Ernestas Galvanauskas

Ernestas Galvanauskas

Ernestas Galvanauskas (born November 20, 1882 in Zizonys near Biržai , then Kovno Governorate , Russian Empire , now Lithuania , † July 24, 1967 in Aix-les-Bains , France ) was a Lithuanian politician and prime minister .

Life

Studies and professional career

After graduating from high school in 1902, he studied engineering at the Engineering Institute of Saint Petersburg until 1904 and then again from 1906 , which he graduated in 1908. Galvanauskas then worked as an engineer in Liège ( Belgium ), where he specialized in mining engineering in 1912 and graduated as an electrical engineer in 1913 . He then worked as an employee of a consortium of French banks in Serbia .

First political activities

After the events of the Russian Revolution he was one of the founders of the Union of Small Peasants ( Lietuvos valstiečių sąjunga ) on 1905 , which merged with the Lithuanian Democratic Party ( Lietuvos democų partija ) the following year . On December 4th and 5th, 1905, he was a participant in the Great Seimas of Vilnius, influenced by the events of the Russian Revolution . This was the first modern congress in Lithuania, which mainly dealt with national issues. Ultimately, the Great Seimas made the decision to achieve extensive autonomy within the Russian Empire . During this time he was also the author of various articles in the "Wilnaer Nachrichten" ( Vilniaus žinios ) and the weekly newspaper "Lithuanian Owner" ( Lietuvos ūkininkas ).

Independence of Lithuania and Prime Minister from 1919 to 1920

After Lithuania gained independence on November 2, 1918, he was a member of the Lithuanian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 . At the same time he was the head of the Lithuanian Information Office in Paris .

As early as October 7, 1919, he was appointed as a representative of the Democratic Party ( Demokratų Partija ) for the first time as the successor to Mykolas Sleževičius as Prime Minister. At the same time he took over the office of Minister for Finance , Trade and Industry in his government, which was in office until June 19, 1920 . From the point of view of Poland , with which the conflict later arose over the annexation of the Memel Land, this first term in office in particular was considered politically weak.

His successor as Prime Minister was Kazys Grinius in 1920 , in whose cabinet he remained until February 2, 1922 as Minister of Finance, Trade and Industry and at the same time took over the office of Minister of Transport. During this time he was also a delegate of Lithuania to the League of Nations , in order to help the young Republic of Lithuania to gain more prestige in Europe through its political and diplomatic skills .

Prime Minister from 1922 to 1924 and annexation of the Memelland

On February 2, 1922, as successor to Grinius, he again took over the post of Prime Minister himself and, from September 29, 1922, the post of Foreign Minister . In addition, from February 22, 1923, he was also a minister without a portfolio . However, government policy turned out to be increasingly difficult, as the government and opposition in the Seimas had approximately the same number of seats.

After the parliamentary elections ( Seimas ) in May 1923, he was initially able to form a grand coalition of his Peasant People's League and the Christian Democrats , which had 56 of the 78 seats. On June 18, 1924, he was followed by the previous Minister of Justice, Antanas Tumėnas of the Christian Democrats, as Prime Minister. During his tenure as Prime Minister, the Vytautas Magnus University was founded in Kaunas in 1922 , which became the “temporary capital ” of Lithuania after the Polish occupation , which was de facto recognized by the League of Nations . In turn, on March 24, 1923, Lithuania annexed Memelland , the part of East Prussia north of the Memel with the port of Memel, today's Klaipėda , which had been administered by the League of Nations since the end of the First World War .

In order to strengthen his government position, especially with regard to the annexation of the Memelland, he sought to develop relations with the USA . In September 1922 he was honored by issuing a postage stamp .

After his resignation as Prime Minister, he was envoy in London from 1924 to 1927 , where in 1924 he achieved the recognition of this annexation by the previous protecting powers.

Subsequently, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Klaipėda Port for a year. He was also the founder of the comradeship to build inexpensive workers' housing. He was later rector of the Klaipėda Trade Institute from 1934 to 1939. He was also the editor of the Vakarai newspaper .

Occupation of Lithuania by the Red Army and last years of life

On November 21, 1939, he took over a government office again as finance minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Antanas Merkys . After the occupation of Lithuania by the Red Army , he resigned from his ministerial office on June 14, 1940 with the Merky government. In 1940 he was also temporarily acting minister of communications.

He then withdrew from politics for some time before he became the founder and chairman of the Lithuanian National Committee ( Lietuvos Tautinis Komitetas ) in 1941 . In 1944 he first fled to France and after a few years went into exile in Germany in 1946 , where he became a member of the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania ( Vyriausiasis Lietuvos išlaisvinimo komitetas ). As early as 1947, however, he settled in Madagascar (a French colony until 1960), where he worked as a lecturer for trade and industry. In 1963 he then took up residence in Aix-les-Bains, France, where he died a few years later.

Publications

• Valstija ir mokesčiai (“State and Tax”), 1909
• Lenkija ir Lietuva (“Poland and Lithuania”), 1923
• Atsiminimai ("Memoirs"), 1925

Web links

Commons : Ernestas Galvanauskas  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Biography on the government homepage
• Biography on the Prime Ministers homepage
• Biographical information in rulers.org
• Governments 1918–1940

Individual evidence

1. ^ Alfred Erich Senn: Lithuania Through Polish Eyes, 1919-1924 . In: Lituanus , issue 26, 1980
2. ↑ The First Seimas 1922–1923
3. ↑ The Second Seimas 1923–1926
4. ↑ Vygantas Vareikis: The role of the Shooting Federation of Lithuania in the occupation of Memel 1923 . (PDF file; 1.27 MB) In: Annaberger Annalen 2000
5. ^ Joachim Tauber: The Memel region (1919–1944) in German and Lithuanian historiography after 1945 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Nordost-Archiv , Volume X, 2001  
6. ↑ Juozas Skirius: Review And Commentary On Lithuanian-US Relations in 1918–1940  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 172 kB)  
7. ↑ 4 Auksinai stamp from 1922  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

predecessor	Office	successor
Mykolas Sleževičius Kazys Grinius	Lithuanian Prime Minister October 7, 1919 - June 19, 1920 February 2, 1922 - June 18, 1924	Kazys Grinius Antanas Tumėnas
	Lithuanian envoy to London 1924–1927