Vytautas Landsbergis

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Vytautas Landsbergis (2014)
Landsbergis (center) with a Lithuanian delegation in the European Parliament in Strasbourg , July 1991

Audio file / audio sample Vytautas Landsbergis ? / i (bornOctober 18, 1932inKaunas) is aLithuanianconservativepoliticianandmusicologist, from 1978 to 1990professorat theLietuvos muzikos akademijainVilnius. As chairman of the provisional parliament(Seimas), he wasthe firsthead of state in Lithuaniaafter regaining independence in 1990. He was laterPresident of Parliamentand until 2014a member of the European Parliament.

family

Vytautas Landsbergis is one of two sons in an upper-class family. His father Vytautas Landsbergis-Žemkalnis (1893–1993) worked as chief architect in Kaunas until the Second World War . His mother was Ona Jablonskytė-Landsbergienė (1894-1957), an ophthalmologist. His brother was Gabrielius Žemkalnis-Landsbergis (1929-2017), a journalist in Australia .

Vytautas Landsbergis is married. His wife is Gražina Ručytė-Landsbergienė (* 1930), pianist and music teacher, professor at the Lithuanian Music and Theater Academy.

The daughter is Birutė Landsbergytė-Cechanavičienė (* 1960), musicologist. The son is Vytautas V. Landsbergis (* 1962), director, author. The grandson is Gabrielius Landsbergis (* 1982), politician and former diplomat.

Training and teaching

Vytautas Landsbergis studied at the Aušros Gymnasium Kaunas and then graduated from the Juozas Gruodis Conservatory in Kaunas . After graduating from high school, he studied piano at the Lithuanian State Conservatory in Vilnius from 1950 to 1955 and initially worked as a piano teacher at the Čiurlionis Art School , taught at the Lietuvos valstybinė konservatorija (LVK), at the faculty of the LVK in Klaipėda and at the Vilniaus pedagoginis institutes . In 1969 he received his doctorate with a thesis on the life and work of the composer and painter Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis , and in 1994 he completed his habilitation . He taught music history and piano at the State Conservatory . He has built a reputation as a respected musicologist and expert on the compositional and painterly work of the Lithuanian national hero Čiurlionis. Already in this work his connection to the Lithuanian homeland was expressed. In 1987 he was one of the founders of the Čiurlionis Society, which has made it its business to preserve the cultural heritage of this most important Lithuanian composer. In the 1950s, Landsbergis took part in the Lithuanian chess championships several times.

Chairman of the Sąjūdis movement

Vytautas Landsbergis is one of the founders of the Lithuanian independence movement Sąjūdis . At the founding congress he was elected its chairman on October 22, 1988. Small in stature and appearing like a typical scientist in appearance, Landsbergis proved to be a shrewd strategist who foresaw future developments astutely.

His rhetorical brilliance and sharpness made him a strong opponent of the transformed Communist Party of Lithuania (KPL) under Algirdas Brazauskas . Landsbergis led Sąjūdis to superior victories in the elections to the Congress of People's Deputies of the Soviet Union in April 1989 and in the first free parliamentary elections (the Seimas ) on February 24, 1990.

Concert and exhibition with Vytautas Landsbergis on the subject of Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis - composer in Sanok (2013)

Politician in independent Lithuania

The newly elected parliament elected Landsbergis as its chairman. When on March 11, 1990 the independence of Lithuania was declared restored and the constitution of the First Republic (1920-1940) was reinstated, Landsbergis was acting as acting head of state of Lithuania until a new constitution came into force. During 1990, which was marked by increasing tensions with the Soviet leadership under Mikhail Gorbachev (including the blockade of raw materials in April and May 1990), Landsbergis advocated a tough line in which Lithuania's independence was seen as immovable and no moratorium was conceivable.

After the defeat of the conservative parties and the victory of the reform communists in the elections in October and November 1992, Landsbergis was replaced by Algirdas Brazauskas in November 1992 as speaker of parliament and acting head of state. In 1996, when the reform communists were defeated in parliamentary elections, Landsbergis became President of Parliament (until 2000).

To this day, Landsbergis is one of the most famous politicians in Lithuania and very influential in his party, the Conservative Patriotic Union . He repeatedly shows a critical attitude towards the Russian government.

He has been a member of the EPP Group in the European Parliament since the first Lithuanian European elections in 2004 . Here he is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Subcommittee on Security and Defense .

Landsbergis is one of the 89 people from the European Union against whom Russia , as it became known at the end of May 2015, imposed an entry ban.

Awards

On May 2, 2003, Volker Schimpff, who represented Erich Iltgen, President of the State Parliament of Saxony , awarded him the Saxon Constitutional Medal for his commitment to freedom, democracy and the right to self-determination .

In 2016 he received the Freedom Prize of Lithuania (with Valdas Adamkus ).

Honors

  • Honorary citizen of Kaunas since January 1994

Fonts

  • The Royal Conservatory of Leipzig through the eyes of a student, letters from MK Ciurlionis. In: Contributions to musicology . published by the Association of Composers and Musicologists in the GDR, issue 1/1979, Berlin 1979, pp. 42–69.
  • Years of decision. Lithuania on the way to freedom. A political autobiography . Edition Tertium, Ostfildern 1997, ISBN 3-930717-39-5 .

Web links

Commons : Vytautas Landsbergis  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of Lithuania (p. 18)
  2. ^ Authors of the articles: Vytautas Landsbergis. In: Contributions to musicology. published by the Association of Composers and Musicologists in the GDR, issue 1/1979, Berlin 1979, p. 71.
  3. Andreas Borcholte: Entry bans: Russia accuses EU politicians of showing behavior. In: Spiegel Online. May 31, 2015, accessed June 1, 2015 .
  4. ^ RUS: Russian Visa Blocking List. (PDF 23 KB) In: yle.fi. May 26, 2015, accessed June 1, 2015 .
  5. Press release of May 6, 2003: Saxon Constitutional Medal for Vytautas Landsbergis. accessed on August 18, 2016