Panemunė

Panemunė
City

Panemunė between 1900-1906
Panemunė

Location of Panemunė

Coordinates: 55°6′0″N 21°54′0″E / 55.10000°N 21.90000°E / 55.10000; 21.90000Coordinates: 55°6′0″N 21°54′0″E / 55.10000°N 21.90000°E / 55.10000; 21.90000
Country  Lithuania
Ethnographic region Lithuania Minor
County Tauragė County
Municipality Pagėgiai municipality
Eldership Pagėgiai eldership
Granted city rights 1837
Population (2007)
 • Total 319
Time zone EET (UTC+2)
 • Summer (DST) EEST (UTC+3)

Panemunė ( pronunciation ; German: Übermemel) is the smallest city in Lithuania. It is situated on the banks of the Neman (Memel) River opposite Sovetsk, 8 km (5.0 mi) south from Pagėgiai, in Tauragė County. It is a border checkpoint to Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast).

The magnificent Queen Louise Bridge (which still exists, built in 1907, though now badly scarred by World War II and rebuilt in 1946) links Panemunė to the larger town of Sovetsk (Tilsit until 1946) just south across the river.

The main street of Panemunė

History

The area comprising today's Panemunė used to be the northern trans-Memel (Neman) suburb of Tilsit, then a Prussian and later also German town (as of 1871). Then Tilsit sat close to the border between Germany and Russia.

After Germany's defeat in World War I, the trans-Memel suburb was disentangled from Tilsit (with the rest of the Memelland/Klaipėda Region detached from the Province of East Prussia) in 1920. The suburb was given the name Übermemel, which means over the Memel river in German.

French administered the area pursuant to the Treaty of Versailles, establishing the League of Nations mandate of Memel/Klaipėda. In 1923 the newly emerged nation of Lithuania annexed the Memelland after the Klaipėda Revolt and Übermemel was given the name Panemunė. Germany re-acquired Panemunė (with all of Memelland) on 23 March 1939 - its last peaceful territorial gain before the Second World War. So Panemunė (Übermemel) was reintegrated into the city of Tilsit.

Following World War II, the whole area was seized by the Soviet Union and in 1947 Panemunė (like all the Klaipėda Region) became part of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, and Panemunė has remained Lithuanian ever since.

See also

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