Pasiklydę tarp savęs ir įverčių: 1918–1940 m. Lietuvos vokiečių įvaizdžio klausimu
Lost between Themselves and Images: Lithuanian Germans between 1918 and 1940

Summary/Abstract: The historical tradition of the Lithuanian German community is long and changeable, with its sources going back to the 13th–14th century. The history of communication of the Lithuanian society with the Germans testified to the development of both their neighbourly relations and manifestations of hostilities. Facts of the analysis of the written heritage of memory (folklore) speak in favour of the latter. The ins and outs of development of inter-war Lithuania posed new challenges to the German communities. The viewpoints of those who assessed the media (the neighbourly environment of everyday life, the official strata of the authorities) differed, though the latter, following the principle of the “adjoining vessels”, testified to the similarities of the principles too. The Lithuanian socius admitted that the constituent parts of the German images were their industriousness, professionalism at work and responsibility. Alongside these, there was a dimension of the image of the positive assessment indicators and the “internal enemies”. Two forms of its expression are to be distinguished – the individual and “close to a group one”. The supposition that some part of the Germans used to become “enemies anonymously”, that is, without themselves being aware of that (information about spying on persons certifies in favour of this argument), cannot be rejected. The so-called negative “group” image became more pronounced in the presence of marginal life situations of society (for example, during Tauragė, Alytus coups, unrests of Suvalkija peasants in 1935). The influence of the external factor – the role of Germany that became prominent – most probably contributed to the negative part of image of the Germans too, and the peripeteia of the occupation of Klaipėda region in 1939 affected both changes in a collective feeling of the communities themselves and their own images. Against the background of the latter events the confidential position of the official strata of the authorities “nourished” by the spying information and bound by internal and external commitments with respect to the ethnic minorities became more cautious. At the same time these principles, most likely, sent a “false signal” to the German community, which sacrificed a part of its loyalty for the benefit of a new, still intangible, future perspective. The article discusses characterisations of the images of the Lithuanian German communities on the basis of confidential information of spying on the inhabitants (correspondence between the Department of Citizens’ Protection, the county Governors), on the basis of the analysis of published memoirs. The constituent parts of the images (“positive” and “negative”) of the Lithuanian Germans and the factors that determined them are elucidated in the article. Also, attention is paid to the changes in the contents of the position of the official authorities with respect to the German community.

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