The Act of Reinstating Independence of Lithuania or Act of 16 February was signed by the Council of Lithuania on 16 February 1918. The Act is the legal basis for the existence of modern Lithuania. It was a key element in the foundation of Lithuania’s re-establishment of independence in 1990. The original document was found at the Diplomatic archive in Berlin, Germany.
About Act of Independence of Lithuania in brief
The Act of Reinstating Independence of Lithuania or Act of 16 February was signed by the Council of Lithuania on 16 February 1918. Lithuania had a centuries-long tradition of statehood following the coronation of Mindaugas the King of Lithuania. After the last Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, Lithuania was annexed by the Russian Empire. Lithuania, breaking away from the Soviet Union, stressed that it was simply re-establishing the independent state that existed between the world wars and that the Act never lost its legal power. The Act is the legal basis for the existence of modern Lithuania, both during the interwar period and since 1990. It was a key element in the foundation of Lithuania’s re-establishment of independence in 1990. The original document was found at the Diplomatic archive in Berlin, Germany. It is written in German, and apparently no official Lithuanian translation was prepared. The Lithuanians rebelled during the 1830 November Uprising and the 1863 January Uprising, but their first real opportunity arose when both Russia and Germany were weakened during World War I. The Vilnius Conference, held on 18–22 September 1917, adopted a resolution that an independent Lithuania should be established and that a closer relationship with Germany would be conditional on Germany’s formal recognition of the new state. On 21 September, the 214 attendees at the conference elected a 20-member council of Lithuania to codify this resolution. In November 1918 the first Cabinet of Lithuania was formed, and the Council gained control over the territory of Lithuania, although it would soon be battling the Wars of Independence, became a reality.
The first draft, demanded by chancellor Georg von Hertling, was prepared by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs on December 1. The German authorities did not allow that resolution to be published, but they did permit the Council to proceed. After discussion amongst the parties, a compromise was reached on the document’s text. On 11 December, the Act was adopted without any further changes in order to discuss the Act. The Council voted in favor of the Act, three voted against it, one member abstained, and one did not participate. Since then, no official translation of this document was prepared, and different sources provide slightly different translations of the Lithuanian Act of 11 December pronounced Lithuania’s independence, but also called for German government protection and for permanent alliance with Lithuania. The Germans refused to sign the Act and that all members of the delegation returned to Lithuania to sign a new version of the document on 11 December in order for the Act to be adopted without further changes. On 29 March 2017, the original document, written by Kurtner, Kurtner and Antanas Smetona, was found in the German Diplomatic Archive in Berlin. It is not entirely clear whether every member of the Council signed this document, and no official translator was apparently prepared for it. The document was returned to all Council members to sign it. It has since been published in English and German.
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This page is based on the article Act of Independence of Lithuania published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
