Martynas Jankus
Martynas Jankus (German Martin Jankus , born August 7, 1858 in Bittehnen , East Prussia ; † May 23, 1946 in Flensburg ) was a Lithuanian - Prussian printer and publicist (using the pseudonyms V. Giedris, Martyneitis, Bitėnų Merčius, Gyvoleitis).
Life
After attending elementary school in Bittehnen, Jankus continued his education independently. He then became a schoolmaster in Bitthenen and collected Lithuanian songs, which he published in 1882-1883. In 1883 he and others founded the first Lithuanian people's newspaper, Aušra . He edited Aušros kalendorius (1884-1885) and the newspaper Garsas (1886-1887). He was also behind the satirical newspaper Tetutė .
In 1889 Jankus bought a printing company in Ragnit , which he later relocated to Tilsit and finally to Bittehnen in his own house in 1892. Three printing machines were in operation. Between 1892 and 1909 104 Lithuanian books in Latin script were published. These included the story of Vydūnas , the first chapter of Metai (The Seasons) by Kristijonas Donelaitis, and works by Jonas Biliūnas , Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė, and the sisters Sofija Pšibiliauskienė and Marija Lastauskienė . Book smugglers brought these books to Russian-Lithuania . Jankus himself wrote 45 books and brochures. When the Russian ban on Lithuanian press products in Latin script was lifted in 1904, business declined, so that in 1909 operations ceased due to bankruptcy and the equipment was sold in 1912.
Jankus was close to the Lithuanian national resurrection movement and founded several cultural associations with others, including Birutė (founded in Tilsit in 1885). 1889-1892 he was chairman of the Birutė . In 1890 he founded the first Lithuanian political association in East Prussia together with Dovas Zaunius and Jonas Smalakys . He corresponded with Lithuanians in the US and with members of the Latvian . Polish and Belarusian national movements. Because of his public activities, he was repeatedly punished by the Prussian authorities with arrests and fines.
When the Russian Empire occupied Bittehnen at the beginning of the First World War , Jankus and his family were deported to the Samara Governorate , where his father and youngest son Andrius died. In 1918 he returned to his homeland and campaigned for the connection of Prussian Lithuania to Lithuania. He was one of the signatories of the Tilsit Act . In 1920 he was co-opted into the Lithuanian State Council . From 1925 he lived again in Bittehnen, which was now called Bitėnai and was under Lithuanian administration as part of the Memelland .
When in 1939 Memelland was reconnected to the German Reich after an ultimatum , Jankus came to Kaunas , where he was forbidden to speak publicly. During the German-Soviet War he returned to Bittehnen in 1944, from where he was forcibly evacuated to Flensburg . He told his daughter that after his death he would be cremated so that his ashes could be transferred to Bitėnai cemetery after Lithuania's independence. Indeed, his ashes were transferred to Bitėnai cemetery in 1993.
A Martynas Jankus memorial museum was established in Bitėnai in 1981 and moved to the reconstructed Jankus printing house in 1999.
Honors
- Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas III. Class (1928)
- Order of the Crown of Italy III. Class (1928)
- Order of Vytautas the Great II Class (1938)
- Bust in Kaunas (1939, Bernardas Bučas )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Bittehnen (accessed December 15, 2016).
- ↑ a b c Booksmugglers: Martynas Jankus (accessed December 15, 2016).
- ↑ Pagėgių savivaldybės Martyno Jankaus muziejus (accessed December 15, 2016).
- ↑ Martynas Jankus (accessed December 15, 2016).
- ↑ Manfred Klein: Martynas Jankus and the German Empire . In: Annaberger Annalen . No. 17 , 2009.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jankus, Martynas |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Lithuanian printer and publicist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 7, 1858 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bit tendons |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 23, 1946 |
| Place of death | Flensburg |