Vilius Gaigalaitis or Wilhelm Gaigalat (27 September 1870 – 30 November 1945) was a Lutheran priest and Prussian Lithuanian activist. He was a member of the Prussian House of Representatives (1903–1918), director of the consistory of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lithuania (1925–1933), and professor at Vytautas Magnus University (1925–1936).
Educated at the University of Königsberg, Gaigalaitis was ordained priest and received doctorate in philosophy in 1900. He worked as priest in (1900–1902), Priekulė (1902–1915), and Katyčiai (1915–1919). As a representative of the Lithuanian Conservative Election Societies, Gaigalaitis was elected to the Landtag of Prussia in 1903, 1908, and 1913. He aligned with the German Conservative Party and defended the use of the Lithuanian language in schools and churches. During World War I, he supported Lithuania's independence and the idea of uniting Lithuania Minor with Lithuania Proper. In 1918, he was elected chairman of the National Council of Lithuania Minor but did not sign the Act of Tilsit. After Lithuania gained control of the Klaipėda Region in January 1923, Gaigalaitis became a member of the Directorate of the Klaipėda Region but resigned within a year due to disagreements and withdrew from further political work.
Gaigalaitis was a member and co-founder of numerous cultural and educational Lithuanian societies. He was the long-term chairman of the Sandora Society and editor of its newspaper Pagalba. After World War I, he worked on establishing Lithuanian schools. He taught at the Faculty of the Evangelical Theology at Vytautas Magnus University from its establishment in 1925 to its closure in 1936. In 1925, he became the director of the consistory of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lithuania and took measures against pro-German priests.
Various Lithuanian schools and societies were liquidated after Lithuania lost Klaipėda Region to Nazi Germany in March 1939, destroying Gaigalaitis' life's work. He retreated to Lithuania and then to Germany where he died in Bretten in 1945. In total, Gaigalaitis published 25 books, including a study on (Community Movement) among Prussian Lithuanians and the first Lithuanian-language work on poet Kristijonas Donelaitis.
Biography Early life and education Born on 27 September 1870, Gaigalaitis was the youngest of nice children in a family of farmers in Naujienos (German: Heydebruch; present-day in Pagėgiai Municipality) near Vilkyškiai The village was then part of East Prussia which had a large Lithuanian-speaking minority of Prussian Lithuanians. The family owned 300 morgens of land (). The family was affluent and Gaigalaitis sometimes presented himself as a son of petty nobility.
Gaigalaitis attended a primary school in starting in 1877. His first known article (a translation from German about Christian missionaries) was published in Keleivis supplement of Konzervatyvų draugystės laiškas in 1884 (at the age of 14). In 1886, he was tutored for nine months by priest Jonas Pipiras and successfully passed entrance examination to the (now Klaipėda). A year later, he transferred to the (now Sovetsk) where, according to his memoirs, he organized a secret student group Baltija. In Tilsit, Gaigalaitis became acquainted with other Lithuanian activists, particularly those working to publish Varpas, and began contributing more actively to the Lithuanian press.
University studies After graduating high school in 1892, Gaigalaitis chose to study theology and philosophy at the University of Königsberg. He also took classes on comparative linguistics, history, Lithuanian language. Linguistic professor Adalbert Bezzenberger had a formative influence on Gaigalaitis. In November 1894, he joined the . He studied for six months at the University of Berlin (there is conflicting information whether he studied linguistic or agricultural subjects).
To become a priest, Gaigalaitis had to pass two examinations – pro licentia concionandi (for delivering sermons) an pro ministerio (for the ministry). There was a mandatory 18-month waiting period between these exams. During this time, Gaigalaitis attended six-week courses at the teacher's seminary in Ragnit (now Neman) and taught in primary schools.
In June 1900, he received doctorate of philosophy from the University of Königsberg for his thesis on the Wolfenbütteler Postil (newly discovered Lithuanian manuscript from 1573). Gaigalaitis chose the topic under the influence of Adalbert Bezzenberger who helped him obtain financial assistance from the German government. The thesis was published in the journal of the Lithuanian Literary Society. It was a linguistic, not theological work.
Career Religion Gaigalaitis was ordained priest in June 1900. He accepted a position as an assistant priest () in , but it was a small and remote village with no church. When a small church was built in nearby , Gaigalaitis relocated there (a Lutheran parish in Ramučiai was established in 1902). In April 1902, he became the second priest of the much larger and more established parish in Priekulė. In 1904, Endrikis Endrulaitis became the first priest of the parish. He was active in the Lithuanian press and collaborated with Gaigalaitis, but was skeptical of the Lithuanian National Revival. In October 1915, Gaigalaitis became priest in Katyčiai. Due to increased social and political involvement, he left active pastoral work in March 1919. He then moved to Memel (Klaipėda) where he lived until 1940.
In June 1925, Gaigalaitis was elected by the synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lithuania to the church's consistory. Despite protests from the German and Latvian members of the congregation, President of Lithuania appointed Gaigalaitis as president of the consistory. He served in this position until 1933 and took measures against pro-German priests. For such policies, Gaigalaitis was frequently attacked by German priests. In 1928, Kurt Ballerstedt published a brochure (The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Lithuania in the Fight for its Freedom) with a foreword by Gustav Adolf Deissmann. Gaigalaitis responded by publishing his own brochure the following year which highlighted struggles of the church in 1925–1929.
In 1937, he attended the World Conference on Church, Community and State in Oxford (the second conference of the Life and Work movement) and delivered a presentation arguing that priests should not get involved in national conflicts.
Politics
In 1903, Gaigalaitis as a representative of the Lithuanian Conservative Election Societies, was elected to the Prussian House of Representatives of the Landtag of Prussia. He was reelected in 1908 and 1913 serving until 1918. Initially, he joined the fraction of the German Conservative Party but later identified as an independent. According to his memoirs, during his years at the Landtag, he delivered 14 more notable speeches, particularly on the issues of the Lithuanian language in schools and churches. While in Berlin, he promoted Lithuanian culture. For example, he organized an exhibition of Lithuanian folk art in 1910 and lectures about Lithuania.
During World War I, when Germany occupied most of present-day Lithuania, Gaigalaitis published a political brochure The Lithuanian–Baltic Question () in which he argued that Germany should create a German-controlled buffer state from the Governorates of Vilna, Kovno, and Suwałki. At the time, he did not want to incorporate Prussian Lithuanians into this polity. In 1917, he published a more comprehensive treatise Lithuania: the Occupied Land () in support of Lithuania's independence. The book included a map of ethnographic Lithuania that encompassed both Lithuania Minor and Lithuania Proper. He was also a member of the German–Lithuanian Society that published newspaper Das neue Litauen which supported Lithuania's independence, but only if Lithuania was dependent on Germany.
On 16 November 1918, Gaigalaitis was elected chairman of the National Council of Lithuania Minor which adopted the Act of Tilsit that called for the unification of Lithuania Minor and Lithuania Proper into a single independent Lithuanian state. However, due to political backlash, Gaigalaitis refused to take the post and did not sign the act though he generally was supportive of the idea. Few weeks later, he became chairman of the National Council. Gaigalaitis faced pressure from the German police and fled to Kaunas, the temporary capital of Lithuania, in July 1919. There, he worked as an editor of the government's official newspaper Lietuva.
He returned to Klaipėda Region when it was taken over by the French administration as a mandate of the League of Nations in early 1920. He more eagerly joined the Lithuanian efforts of uniting Klaipėda Region with Lithuania, though he wanted to preserve autonomy for the region. On 20 March 1920, Gaigalaitis and three other members of the National Council of Lithuania Minor were coopted by the Council of Lithuania. It was a symbolic measure to show political support for the idea of unification. Gaigalaitis went on two diplomatic missions regarding the Klaipėda Region: for consultations to the United Kingdom in 1921 and as a leader of a delegation of Prussian Lithuanians to the Conference of Ambassadors in November 1922.
After Lithuania gained control of the Klaipėda Region in January 1923, Gaigalaitis became a member of the Directorate of the Klaipėda Region. He was its member from February to December 1923 and primarily worked on religious and educational matters. He drafted the law on the use of the Lithuanian language in schools. Lithuanians wanted to impose stricter Lithuanian language requirements, while Gaigalaitis supported region's autonomy and more moderate approach. Political disagreements led to his resignation from the directorate in December 1923 and withdrawal from further political activities.
Gaigalaitis' political activities attracted criticism. Germans accused him of chauvinism and being a traitor. Lithuanians criticized him for not being sufficiently Lithuanian and for supporting autonomy of the Klaipėda Region. In particular, Gaigalaitis quarreled with Martynas Jankus and , two other pro-Lithuanian Prussian Lithuanians.
Societies In 1904, together with others, Gaigalaitis established charitable, cultural, and educational Sandora Society. He was its chairman (until 1940) and editor of its newspaper Pagalba. The society maintained shelters for the disabled, Sunday schools, supported impoverished students, organized church choirs, etc. One of the shelters, established in 1934, now bears his name and continues to operate in Gargždai. The Sandora Society also published 30 books and brochures.
He was a member of many other societies, including Birutė Society (supported its library), Lithuanian Literary Society (became its board member by 1911), Lithuanian Scientific Society in Vilnius (1907–1914), and Spauda Society in Tilsit (1914–1922). When the Spauda Society organized the Lithuanian daily in 1919, Gaigalaitis donated 21,000 marks for the cause.
In 1913, in preparation for the 200th birth anniversary of poet Kristijonas Donelaitis, Gaigalaitis published the first biography of Donelaitis and raised money for the construction of his monument on Rambynas. However, it was not built due to World War I. During the war, he raised funds for the Prussians deported to Siberia.