Pagėgiai
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pagėgiai | |||
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  Pagėgiai
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| Coordinates: | |||
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| Country |  Lithuania |
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| Ethnographic region | Lithuania Minor | ||
| County | Tauragė County | ||
| Municipality | Pagėgiai municipality | ||
| Capital of | Pagėgiai rural elderate | ||
| Granted city rights | 1923 | ||
| Population (2005) | |||
| - Total | 2,321 | ||
| - Rank | 71st | ||
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) | ||
| - Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) | ||
Pagėgiai (German: Pogegen) is a town in the south of western Lithuania. It is the capital of Pagėgiai municipality, and as such it is part of Tauragė County.
The name of the town literally means "at Gėgė" and it is believed that the Gėgė river once flowed through the town.
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[edit] History
[edit] Interwar period
When the Treaty of Versailles came in effect in January 1920, the Memel Territory located north of the Neman River was separated from Germany.
The parts of Kreis Ragnit and both Landkreis and Stadtkreis Tilsit, which had been established in 1818, as well as Gutsbezirk Perwallkischken were combined on 27 January 1920 to the new Kreis Pogegen, with Pagėgiai as capital.
When Lithuania assumed control of the region in 1923, it was renamed Pagėgiai Apskritis. On 22 March 1939, the area was annexed to Nazi Germany, and renamed Landkreis Pogegen. It consisted of 164 Landgemeinden with less than 2,000 inhabitants, and 34 Gutsbezirke. The largest community was Schmalleningken with a pop. of 1,700. Pogegen and the community of Wischwill had 1,400 each.
Landkreis Pogegen was dissolved on 1 October 1939 in order to re-unite the area with the larger cities south of Neman, and structures similar to pre-1920 were established.
[edit] After World War II
When Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union for the second time in 1944 and the Subdivisions of Lithuania were changed into that of districts, Pagėgiai became one of only a few towns that were interwar apskritis capitals which did not become district capitals. When the municipality reform took place in independent Lithuania in 2000, Pagėgiai municipality was carved out of Šilutė district and thus Pagėgiai became the capital of an administrative unit again.
The coat of arms of the town and the municipality depicts a bird with a key, which symbolises the border nature of the area (now with Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia). A Lithuanian border guard unit is stationed in Pagėgiai.
