German Vilnius

The first immigrants to Vilnius from German lands were Catholic clergy, Franciscan monks, and merchants. They were engaged in pastoral work, and the monks also worked as clerks and translators in the Chancery of Grand Duke Gediminas. A community of German craftsmen was also developing at that time. 

Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania sent seven letters in Latin to Europe. The first letter of Gediminas, addressed to Pope John XXII, was sent to Avignon in the summer of 1322, but Vilnius was not mentioned in this letter. However, the name of Vilnius was already mentioned in a letter written by Gediminas to the citizens of the Hanseatic cities on 25 January 1323. Gediminas invited Christian merchants, soldiers (knights), their squires, craftsmen, farmers and clergy from Lübeck, Stralsund, Bremen, Magdeburg, and Cologne to come and settle in Vilnius. Copies of several of Gediminas’ letters are preserved in Berlin, while a copy of Gediminas’ second letter, which mentions Vilnius for the first time, is preserved in Riga, in the Latvian State Historical Archive.

On 25 May 2002, six new bells were consecrated and placed in the tower of Vilnius Cathedral. They were donated by the Archdiocese of Cologne to the City of Vilnius and the Cathedral. The cathedral bells were cast on 8 March 2002 in Gescher, one of the largest bell foundries in Germany, ‘Petit und Gebr. Edelbrock’, established in Westphalia in the second half of the 18th century. All the bells were tuned by German bell specialists. 

The bell consecration ceremony in Vilnius Cathedral Square was attended by Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne, Peter Stephan Zurbriggen, Apostolic Nuncio to Lithuania, Cardinal Audrys Juozas Bačkis, Archbishop of Kaunas, Sigitas Tamkevičius, SJ, and Bishops Jonas Boruta, SJ, and Juozas Tunaitis.   

According to a long tradition, each church bell has its own name, a symbolic sign and a Latin inscription. The largest bell is dedicated to Joachim, the patron saint of Cardinal Joachim Meisner. The anchor on this bell symbolises the virtue of hope, and the inscription proclaims: Spes nostra firma (‘In faith our hope’). The largest bell weighs 2,595 kg.

Climb the bell tower to see all the bells of the Cathedral up close and listen to them ringing. And, of course, the bell tower of Vilnius Cathedral offers a magnificent view of the city. 

In the middle of the 18th century, the bell tower was reconstructed according to a Baroque design by the German architect Johann Christopher Glaubitz, a representative of the Vilnius Baroque School. The bell tower acquired its present appearance at the beginning of the 19th century.

When visiting the National Museum of Lithuania – the Palace of the Grand Dukes, it is worth taking a longer look at the genealogical map of the Lithuanian rulers and their relations with the European monarchs’ families. From the middle of the 15th century onwards, the ruling dynasties of Germany and the Jagiellonians (Jogailaičiai) were linked by marriage. 

One of the most important German states for the historical development of Lithuania was Saxony. Lithuania and Saxony were especially closely linked at the end of the 17th century and in the second half of the 18th century (1697-1763), when the Commonwealth of the Two Nations and the Principality of Saxony were ruled by two common rulers from the Saxon Wettin dynasty – Augustus the Strong and his son Augustus III. These were times of political development, hope and military setbacks, calm public life and confrontation between political factions, the spread of culture and the complications of the international situation, the paralysis of some governing structures and the maturing of the first major plans for state reform.

The Saxon Wettins ruled the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw in the early 19th century, which also included Lithuanian lands on the left bank of the river Nemunas. Interestingly, a hundred years later, at the end of the First World War, representatives of the Saxon dynasty were again considered candidates for the throne of Lithuania.

In addition to political, diplomatic, dynastic and military ties, Lithuania and Saxony were also linked by cultural and artistic ties, dating back to the Renaissance and intensifying during the Baroque period, when the Commonwealth of the Two Nations and Saxony were ruled by common rulers.

In which German city can you find a particularly large number of Lithuanian Vytis? Dresden. These signs of Lithuanian identity are really worth looking out for when you visit Dresden.

In 2017, Lithuania celebrated both the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and the 250th anniversary of the death of the architect Johann Christopher Glaubitz. J.K. Glaubitz was not only a first-class artist but also an extremely tolerant man who worked for clients of all denominations. Even today, we can still admire Glaubitz’s magnificent works, especially in sacred buildings. Glaubitz’s name is associated with the exceptional Vilnius Baroque style, also known as Johann K. Glaubitz Baroque or the Vilnius Baroque School. This distinctive Baroque School influenced almost the entire territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Johann Christoph Glaubitz, who came to Vilnius from Silesia, was an Evangelical Lutheran who became the main architect and most prolific contributor to the Vilnius Baroque style of architecture, unparalleled in European Baroque architecture. The most distinctive feature of his School is the extremely tall, slender, openwork towers of the main facade. 

At the time, there was no Department of Architecture at Vilnius University. The Baroque buildings in the courtyard of Vilnius University were erected after the 1737 fire in Vilnius, after which the city was rebuilt. 

The arrival of Glaubitz from Silesia to Vilnius in 1738 is inextricably linked to the fire that devastated Vilnius on 2 June 1737. He was invited to Vilnius by the Evangelical Lutherans. The fire reduced the first parish church in Vilnius to ashes, as well as the organ, altars and liturgical vestments. The bell tower, which had stood since the end of the 16th century, was not spared by the tongues of fire; even the bells had melted down. The fire that started near the Royal Mill spread, destroying three-quarters of the town’s buildings, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the adjacent community buildings.

One of the most important works of J. K. Glaubitz is St. Johns’ Church and bell tower at Vilnius University.

The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist and St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, is a three-nave church with seven chapels. The construction of this church is associated with the Christianisation of Lithuania; its plan and interior space have retained their Gothic structure to this day. 

The enchanting, organ-like main façade of the church, which resembles Baroque architectural chords and overlooks the Grand Courtyard of Vilnius University, was designed by J. K. Glaubitz himself, as was the bell tower, which dominates the Vilnius skyline. The altar ensemble of St. Johns’ Church is unparalleled in Lithuanian church art – also the work of J. K. Glaubitz.

He also decorated, rebuilt, and beautified the Evangelical Lutheran buildings on Vokiečių Street and built the towers and chapels of the Church of St. Catherine, the Church of the Ascension Missionary Church, and the Holy Trinity Church and Basilian Gate. Glaubitz also designed the interior of the late Baroque interior of the Church of the Holy Spirit (Aušros vartų g. 10) and the altars of St. Anne’s Church, as well as reconstructing the Olizar Palace on Bernardinų Street. Many of his works have disappeared into oblivion; among his works that have not survived are the reconstructed facade of the Cathedral (1752), the tower and facade of the Town Hall (1749-1753), the interiors of the Old Jewish Synagogue, and the Lutheran cemetery chapel (1749-1751 and 1759-1762).

In an ironic twist of fate, on 30 March 1767, an unfortunate death befell J.K. Glaubitz. While inspecting the work of the bricklayers, he slipped and fell from the scaffolding. He was buried in the Lutheran cemetery on the land that once belonged to the Radziwiłł family on Liejyklos Street. 

The name of this architect has been commemorated in only one place in Vilnius so far – there is a street named after J.K. Glaubitz in the Tarandė district.

On 29 March 2017, a significant historical event for Lithuania took place – in the German diplomatic archives in Berlin, Professor Liudas Mažylis of Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) found the original Lithuanian version of the Act of Independence of Lithuania of 16 February 1918.

Prof. Liudas Mažylis presented a virtual exhibition on Wilhelm von Urach declaring: “Wilhelm von Urach was worthy of Lithuania, and Lithuania was worthy of him… “.

The virtual exhibition included scanned copies of about 50 letters of Mindaugas II and translations of these letters into Lithuanian, which are stored in the private archive of the Urachs in Stuttgart. The letters give an insight into von Urach’s personality and his attitude towards Lithuania, especially during the period when, under difficult geopolitical conditions, the Lithuanian Council was manoeuvring between two fires – Russia and Germany – in an effort to fulfil its mandate of 18-22 September 1917. The aim of the Vilnius Conference was to establish an independent Lithuanian state. 

On 16 February 1918, when the Lithuanian Council signed the Act of Independence, the political form of the state had not yet been finalised. 

As early as the beginning of 1918, the nomination of a monarch was discussed. After rejecting the idea of inviting Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany as monarch, the choice was between Prince Friedrich Christian of Saxony and Prince Urach of Württemberg. 

He was an aristocrat of the royal family of Württemberg, a devout Catholic, the father of a large family (he was already widowed in 1918), and tried to combine his professional military service with his ambitions as a monarch. 

The Council of Lithuania imposed many conditions on Urach: he had to be Mindaugas II (which is how he referred to himself in his letters), to rule with an elected parliament, his advisors had to be Lithuanian-speaking, and his children had to attend Lithuanian schools. 

On 11 July 1918, the Council of Lithuania proclaimed Wilhelm von Urach as King Mindaugas II of Lithuania. Urach’s election deepened the rift between the central German government and Lithuania. However, the disagreements were resolved when Germany lost the war. On 2 November 1918, when it became clear that Germany was losing the war, the Council of Lithuania revoked its decision of 11 July to appoint Urach as King and entrusted the matter to the Constituent Assembly. Urach never came to Lithuania as King of the State and never acquired the regalia of a monarch. 

Meanwhile, the Lithuanian Council itself was also divided on the issue of Urach’s being the monarch of Lithuania – left-wing members walked out of the Lithuanian Council in protest when the issue was discussed.

Literatų Street is one of the cosiest and most picturesque streets in Vilnius Old Town. It became especially popular when a joint project of young artists started in 2008, creating dedications to literary giants out of wood, metal, glass, ceramics, and other materials.

The idea of commemorating the representatives of the art of the written word on Literatų Street through street decoration was conceived by the graphic artist Eglė Vertelkaitė in 2008. She was recognised for her work to revive Literatų Street in 2009 when she received the ‘St. Christopher’s Statue’ award. All of the writers commemorated – over 200 today – have a direct link to Lithuania or have visited the country. Finding dedication plaques can be a fun game; German tourists usually rush to capture the plaques dedicated to two Nobel Prize winners in Literature – Günter Grass and Herta Müller – with their camera lenses. However, the latter’s plaque is almost unrecognisable and needs restoration.

The plaque of Günter Grass is by Audronė Vaškevičiūtė. In 2000, Grass visited Vilnius and participated in literary readings together with Czesław Miłosz, Tomas Venclova, and Wisława Szymborska. The Goethe-Institut and the Polish Institute in Vilnius organised a series of discussions named ‘Lithuanian, German, and Polish Conversations on the Future of Memory’. A book of the same title was published by ‘Baltos lankos’ in three languages.

G. Grass was born in 1927 in Danzig (Gdansk, Poland, since 1945). In 1944, he was drafted into the SS. This fact of his biography only came to light in 2006 with the publication of his memoir, ‘Peeling the Onion’.

He became world-famous for his trilogy of books ‘The Tin Drum’ (1959), ‘Cat and Mouse’ (1961), and ‘Dog Years’ (1963). In 1999, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Herta Müller is a German-Romanian writer and Nobel Prize Laureate who was born in 1953 in Nitchidorf, Romania. Herta Müller’s plaque on Literatų Street is by Saulė Urbanavičiūtė.

In April 2011, the writer visited Vilnius. Herta Müller writes in her books about what she inherited from her mother, who suffered Soviet exile. She writes about her experiences under Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime in Romania – things she wanted to rid herself of but took with her to West Berlin. Her novels ‘The Appointment’ and ‘The Hunger Angel’ have been translated into Lithuanian.

Vilnius had a strong German colony from the time of Gediminas. It is believed that St. Anne’s Church was built as a chapel of the Bernardine monastery for the Brotherhood of St. Anne, one of the oldest fraternities in Lithuania. Its existence in Vilnius as early as the end of the 15th century is attested to by today’s more thorough studies of the origins of St. Anne’s Church. The history of this Vilnius Brotherhood is inseparable from the activities of the Vilnius Germans and the Bernardine monks.

Its construction was funded by Alexander Jagiellon. During the Middle Ages in Western Europe, the veneration of St. Anne became very popular and fashionable, especially in Germany. From the 13th century onwards, brotherhoods of St. Anne were already known in Germany as the ‘Annenbruder’. Originally, they were religious communities of merchants and miners. 

The German colonists in Vilnius gathered in their own communities under the patronage of St. Anne, founded fraternities in her name, built churches and chapels in her name, and in other ways, followed the example of their homeland. She could have brought together the Germans of Vilnius even before the Bernardines settled there, and when the latter began to work in Vilnius, she came under their protection, as was the case in other countries.

St. Anne was highly revered as the mother of the Virgin Mary; women who could not bear a child prayed to her. When the church was built in 1501, the Brotherhood of St. Martin moved there, and sermons in the church were preached in German. St. Martin’s Brotherhood operated until 1940. The Baroque altars in this church were designed by Johann Christoph Glaubitz. 

Today’s Vokiečių Street, which has been celebrated by the Lithuanian rap group ‘G&G Sindikatas’, is a reminder of the German merchants and craftsmen who lived here in the Middle Ages. At the end of the 14th century, the German town was spread over an area of about 6 hectares, with a radius of 50 to 80 metres around the Church of St. Nicholas. According to archaeologists, the pottery forms found here and the intense layers of culture indicate that development was very rapid in this area. Within a couple of decades, it had become densely populated. From this emerging Catholic suburb, the roads extended to the Catholic lands of Livonia and Poland. 

Over time, the German suburb expanded in the direction of Rūdninkų Street, Naugarduko Street, and towards the present-day Trakų Street. According to some researchers, one of the earliest markets in Vilnius was located near the Church of St. Nicholas. 

After the arrival of the German Catholics in Vilnius, brick churches in the Gothic style of architecture were built (the first brick Gothic church in Smėlynė was the Church of St. Nicholas). German Catholics were also active in the public life of Vilnius. As foreigners in a pagan city, they sought certain rights, which were eventually extended to all citizens. In this way, the Catholics contributed in part to the spread of the German Magdeburg Rights in the country, as well as to the formation of Vilnius dwellers as an estate of the realm and the economic life of the region. In his letters, Gediminas was already cleverly trying to attract craftsmen and merchants to the city to help raise the level of crafts in Vilnius. 

The house of the architect Johann Christopher Glaubitz is believed to have been a two-storey building located at the current address of Pranciškonų g. 6. After the architect’s death, the house was known as ‘Glaubitz House’ for a long time. While renovating large ensembles in Vilnius, the architect kept returning to the Lutheran Quarter, painting the community shelter and the parsonage (Vokiečių g. 18-22).

In the 16th century, the property belonged to the German Ulrich Hosius, a Vilnius castellan; at the end of the 17th century, it passed into the ownership of Paul Meler, a doctor of philosophy and medicine, and at the end of the 17th century, it became the property of the Lutherans. The façade of the main building complex of this plot faces Vokiečių Street, while the remaining buildings run perpendicular to the plot all the way to Pranciškonų Street. The layout of the outbuildings and the garden of the main and auxiliary buildings form three courtyards. The rear building of the second courtyard was Glaubitz’s dwelling. The architect is believed to have lived here from the time of its foundation until his death. In order to mark the previous owners of the house, Glaubitz’s brick house is also referred to in the sources by the names of Hosius and Meler.

Another very interesting and legendary name for this house is ‘Satan’s House’. In one of the buildings on Vokiečių Street (number 24), a fragment of a mid-17th-century mural was discovered during exploratory polychrome analysis. It depicts several dancing witches, a pipe-playing winged devil, a satyr, and a steaming jug. These symbols are linked to Protestant traditions. This iconographic scene, the ‘Witches’ Sabbath’, originated in 15th-century art during the Reformation movement and became popular under the influence of Protestant theology and the teaching of Martin Luther. In Lutheran religious consciousness, the role of Satan as the antagonist of God was reinforced. The evil one is said to be constantly at work in people’s lives; it is, therefore, necessary to remain vigilant and fight against him. This may have been a reference to another common story in German folklore, the ‘Walpurgis Night’. It is believed that it was this mural that led to the nickname ‘Satan’s house’ being given to the Glaubitz house. The house, the architect himself, and the Protestant milieu of the time were described by the writer Kristina Sabaliauskaitė in her novel ‘Silva Rerum III’.