Prussian Lithuanians
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Low German (Low Prussian dialect) and Lithuanian | |
Religion | |
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Lutheranism (majority), Romuva | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Old Prussians, Kursenieki, Lithuanians, Latvians, Baltic Germans |
The Prussian Lithuanians, or Lietuvininkai
Unlike most Lithuanians, who remained
There were 121,345 speakers of Lithuanian in the Prussian census of 1890. Almost all Prussian Lithuanians were murdered or
Ethnonyms and identity
The term Preußische Litauer (Prussian Lithuanians in German) appeared in German texts of the 16th century. The term Kleinlitaw (Lithuania Minor in German) was first used by
For Prussian Lithuanians loyalty to the German state, strong religious beliefs, and the mother tongue were the three main criteria of self-identification.
History
Early history
The territory where Prussian Lithuanians lived in ancient times was inhabited by the
After 1525, the last Grand Master of the Teutonic Order
The
19th century
The nationalistic
The first Prussian Lithuanian elected to the
There was no national
District (Kreis) | Region (Regierungsbezirk) | 1825 | 1834 | 1846 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | ||
Labiau | Königsberg | 8,806 | 28.3 | 11,993 | 33.0 | 14,454 | 32.3 |
Memel | Königsberg | 19,422 | 52.5 | 22,386 | 59.6 | 26,645 | 58.1 |
Heydekrug | Gumbinnen | 16,502 | 71.9 | 18,112 | 71.8 | 22,475 | 68.7 |
Insterburg | Gumbinnen | 10,108 | 25.0 | 9,537 | 18.3 | 5,399 | 9.3 |
Niederung | Gumbinnen | 18,366 | 49.1 | 20,173 | 45.7 | 20,206 | 41.0 |
Pillkallen | Gumbinnen | 11,271 | 38.5 | 10,687 | 34.1 | 13,820 | 34.4 |
Ragnit | Gumbinnen | 15,711 | 47.8 | 18,443 | 46.6 | 19,888 | 42.6 |
Stallupönen | Gumbinnen | 5,435 | 20.7 | 5,312 | 16.8 | 5,907 | 15.7 |
Tilsit | Gumbinnen | 18,057 | 47.5 | 22,471 | 50.5 | 26,880 | 48.6 |
Between the two World Wars
The northern part of East Prussia beyond the
A secret report of 1923 by
Nazi Germany invaded Klaipėda after the 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania. The inhabitants were allowed to choose Lithuanian citizenship. Only 500 asked for citizenship, and only 20 were awarded it.[citation needed] The reunification of Klaipėda with Germany was met with joy by a majority of inhabitants.[4] About 10,000 refugees, mostly Jews, fled the region.[17]
World War II and after
After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Prussian Lithuanian activists living in Germany were persecuted.[
The evacuation started late; the Red Army approached much faster than expected and cut off the territorial connection with other German-held territories by January 26, 1945. Many refugees perished due to Soviet low-flying strafing attacks on the civilians columns,[18] or the extreme cold. However, many managed to flee by land or sea into those parts of Germany captured by the British and Americans.[18] Among the latter were the pastors A. Keleris, J. Pauperas, M. Preikšaitis, O. Stanaitis, A. Trakis, and J. Urdse, who gathered those from the Lithuanian parishes and reorganised the Lithuanian church in the western zones of Allied-occupied Germany.[18]
Expulsion after World War II
The Red Army made no distinction between Germans of Prussian Lithuanian or German ethnicity.[18] During the evacuation of East Prussia, Prussian Lithuanians, like other East Prussians, fled in an attempt to escape.[18] Mass murder, rape, and looting were the common fate of those who did not succeed. After the end of war, some Prussian Lithuanians tried to return to their East Prussian homes, but they were discriminated against and denied food rations by the Soviets.[18]
All who remained at the war's end were expelled from Soviet's
1950 and beyond
In 1951 about 3,500 people from the former Memel Territory were expelled by the authority of the Lithuanian SSR to East Germany. After Konrad Adenauer's visit to Moscow in 1958, the former citizens of Germany were allowed to emigrate, and the majority of Prussian Lithuanians in the Lithuanian SSR emigrated to West Germany. Only about 2,000 local Lithuanians chose to remain in the Klaipėda Region and virtually none in the Kaliningrad Oblast. The majority of Prussian Lithuanians today live in the Federal Republic of Germany. Together with 65,000 refugees from Lithuania proper, mostly Roman Catholic, who made their way to the western occupation zones of Germany, by 1948 they had founded 158 schools in the Lithuanian language.[21]
Due to the emigration of many Lithuanians overseas and the assimilation of the remaining Prussian Lithuanians in Germany, the number of Lithuanian schools has now dwindled to only one, Litauisches Gymnasium/Vasario 16-osios gimnazija (Lithuanian High School) (in German) in Lampertheim in Hesse.[21] Until 1990, this secondary boarding school was the only Lithuanian school outside areas controlled by the Soviet Union. It was attended by several well-known exiled Lithuanians, such as the singer Lena Valaitis.
Communities of Prussian Lithuanians have developed in Canada, the United States, Sweden and Australia.[citation needed] However, a separate ethnic and cultural identity for Prussian Lithuanians is not as strong as it once was, and cultural differences are gradually vanishing.[citation needed]
Culture and traditions
The Prussian Lithuanians that settled in the
The
Until the mid-19th century Prussian Lithuanians were mostly villagers. Their feudal mentality is reflected in the poem The Seasons by Kristijonas Donelaitis. The Seasons criticizes the tendency to adopt German ways, since this was often associated with decadent noblemen. Donelaitis called for Lithuanians to do their duty, to not envy those who went to town, to not complain or be lazy, and try to work as much as was needed to be a good peasant:
- There, in the city, one is laid up with his gout;
- Another's aches and pains require a doctor's aid.
- Why do these countless ills torment the luckless rich?
- Why does untimely death so often strike them down?
- It is because they scorn the fruitful work of boors,
- Lead sinful lives, loaf, sleep too long and eat too much.
- But here we simple boors, held by the lords as knaves,
- Fed on unwinnowed bread and pallid buttermilk,
- Work on the quick each day, as simple folk must do.[23]
Towns were not large. People who emigrated to the major towns, Königsberg and Memel, usually became bilingual and eventually became Germanized.[dubious ]
After World War II, virtually no Prussian Lithuanians remained in Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast and only a small number survived in the Lithuanian SSR. Their peasant culture, first threatened by Germanization in the German Empire and politically oppressed in the Nazi era, was now completely wiped out by the Soviets, who made no distinction between Germans and Lithuanians. The situation was somewhat better in the former Memel Territory but even there churches and cemeteries were destroyed.[24]
Personal names
Prussian Lithuanian surnames often consist of a
Another type of Prussian Lithuanian surname use the suffixes "-ies" or "-us": Kairies, Resgies, Baltßus, Karallus.
A difference existed between female and male surnames in everyday speech. For example, while officially the wife of Kurschat (Prussian Lithuanian Kurßaitis or Kurßatis) was also called Kurschat, in the Prussian Lithuanian language special forms were used in speech: the form of a wife's surname was Kurßaitê / Kurßatė and the form of an unmarried woman was Kurßaitikê / Kurßaitukê.
Language
Since the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, Prussian Lithuanians have typically been bilingual.[4]
German
The German language used by Prussian Lithuanians belongs to the
Lithuanian
The Lithuanian language of Prussian Lithuanians could be divided into two main dialects:
Prussian Lithuanian literature
Literature in the Lithuanian language appeared earlier in the Duchy of Prussia than in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The first book in Lithuanian was published in Königsberg in 1547 by Martynas Mažvydas, an émigré from Grand Duchy of Lithuania, while the first Lithuanian book in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was printed in 1596 by Mikalojus Daukša. Many other authors who wrote in Lithuanian were not Prussian Lithuanians, but local Prussian Germans: Michael Märlin, Jakob Quandt, Wilhelm Martinius, Gottfried Ostermeyer, Sigfried Ostermeyer, Daniel Klein, Andrew Krause, Philipp Ruhig, Matttheus Praetorius, Christian Mielcke, Adam Schimmelpfennig, for example. The first major Lithuanian poet, Kristijonas Donelaitis, was from East Prussia and reflected the Prussian Lithuanian lifestyle in his works. The first newspaper in the Lithuanian language, Nuſidawimai apie Ewangēliôs Praſiplatinima tarp Źydû ir Pagonû, was published by Prussian Lithuanians. Prior to World War I, the government and political parties financed the Prussian Lithuanian press.
Orthography
The Prussian Lithuanian
Books and newspapers that were published in Lithuania in Roman type were reprinted in Gothic script in
Notable Prussian Lithuanians
- Kristijonas Donelaitis, Prussian Lithuanian poet
- Pranas Domšaitis (born Franz Karl Wilhelm Domscheit), Prussian Lithuanian painter
- Albertina University, Königsberg
- Vilius Storostas(born Wilhelm Storost), philosopher
- Otto D. Tolischus, American journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner
- schlagersinger
- John Kay (born Joachim Fritz Krauledat), Canadian singer, songwriter and guitarist, frontman of Steppenwolf
- German Army
- Bruno Taut, German architect also active in Japan and Turkey
- Max Taut, German architect
- Friedrich Baltrusch, German politician
See also
- Prussian Latvians
- Masurians
- Memel Territory
- East Prussia
- Delmonas
References
- ^ Nijolė Strakauskaitė (March 30, 2007). "Naujame albume – "Šiaurės Atlantidos" reginiai" (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 2007-11-12.
- ISBN 5-420-01525-0.
- ISBN 978-609-437-204-9. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
- ^ ISSN 1392-3358.
Memellanderers defined themselves separately not by ethnicity but by birthplace. Traditionally they were more inclined towards the German element and German structures but they did not regard themselves as German. They did not regard themselves as Lithuanian either.
- ISBN 9986-475-03-1.
- ^ ISSN 1392-3358.
Loyalty to state power, great religiosity and mother language were three self-identifying priorities of mažlietuviai. Daugumai mažlietuvių integracinės Didžiosios ir Mažosios Lietuvos apraiškos buvo nesuprantamos ir nepriimtinos.
- ^ ISSN 1392-3358.
- ^ a b Silva Pocytė (February 2003). "Didlietuviai: an example of committee of Lithuanian organizations' activities (1934–1939)". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ^ Elena Bukelienė (March 15, 1997). "Ieva Simonaitytė ir žemaičiai" (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 2007-09-12.
- ^ ISBN 9986-39-112-1.
- ^ Bernardas Aleknavičius (2006). "Kodėl mes išlikome?" (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 2007-10-15.
- ^ Gruodytė, Stefanija; Matulevičius, Algirdas. "Maras Lietuvoje". Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 15 January 2023.
- ^ Pivoras, S. (1998). "Lietuvių ir latvių bendradarbiavimas priešinantis tautinei priespaudai XIX a. pabaigoje – XX a. pradžioje". Lietuvos istorijos studijos. 6.
- ^ a b c d Arnašius, Helmutas (2002). "Vokiečiai Klaipėdoje". Mokslas Ir Gyvenimas (in Lithuanian). 7–8. Archived from the original on 2008-05-31. Retrieved 2007-10-30.
Šis procesas nebuvo skatinamas kokių nors germanizacijos užmačių, jis savaime brendo aukštos ir žemos civilizacijų bei kultūrų sankirtoje.
- ^ a b (in Lithuanian)Ko neįstengė suprasti Lietuvos valdžia ir klaipėdiškiai 1923–1939 metais?
- ^ Belzyt, Leszek. "Sprachliche Minderheiten im preussischen Staat ( 1998 )".
- ISBN 9986-9216-9-4. Archived from the originalon 2008-03-03. Retrieved 2008-03-14.
- ^ a b c d e f Albertas Juška, Mažosios Lietuvos Bažnyčia XVI-XX amžiuje, Klaipėda: 1997, pp. 742–771, here after the German translation Die Kirche in Klein Litauen (section: 9. Kleinlitauer – Kriegsflüchtlinge; (in German)) on: Lietuvos Evangelikų Liuteronų Bažnyčia, retrieved on 28 August 2011.
- ISSN 1392-3358. Archived from the originalon 2006-09-27.
- ^ "Tries knygos apie lietuvininkų tragediją" (in Lithuanian). Archived from the original on 2006-09-27. Retrieved 2007-03-31. "Kai kurie ir iš nepriklausomos Lietuvos išvažiuoja į Vokietiją, nes čia ne visiems pavyksta atgauti žemę ir sodybas, miestuose ir miesteliuose turėtus gyvenamuosius namus. Vis dar yra net nebandomų sudrausminti piktavalių, kurie lietuvininkams siūlo "grįžti" į "faterliandą"." Tr.: Even some from independent Lithuania have emigrated to Germany, because not all are able to have their land, farms and city homes returned. Some still want the Lietuvininkai to "return" to the Vaterland
- ^ a b "History" on: Lithuanian High School, retrieved on 28 August 2001.
- ^ Mažosios Lietuvos kanklės-arfa. 1984 m.
- ^ "The Seasons by Kristijonas Donelaitis – Summer Toils". www.efn.org. Archived from the original on 1999-11-10.
- ^ "Tv3.lt naujienos – svarbiausios žinios iš Lietuvos ir užsienio".
External links
- Map of languages in East Prussia in 1900 large (in German) (red = German, white = Polish, blue = Lithuanian, yellow = Latvian / Kurlandish, green = uninhabited or thinly inhabited forest)
- Christoph Kairies. Das litauertum in Ostpreußen südlich des Memelstromes im jahre 1921 (in German)
- Online heritage book Memelland (in German)
- Algirdas, Matulevičius (June 30, 1994). "Didžiosios ir Mažosios Lietuvos studentai Karaliaučiaus universitete (450-osioms metinėms)". Voruta (in Lithuanian) (27–28). Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
- Publications Funded by the Foundation of Lithuania Minor (in Lithuanian)
- Kleinlitauen (in German)
- Bilingual Chantbook of 1667
- Bilingual Bible of 1727