Klaipėda

Klaipėda (in German Memel ) is a town of 187.316 inhabitants and the Lithuanian main port of sea . Klaipėda is the third town of Lithuania after Vilnius and Kaunas. Old Hanseatic city, known under the German name of Memel , the city was disputed a long time between the kingdom of Lithuania and the Chevaliers Teutoniques. The Paix of the Lake Melno fixes the borders of the duchy of Prussia and Lithuania; Memel will remain in Prussia until the German defeat with the First World War.

Note: the original orthography of the city in Lituanien is Klaipėda , with a Point superscribed on the E . (The Lituanien uses diacritics rare)

Geography

Klaipėda is located at 120 km of Kaliningrad and at 290 km of Vilnius. The city is with the mouth of the Niémen, at the Northern end of the Flèche Curonienne. Not far from there, on the coast of the the Baltic, the seaside resorts of Neringa and Palanga are very appreciated Lithuanians. Klaipėda is connected by ferry to the Sweden, the Denmark and the Germany.

History

Memel is founded in 1252 by the teutonic Chevaliers.

In 1525, the city adheres to the Réforme. The next century will be for the city one boom, stopped by the Guerre Thirty Year old and the Swedish attacks between 1629 and 1635. From 1525 to 1919, Memel will belong to Prussia, besides a few years of occupation by Sweden and Russia.

The Territory of Memel

Article 99 of the Traité of Versailles provided that the city, of German population but emerged essential to Lithuania, becomes an autonomous territory, under French protectorate. January 15th, 1923, the French Army gives up the city in front of an attack of the Lithuanian army, called with the rescue by the Lithuanians of Memel, who feared the evolution of the territory towards a free state as in Dantzig (Gdańsk). Memel is annexed in Lithuania, with the downstream resigned of the Conference of the ambassadors on February 16th, 1923.

October 19th, 1925, the first elections in the autonomous territory see the victory of the parties separatist germanophiles which take down 24 of the 29 seats. Even during the dictatorship in Lithuania (as from 1926), of the elections will be held in Memel, in particular in 1932 and 1935, with always the same result for these parties, among which German Communists (3 seats in 1932) and social democrats (2 seats in 1932).

December 11th, 1938, the German single list, pro-Nazi, obtains 87,2% of the voices to the territorial elections.

March 22nd, 1939 the city is annexed by the Third Reich: after a German ultimatum, the Lithuanian government is forced to sign a treaty restoring Memel in Germany.

Taken in 1945 by the Red Army , the inhabitants who do not have flees the city are massacred. The city is integrated into the Soviet Socialist République of Lithuania under the name of Klaipėda.

Demography

The population of the territory of Memel was of 136.366 inhabitants in 1925, including 59.337 German, 38.404 Memelliens and 37.625 Lituaniens. In 1934, the territory comprised 149.273 inhabitants, including 34.253 for the town of Memel. At the time of the annexation by the Nazi Germany in 1939, 21.000 Lithuanians, including 9.000 Jews, took refuge in Lithuania.

The population of the city passed from 202  900 in 1989 with 194  400 in 2002.

Twinnings

(to be supplemented)

Local celebrities

Beats-smg: Klaipieda

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