Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis

On the basis of archival documents, the interwar Lithuanian press, and historical literature, the article analyzes the policy of Lithuania’s Government in Klaipėda Region occupied by Nazi Germany in 1939. The author argues that Lithuanian authorities were not merely passive spectators of the events; they actively responded to the Nazi policy in Klaipėda Region, tried to defend the national and private economic interests and the rights of their citizens, made an effort to stop Lithuanians’ deportation from the region, as well as mediated in releasing Lithuanians from the places of imprisonment and recreated the abolished educational and cultural institutions. The efforts of Lithuanian authorities to change the situation in Klaipeda Region to its advantage were thwarted by the Soviet occupation in June, 1940.

The author of the article aims to distinguish and characterize the major stages in the development of the diplomacy centre in Klaipėda in 1920–1939; the author elucidates the circumstances of the pro-German and pro-Lithuanian consul group formation; discusses the cases of the Danish honorary consul Gerhard Schmaeling and the Swedish honorary consul Karl Wiese; the author also discloses the means by which Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Governor endeavored to restore the balance between pro-German and pro-Lithuanian forces in the consulate corps of foreign countries in Klaipėda. To clarify the above-mentioned issues, the author used the following sources: the materials from the Lithuanian Central State Archive, the periodicals of interwar Lithuanian as well as the latest historical researches.

The objective of the article is verification of the images related to the pro-Nazi orientation of population of Klaipėda Region in 1930’s which was formed in propaganda discourse and Lithuanian Soviet historiography during the interwar and post-war period. Disassociating the material from the incriminatory attitude, which prevailed in Soviet historiography, the authors analyse the support for National Socialism in Klaipėda Region, define the reasons for this support, characterize the motives for involvement in the local pro-Nazi structures of the local population, and the aims of the NSDAP for maintaining these structures. The article distinguishes three stages of adaptation of National Socialism in Klaipėda Region as well as peculiarities of this adaptation.