Memel People's Party


The Memel People's Party or MVP was a pro-German political party in the Klaipėda Region, autonomous region of Lithuania, from 1925 to 1938. Together with the Memel Agricultural Party, the party was established on June 13, 1925, by the Memel Cultural Union in preparation for the first elections to the local county councils and the Parliament of the Klaipėda Region. The party leaders were Joseph Kraus, Richard Meyer, Robert Grabow. MVP represented mainly industrialists, merchants, craftsmen, clerks, city dwellers. The party received funding from Germany and was able to provide no-interest loans to its members, gaining significant influence in the region. MVP published newspaper Memeler Dampfboot. In May 1926, the party won two seats in the Third Seimas of Lithuania. After the Nazi seizure of power in Germany in 1933, MVP lost its funding from Germany and began losing its members to the pro-Nazi Socialist National Community and Christian-Socialist Workers Community. Some of the MVP activists retreated to Germany, others were arrested and tried for their anti-Lithuanian activities in the Neumann–Sass case. The weakened party ran in later elections under the unified German list. Its activities largely ceased of the 1938 elections.

Election results