Sammelband: Preußens Litauer: Studien zu einer (fast) vergessenen Minderheit

Preußens Litauer: Studien zu einer (fast) vergessenen Minderheit

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Schriften zur Kulturwissenschaft, volume 119

Hamburg , 276 pages

ISBN 978-3-8300-9732-7 (print)

ISBN 978-3-339-09732-3 (eBook)

Rezensionen

[...] Doch die Aufsätze dieses Sammelbandes gehen weit über Forschungen aus einer regionalen Perspektive hinaus. Einige von ihnen liefern hervorragende methodische Ansätze für unterschiedlich ausgerichtete Untersuchungen in der historischen Forschung wie auch zu ostmitteleuropäischen Themen:

[...] Dieses Untersuchungsmuster ließe sich auch auf andere ethnische Minderheiten und Regionen anwenden. In diesem Sinne hat der Band einen Wert, der weit über die Erforschung der ehemaligen preußisch-litauischen Region und deren Bewohner herausgeht, deren Spuren sich heute im Wesentlichen, nach dem Verbot des Litauischen in der NS-Zeit und Flucht und Vertreibung am Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs, nur noch in den Museen von Klaipėda und Šilutė finden lassen.

Ruth Leiserowitz in: Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung, ZfO 68 (2019) 2

[...] Everyone who is interested in East Prussia and Prussian Lithuanians, cultural contacts and contact zones, the rural culture in the transitional period from an agrarian to industrial society, and the history of communication, will find a concentrated collection of works by Manfred Klein on these topics in this collection.

Vasilijus Safronovas in: Forschungen zur Baltischen Geschichte, FzbG 13 (2018)


About this book deutschenglish

The German public has largely lost awareness of them: the Prussian Lithuanians, also known in German as Kleinlitauer. At one time, on the edge of the Prussian state, in north-eastern East Prussia, there could be found the Provinz Litthauen, named after its inhabitants. Members of this Baltic population group called themselves Lietuvininkai or Burai. They were distinguished not only by their Lithuanian language, but also by their unique culture. After the second world war, they were almost completely forgotten in the German-speaking region. Flight and displacement from East Prussia also meant the end of the Kleinlitauer in their ancestral settlement area. The last remaining survivors and their descendants can today be found in the Republic of Lithuania, in Germany and above all in North America. Indeed, wherever they were dispersed to by historical events.

With its eleven studies, this volume approaches the history, culture and language of this group who became a minority in Prussia and the German empire. The focus of the studies lies on the Prussian Lithuanians’ struggle for their own ethnic identity. This is closely bound up with their ancestral language and its displacement from public life. What do mother tongue and cultural habitus mean for the self-awareness of the group and the individuals who comprise it? Two works look at outstanding personalities of Lithuania Minor origin: Donelaitis and Jankus. The Lithuanian standard language and the printed word, both developed in Lithuania Minor, were of phenomenal importance for the entire Lithuanian nation. This circumstance is closely tied to the activities of the University of Königsberg and German scholars’ interest in the Lithuanian language and culture. Several of the studies in this publication devote themselves to the cultural and social contacts between the German-speaking population and the Lietuvininkai. Not least, they address the even today only partially known thematic influence of Prussian Lithuania on 19th century German literature. Two essays are devoted to the jurist and writer for a popular audience J. D. H. Temme, who was well acquainted with the country and population of Lithuania Minor thanks to his own attentive study and personal encounters.

Ihr Werk im Verlag Dr. Kovač

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