The Memelland territory, consitituing the northern part of East Prussia (Ostpreussen), was never a disputed territory until the aftermath of World War I and the defeat of Imperial Germany in 1918 when neighbouring countries, some newly independent (like Poland, Czechoslovakia and Lithuania) began scrambling for as much Prussian territory they could extract from the victorious Allied Powers. Lacking a seaport and possessing only a small strip of coastland, the nascent Lithuanian Republic eyed, desired and eventually obtained by force the German port of Memel along with all its surrounding territory as far south as the River Memel (Nieman) and including half the Kurischer Nehrung (Kurish Spit). Conquered in 1253 by the German Order of Teutonic Knights in 1252 who built the Memelburg Castle and town around it, and recognised as permanently Prussian in 1422 as a result of the Treaty of Melno between Prussia and Lithuania, the border lay unchallenged for half a millennium until 1918. It was briefly known as Neu-Dortmund after a large group of settlers from the Rhineland. The first verse of the German National Anthem (abolished along with the second verse in 1945) describes the western and eastern borders of Germany as being "from the Maas (Meuse) to the Memel (Niemen)" rivers. Memel also had a strong English presence since 1784: English traders established the first sawmills of the town and as late as 1900 there was an active English church and a 'British Hôtel'. Memel was the temporary capital of Prussia between 1807 and 1808 during the Napoleonic Wars, an honour only accorded ever to Königsberg and Berlin.

Though put under the administration of the League of Nations in 1920 by the Treaty of Versailles pending a referendum (similar to those of East Prussia and Upper Silesia) which would allow the people to decide whether they wished to remain in Germany, become independent (like the Free State of Danzig) or be annexed to Lithuania, political events took a different course which were to deny the inhabitants of the territory their democratic rights. The Memelland, under a French military administration, would meet the same fate as that of Elsass-Lothringen (Alsace-Lorraine) and experience the same injustice accorded to Upper Silesia (Oberschlesien).

When it became clear that the Allies would not allow the Memelland to be reunited with East Prussia, a plebiscite was organised in 1921 which asked the population of the territory if they would like to become a Free State like that of Danzig. The result was overwhelmingly in favour of Free State status (76%) as the best alternative to annexation by Lithuania:

"In the plebiscite of 1921 which was organized by the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft für den Freistaat Memel" (Team for Free state Memel) voted 54,429 persons (75,75% from 71,856 persons entitled to vote) for a Free state and against the unification with Lithuania. In the same year the Lithuania Minor union under Erdmann Simoneit (lithuanized Erdmonas Simonaitis) demanded from the French administration a survey of parents with schoolchildren, but exclusively country schools without Memel city and without Herder-Gymnasium Heydekrug. The result was on an average 39,6% Lithuanian speaking parents (Memel district 61,9%; Heydekrug district 38,8% and Pogegen district 23,9%). So Petisné decreed Lithuanian as second official language with equal rights. Nevertheless Wilhelm Gaigalat (lithuanized Vilius Gaigalaitis) pretended that the result of the survey has been that 90% of Memellander were Lithuanians. [5] In a census of 1922 declared themselves 93% as ethnic Germans in Memel city and in Memel land declared themselves 63% as Memellander. In the census of 1925 (141,645 persons entitled to vote) declared themselves 59,315 as Germans (41,88%), 37,626 as Lithuanians (26,56%), 34,337 as Memellander (24,24%) and 5,280 as foreigners (3,73%). [6] The German language remained dominant in local government, despite the fact that the region was no longer part of Germany" (The Klaipeda Revolt).

In 1923 the Lithuanian Republic unilaterally seized the territory militarily, contrary to the dictates of the the Treaty of Versalles, and annexed it to its own land against the wishes of the inhabitants, in consequence of an uprising by minority Lithuanian activists using tactics not dissimilar to those of the Polish terrorist Korfanty in Upper Silesia (Oberschlesien). As we shall see presently, a proper plebiscite, akin to that of East Prussia, would undoubtedly have resulted in an overwhelming vote for Germany. The Lithuanians, knowing that they could not achieve a peaceful union with Lithuania, therefore opted for a military solution. Inspired by the fruits of Polish terrorist action, and the failure by the Allies to honour the plebiscite results in Upper Silesia when they partitioned the territory instead of returning it to Germany as they should have done, the Lithuanian nationalists doubtless saw this as their golden opportunity in the post-war chaos of a Europe plagued by revolution. Their calculations paid of: with the world media distracted by the Allied occupation of the Ruhr, the occupation of the Memelland was unopposed by the Allies who promptly renegged on their pledge for a plebiscite. As a 'compromise' the essentially Lutheran Memelland territory (renamed Klaipeda) became an autonomous territory within Catholic Lithuania known amongst Lithuanians as 'Lithuania Minor'.

"On January 16, the Polish ship "Komendant Piłsudski" entered the port of Klaipeda (Memel). One of the people on board was Mssr. Trouson, a member of the French military mission in Poland. His task was to put down the revolt, but after seeing that the Klaipeda (Memel) region already had been overtaken, and the French troops interned, the ship departed. On 17th-18th of January, British and French troop transports reached Klaipeda (Memel), but did not yet disembark." (op.cit.)

"On January 10, the French and British governments asked Lithuania, through diplomatic channels, to use "all of its power" to ensure that there would not be any attacks against people and material things in the Klaipeda (Memel) region and protested Lithuania's support for the uprising in Klaipeda (Memel). On January 11 the Prime Minister of Lithuania Ernestas Galvanauskas said that the question of Klaipeda (Memel) could only be solved in an ethnographic way - the same way under which Klaipeda (Germany) was detached from Germany. He said, however, that the Lithuanian Consul in Klaipeda (Memel) would do everything possible to try to ensure that no civilians would be hurt. Later the leaders of these European powers continued to pressure the Lithuanian government to refuse to include the Klaipeda (Memel) region as an integral part of Lithuania and, later, to allow the Western powers to decide Klaipeda's (Memel's) fate. However, Lithuania and the local government (directory) of Klaipeda (Memel) region resisted such actions, and eventually the status of Klaipeda (Memel) region was established as that of an autonomous region inside Lithuania (the Memel Territory)" (op.cit.).

Throughout the period between 1923 and Memel's reincorporation into Germany in 1939 the Lithuanian Nationalist Party never captured more than 23% of the votes (1930), even after immigration from Lithuania Major into the essentially German territory. Broadly-speaking, the inhabitants of the Memelland during this period divided themselves into three ethnic groups: (1) Germans (~38%), (2) Memellanders (~37%) and Lithuanians (~18%). By the 1935 elections the Germans and Memellanders had combined to form the United German Election List, scoring 81% of the vote and increasing this to 87% in the 1938 elections, by which time the Lithuanian vote had shrunk to 13% in spite of forced migration of ethnic Lithuanians from Lithuania proper by the fascist régime in Kaunas to the order of about 35,000 souls.

The first Landtag, elected in October 1925, was composed of 27 Germans and two Lithuanians - an indication of the German sympathies of the Memellanders, even those whose native language was Lithuanian, reflecting attitudes similar to those of the Slavic Masurians who overwhelmingly voted in favour of Germany in the East Prussian Plebiscite. As in all Prussian territories occupied by foreign powers after the First World War, from Poland to France, Prussians experienced oppression. Before the Memelland election of September 1935, German newspapers were suppressed and four candidates were deprived of Lithuanian citizenship to prevent their election; some 9,000 'new' Lithuanians were given the right to vote. An expropriation edict issued on 6 September 1937 by Lithuanian authorities enabled seizure of German land and public buildings without consultation on the part of local authorities and without adequate compensation. (Encyclopaedia Britannica Year Book, 1939).

Opposition by the population to Lithuanian rule continued. The British Foreign Office observed that prior to the Landtag (or Diet) elections on 11 December 1938, the Lithuanian police had been withdrawn and public order had been entrusted to the native German auxiliary police. Lithuanian troops had been confined to their barracks and the sentries removed from the town gates. The elections again displayed an overwhelming majority for the Germans, who then appealed to the German government to intervene on their behalf.

With no protection from the Allies, the German majority of the Memelland had to fight politically for its survival. When it became clear that the Lithuanian position in the Memelland was no longer tenable, and that in March 1939 the Memelland Landtag was about to vote for reincorporation into Germany, Lithuania conceeded and signed a treaty returning the Memelland to Germany on 22 March 1939 in exchange for a Lithuanian Free Zone in the Port of Memel to last for 99 years which would have expired in the year 2038. The citizens of the territory were, according to the treaty, allowed to choose the citzenship they wished (German or Lithuanian), and those who had been forced to emmigrate there from Lithuania during the occupation were required to return home.

The Second World War took care of the rest. With the approaching Red Army in 1944, most of the population was evacuated and the remainder expelled following the Soviet occupation, the majority fleeing to West Germany.

"Autochthonous people who remained in the former Memel territory were dismissed from their jobs. Families of notable local Lithuanians, who had opposed German parties before the war, were deported to Siberia. In 1951 Lithuanian SSR expelled 3,500 people from former Memel Territory to East Germany. In 1958, when emigration was allowed, the majority of the surviving population, both Germans and Prussian Lithuanians, emigrated to West Germany; this event was called a repatriation of Germans by the Lithuanian SSR. Today these formerly Lutheran territories are mostly inhabited by Lithuanians who are Catholic and by Orthodox Russians. However, the minority Prussian Lithuanian Protestants historically were concentrated in these regions, and some remain to this day. Only a few thousand[14] autochthons are left" (Klaipeda Region).

There is absolutely no question, ethnically and politically, of the Memelland not being an integral part of Prussia. The events which led to its sepatation from Germany after the First World War and its present status today as part of modern Lithuania is totally unjust and illegal. The Memelland is an inseparable part of the Province of East Prussia and therefore a part of the Prussian Nation.

Es führt eine Brücke nach Osten
Hinüber ins Memelland,
Was wollen die feindichen Posten
Dort drüben an Ufer's Rand.
Deutsches Reich,
Deutsches Reich,
Deutsch ist das Memelland,
Ist ewig, ewig, ewig deutsches Land!

Q. What is the most northern Prussian settlement within the Prussian and German borders of 1914?

A. Nimmersatt in the Memelland of East Prussia (Ostpreussen)

Q. Are there any places in the world called Memel and named after the East Prussian city?

A. Yes, in South Africa, on the Lesotho Border. It was founded in 1911.

Q. Are there any famous Memellanders?

A. Yes, Herman Sudermann (1857-1928), from Matzicken east of Heydekrug, a Prussian dramatist and novelist.