KSS Klaipeda

Karių sporto sąjunga ( KSS Klaipeda ) was a sports club of the Lithuanian minority in the so-called Memelland , which changed its nationality several times in the first half of the 20th century.

history

As a result of the lost First World War, the Memelland was separated from the German Reich in 1920 and in 1923 it was occupied by the newly independent state of Lithuania and incorporated into its own national territory. The capital Memel was given the new name Klaipėda . There was - as in the entire Memel region - only a negligibly small proportion of the Lithuanian population. It was the same with football: around half a dozen German clubs faced only one Lithuanian organization called “Šarūnas”, which, however, had neither political nor sporting significance.

On February 25, 1926, a new Lithuanian association was established in Klaipėda, which also included “Šarūnas”. This Karių sporto sąjunga (KSS) was a military sports club of soldiers from Greater Lithuania stationed in the former German city. This club became a kind of "national team" of the Lithuanians of the entire Memel area, because it created further "branches" all over the country, from which the best footballers were "delegated" to the "central club" in Klaipeda.

In this way, the KSS quickly achieved the sporting dominance in the city and region and secured the Memelland championship almost by subscription. It should not be overlooked, however, that the “German” competition was split up into numerous smaller clubs and their top-performing club, the Spielvereinigung Klaipėda or Spielvereinigung Memel , preferred to participate with their best efforts in the games of the Baltic Sports Association in the German Reich Lithuanian game operations only loaded with "lower" teams.

The KSS benefited from this situation and qualified as champions of the Klaipėda region - the Memelland - almost regularly for the final round of the Lithuanian championship, which it won four times in a row from 1928 to 1931. Two further championships - 1936/37 and 1937/38 - made him one of the most successful Lithuanian clubs to date, with a total of six national titles.

In addition to the sporting supremacy, there was soon also an administrative position: KSS founding member Lieutenant Savanoris became first chairman of the "Memelland Sports Association" in the early 1930s.

But just under a year after the last Lithuanian title win, the KSS disappeared from the scene. In 1938 elections initiated by Lithuania, 87 percent of the Memel countries voted for a single German list. Thereupon - and under pressure from the National Socialist German Reich government - Lithuania returned the Memelland to Germany on March 22, 1939. This ended the existence of the KSS, which was not re-established even later.

literature

• Algird Fugalewitsch "A comparative presentation of the German sports clubs of the Memel area and the sports clubs of the German minority in Lithuania from 1918 to 1945", written term paper to obtain the degree of Magister Artium (MA) of the Philosophical Faculty of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Kiel 1995.