269. Žostautaitė P. Klaipėdos kraštas 1923- Litauen vor und nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg. Hg. R. Traba. 1939. Vilnius: Mokslas, 1990, p. 55. Zinkevičius Z Lietuvių Osnabriick: Fibre Verlag, 2000, p. 55 - 68. kalbosistorija. Bendrinės kalbos iškilimas, Vilnius: Mokslo 20 Vileišis V. lbidem, p.165. ir enciklopedijų leidykla, 1992, t. 5, p. 245. 21 Bobrowski J. Gesammelte Werke. : Rowolt, 1987, 27Memel.Denkschriftder wirtschaftlichenKorperschaften und Bd.4, p.335. Verbande zur Selbstatandikeit der Memelgebietes. Memel, 22 Sauerwein- Gedichte. lbidem, p. 38-39. 1922, p. 4-9. 23 Nolte C. lbidem, p.39.

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Vygantas Vareikis Tilžės 13, Klaipėda Tel. 410190 el.paštas: [email protected]

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