The 1918 Act of Independence, which has been on display in Kaunas since February, is to be returned to Germany.
Lent by the German Federal Archives, the document was exhibited at the Historical Presidential Palace in Lithuania’s second city since February 16, 2022.
The original Act of Lithuania’s Independence, signed on February 16, 1918, had long been considered lost, but was discovered in the archives of the German Foreign Ministry in 2017 by Lithuanian Professor Liudas Mažylis of Vytautas Magnus University.
Under an agreement between the German Federal Archives and the Lithuanian State Historical Archives, the document was handed over to Lithuania for display for a maximum of five years.
This is the only known original copy of the Act of February 16.
Read more: Losing and finding Lithuania’s Act of Independence
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