German-Lithuanian relations

German-Lithuanian relations

Germany	Lithuania

Bilateral relations between Germany and Lithuania existed from 1918 and again in 1991. Both countries are members of the Baltic Sea Council , the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe , NATO and the European Union as well as the Schengen area . Lithuania has also been part of the euro area since 2015 .

Germany has an embassy in Vilnius (Wilna). Lithuania has an embassy in Berlin , an office in Bonn and 7 honorary consuls (in Dresden , Düsseldorf , Erfurt , Frankfurt am Main , Hamburg , Künzelsau and Munich ).

According to the Lithuanian Statistical Office, 3500 Germans lived in the Baltic state in 2007.

history

The name Lithuania (as Litua ) appears in written sources for the first time in 1009 in the Quedlinburg annals in connection with the monk Bruno von Querfurt , who wanted to convert the local people to Christianity . Western powers viewed the Baltic Lithuanians as the last refuge of European paganism, a potential mission area for the church and an expansion area for the Livonian and Prussian aristocracy . However, the Lithuanians were able to successfully assert themselves against the advance of the Teutonic Order in Livonia and Prussia. This self-assertion of the Lithuanians is an important reason for the different development of the German settlements in Lithuania compared to the Baltic Germans in Estonia and Latvia: While the Baltic Germans immigrated in the course of the conquests of the Teutonic Order in the 13th and 14th centuries and formed a leadership class, The Lithuanian Germans came into the country later and often formed a rather rural ethnic group.

From 1385 the great power Lithuania entered into a personal union with the Kingdom of Poland. In the Battle of Tannenberg (1410) the Union defeated the order of knights. The connection with Poland was strengthened in 1568 in the Union of Lublin . Until the end of the state of Poland-Lithuania , there was therefore a largely common history, also in relations with the German states. In the Peace of Oliva , Poland-Lithuania had to cede the Duchy of Prussia to Brandenburg. The ongoing internal and external decline of the state led Lithuania (and Poland) to disappear from the map in 1795 after several partitions - made by the neighboring states of Russia, Austria and Prussia, with Lithuania being added to the Russian Empire . In the 19th century with the emergence of nationalism in Europe, Lithuanian culture was increasingly threatened by Russification . The cultural contact with the Lithuanians living in East Prussia (area of ​​Lithuania Minor ) could help against this, as they were less restricted in the exercise of their culture. So smuggled books carrier in Latin characters printed Lithuanian books (the then banned in Tsarist Russia were) at great risk on the East Prussian-Russian border.

During the First World War , Germany, as an opponent of Russia, occupied Lithuania and some neighboring areas in 1915 and combined them to form the Upper East administrative unit . Towards the end of the World War, the formal independence of Lithuania, but practically as a satellite of the German Empire, as a kingdom under Mindaugas II was sought. Germany only wanted to recognize Lithuania as a sovereign state if it entered into economic and military union with the Reich. On December 11, 1917, the Taryba declared the restoration of the "independent" state of Lithuania with the capital Vilnius and ties to the German Empire . As Germany delayed recognition, the Taryba again proclaimed Lithuania's independence on February 16, 1918, without any ties to the other states. This day is still a national holiday today . As a result, the Lithuanians were able to stabilize the independence of their state. In 1923 Lithuania annexed the Memelland , that is the part of East Prussia that was formerly part of the German Reich and north of the Memel with the port city of Memel (now Klaipėda ), which had been administered by the League of Nations since the end of the First World War . In 1924 this annexation was recognized by the previous protecting powers. Apart from the problem of the Memelland, the German-Lithuanian relationship developed quite positively in the interwar period, whereby the two states were connected by their aversion to Poland, to whom both had territorial demands.

Synagogue in a Lithuanian village set on fire by the Wehrmacht

After the seizure of power by the Nazis in March 1933 renewed tensions, which reached one of its high points in February of 1934 began when the Lithuanian government arrested dozens of pro-Nazi-minded activists. In March 1939 Lithuania had to bow to German pressure and cede the Memel area back to Germany . In the Hitler-Stalin Pact , Lithuania was initially assigned to the German sphere of influence. After the outbreak of the Second World War , however, this treaty was revised by the German-Soviet Border and Friendship Treaty with a change in the areas of influence. Germany received parts of eastern Poland. Lithuania was assigned to the Soviet Union . On June 15, 1940, the Red Army moved into Lithuania and founded the Lithuanian SSR on July 21, 1940. In 1941, many Lithuanian Germans were resettled under German control. From 1941 to 1945 Lithuania was part of the Nazi war of aggression on the Soviet Union. Occupied by the Wehrmacht and belonged to the Reichskommissariat Ostland . During this time, Germans and Lithuanian collaborators committed the most serious crimes against critics and minorities. Most of the Lithuanian Jews fell victim to the Holocaust . In Lithuania an attempt was made to implement the so-called bowling alley project, i. H. the targeted settlement of certain conquered areas with German emigrants. From 1944 onwards, most of the Germans fled the advancing Red Army or were expelled soon after. Thousands of Lithuanians fled west with the Germans. The Lithuanian grammar school in Hüttenfeld in southern Hesse formed a culture-preserving center for the exiles who were coming to live in West Germany . Displaced Lithuanian Germans united in 1951 in Landsmannschaft der Deutschen von Lithuania .

Due to the annexation of Lithuania by the USSR after the war, the associated end of state sovereignty and freedom of action as well as the systemic contradiction between the Soviet Union and the Federal Republic of Germany , (West) German-Lithuanian contacts were only possible to a very limited extent during the Cold War . In the wake of the perestroika initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986 , the declaration of independence was passed in Lithuania after free elections on March 11, 1990. On August 27, 1991 (out of consideration for the Soviet Union only after the independence of the Baltic states had been recognized), Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were recognized by the EC states and thus also Germany. In the period that followed, German policy on Lithuania fluctuated between the desire and the obligation to involve the Balts in European institutions and the fear of annoying Russia or disrupting its rapprochement with Europe. In some cases, Germany was even rated as the “greatest brake” among Western powers with regard to joining NATO. In 2004 Lithuania achieved its foreign policy strategic goal and joined the EU and NATO . Today, German-Lithuanian relations are intensive and friendly and can develop both bilaterally and multilaterally within the framework of the organizations mentioned.

Diplomatic exchange

The German-Baltic parliamentary group cultivates the relations between the German Bundestag and the Seimas . Alois Karl (CDU / CSU) is chairman in the 18th electoral term . Deputy chairmen are René Röspel (SPD), Axel Troost (Die Linke) and Konstantin von Notz (Bündnis90 / Die Grünen).

Others

• Thomas Mann spent his summer vacation from 1930 to 1932 in a holiday home in Nida, Memeland .

See also

• List of German ambassadors in Lithuania
• Foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany
• Lithuanian community in Germany

Web links

Commons : German-Lithuanian relations  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• The German Foreign Office on relations with Lithuania
• The Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Berlin on bilateral relations
• Dr. Joachim Tauber on Litauen.info on German-Lithuanian relations in the 20th century
• Preparation of the diplomatic treaties between the Baltic states and the FRG

Individual evidence

1. ↑ German Embassy Wilna (German and Lithuanian) . Archived from the original on January 4, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 6, 2011. 
2. ^ Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Germany (German and Lithuanian) . Retrieved November 6, 2011.
3. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from January 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. The Germans from Lithuania  
4. ↑ http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/nordeuropaforum/2008-2/dauchert-helge-53/PDF/dauchert.pdf Germany's Baltic policy / Helge Dauchert; accessed on December 31, 2011
5. ^ FAZ May 26, 2001 "Lithuania on the way to NATO?" / Lucius, Robert von
6. ↑ Boards of the parliamentary groups in the 18th electoral period ( memento of the original from August 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.