Res Humanitariae

The article discusses the origin of the place-name Preila. Preila is a settlement located in the Curonian Spit. To this day, there is no obvious and definitely proven interpretation of this name’s origin. The reason for this is a failure to detect linguistic motivation of the origin of the onym in the kursenieku language. The settlement itself was set about as late as the 19th century, while most linguists tend to look for ancient (Curonian of Prussian) origin of its name. Both phonetic and morphologic structure of the name seems to support this approach, but there was a shortage of proof that motivating lexeme with the theme Preil- could survive through to the 19th century in the language or onomastics of kursenieku language.The article employs several analysis methods, in particular: comparative, internal reconstruction, cartographic, geolinguistic. As some proof surfaced of presence of the onym in cartography prior to establishment of the settlement, the author makes assumption that it was an undocumented Curonian person’s name that gave birth to a place-name, which could initially be just a name of a steading or a micro-toponym.

The article discusses the data provided by visitation of 1569 of the parish of Kuncai in the Curonian Spit in the context of all the visited parishes in Semba diocese. An attempt is made to review the scale of the rooting of confessional norms in daily life, the quality of clergymen‘s education, the level of parishioner indoctrination, the material situation of the parish, etc. The visitation acts are examined through the prism of the aspect of confessionalization, and the characteristics of the process are identified: the priests’ personalities and performance are studied, as well as their control of the subordinates on the basis of the confession, the collaboration of the secular and church authorities, etc.

The fact that the Curonian Spit is one of the most important landscape icons of East Prussia is substantiated by reports from the travels and literary works of numerous German authors. This paper analyses articles on the Curonian Spit that were published between 1920 and 1939 in the “Ostdeutsche Monatshefte” journal that was one of the most important cultural magazines focused on the issues of the “German East”. It served as the basis for a description of elements that created the “ambience” (Georg Simmel) of this East Prussian landscape icon (dunes, the sea, the bay, the world of birds, and the ubiquitous moose), and its perception as a specifically German landscape, particularly in the inter-war period.

Since 1990 many Germans travel to the former German regions in Eastern Europe from which they or their relatives had been displaced in the course of World War II. Studying the case of Nida on the Curonian Spit in Lithuania – the former Nidden in East Prussia and the Memel district, respectively – the article examines the role of ‘roots-tourism’ (Heimattourismus) for the visitors as well as for the town Nida. Visits to the former homeland spark the examination of one’s own life story. This enables the former inhabitants to overcome their homesickness so that they gradually become ‘normal’ tourists. In this process they reinforce the ‘place-myth’ of this region as an idyllic paradise at the Baltic Sea. Tourism, thus, provides for continuity by reconstructing the past in the mind of the visitors as well as in the tourist place. The article points out how the tourism industry tunes its ears to the visitors’ demands and offers different approaches to the past.

The end of the Second World War vitally influenced the fate of East Prussia not only from a historical point of view, but also its collective memory. The main object of the article is an analysis of the local aspects of this issue. This included the Curonian Spit as an important evacuation route for Klaipėda/Memel inhabitants at the end of 1944 and a reflection of this process in the collective memory. An important aspect of this analysis is connected with the problem of contemporary Curonian Spit residents in relating with the past as a part of their identity.