…Its international significance and legacy in the context of European borderland micro-regions
DAY 1 of 3
10:00 Welcome address
Representatives of the MFA, KU, LIH, UC, the Library
10:30 Opening keynote: Brendan Simms, University of Cambridge (UK): Memel and the geopolitics of the Baltic
11:00 – 11:15 Coffee
11:15 – 13:15 First Session
Moderator: TBC
Donatas Kupčiūnas, University of Cambridge (UK): Between civilisation and geopolitics: British and French plans for the future of Memel before January 1923
Joachim Tauber, Nordost-Institut (Germany): The Significance of the Klaipėda Question for German Foreign Policy, 1919–1939
Julien Gueslin, Strasbourg University (France): A barometer of “New Europa”? France and the question of the Memel Statute (1922–1935): between defense of a democratic multicultural region, support to Lithuanian State and European Realpolitik
Vilma Bukaitė, National Museum of Lithuania (Lithuania): France’s interaction with Great Britain on the issue of Klaipėda (1922–beginning 1923): between cooperation and competition
13:15 – 14:15 Lunch
14:15 – 15:45 Second Session
Moderator: TBC
Marta Grzechnik, University of Gdańsk (Poland): The importance of access to the Baltic Sea and control of one’s own ports for the new states in post-First World War Europe. The case of Gdynia and the Danzig Corridor
Rikako Shindo, Hosei University Tokyo (Japan): Königsberg’s attempts to establish the freedom of transit traffic on the Niemen River in the 1920s: The regional interest of East Prussia and the international tension between the riparian countries in north-eastern Europe
Klaus Richter, University of Birmingham (UK): Chaos Is a Ladder: The Great Depression and Lithuania’s Integration of the Klaipėda Region
15:45 – 16:00 Coffee
16:00 – 17:30 Third Session
Moderator: TBC
Algimantas Kasparavičius, Lithuanian Institute of History (Lithuania): From the ‘insurgence’ to the ‘Ultimatum’: the Dilemma of Klaipėda in the Foreign Policy of Lithuania, 1923–1939
Jerzy Borzecki, University of Toronto at Mississauga (Canada): The Polish perspective on the Lithuanian takeover of Memel in 1923 in the context of the post-Riga diplomatic settlement
Magnus Ilmjärv, Tallinn University (Estonia): Estonian foreign policy, public opinion and the question of Klaipėda, 1923–1939
Dinner
DAY 2 of 3 – Friday, 26 May 2023
10:00 Departure to Klaipėda
Walk and dinner in Klaipėda
Organised by:
- Centre for Geopolitics, University of Cambridge
- Institute of Baltic Region History and Archeology, University of Klaipeda
- Lithuanian Institute of History
In partnership with:
- Martynas Mazvydas National Library of Lithuania
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Lithuania
Sponsored by:
- Klaipeda Miesto Savivaldybe
- Research Council of Lithuania
- Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania
