History Museum of Lithuania Minor

Museum covering the German-Lithuanian cultural history of the Memel region

The History Museum of Lithuania Minor covers the cultural and political history of the Memelland — the strip of territory around Klaipėda that was German-administered until 1919, briefly independent under French supervision, seized by Lithuania in 1923, and then occupied by Nazi Germany in 1939 before returning to Lithuania in 1945. The exhibits trace the pre-war society, the Lithuanian cultural minority within what was a German-majority city, the two World Wars, and the postwar transformation of the city's population.

The museum is in the old town and complements a visit to the Theatre Square (where Hitler made his annexation speech in 1939) with historical context. The collections include photographs, documents, everyday objects, and reconstructions of domestic life from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

things to do museum
A story
Lithuania Minor — Klein Litauen in German — was the name for the Lithuanian-speaking Protestant population of the Prussian-administered Memel region. These were ethnically Lithuanian but Prussian subjects, and they developed a distinctive culture that combined German institutional life with Lithuanian language and folk traditions. The museum documents this community, which largely disappeared in the forced evacuations and population transfers of 1944–1945.