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Concept
Church of St. Jacob, Klaipėda
Summary
The Church of St. Jacob (Šv. Jokūbo bažnyčia; Jakobuskirche) or the Church of Lietuvininkai (Lietuvininkų bažnyčia; Litauische Kirche Memel) was a Lutheran church in Klaipėda, Lithuania which was originally completed and consecrated in 1687. Following the Great Fire of Klaipėda in 1854, the last reconstruction project of the church was prepared by Friedrich August Stüler and the reconstruction works were completed in the winter of 1856.
The church was attended by the Prussian Lithuanians (Lietuvininkai) and had a long-term history of Lithuanian-speaking priests. Near the church there was a Klaipėdian Parish School dedicated for Lithuanian community.
Following World War II and incorporation of the Lithuanian SSR into the Soviet Union, the damaged church was demolished by soldiers of the Soviet Armed Forces using tanks in 1959. Despite discussions in the 1990s, the church was not rebuilt.
Eberhard von Sayn, the Teutonic Grand Marshal, and Heinrich von Lützelburg, the Bishop of Courland, agreed in a treaty to build two churches: one for German colonists (Church of St. John), the other for baptized natives (Church of St. Nicholas). The church services were held in Latin and sermons were given in German, but there also were translators into the language of the local people who had a dedicated place near the pulpit.
Following the creation of the Duchy of Prussia in 1525 and due to the Reformation movement, the Evangelical Reformed faith was spread in the languages of the local people, including Lithuanian. In 1620, the Lithuanian Parish of Klaipėda became an independent unit, but in 1627, the Church of St. Nicholas was demolished due to the necessity to build a city wall around a growing city and the parish was left without its own church.
The construction of a new church for the Lithuanian Parish began in 1686, and the new church was consecrated in the summer of 1687. Johann Lehmann worked in the new church, and by having a great knowledge of Lithuanian language he checked the Daniel Klein's Grammatica Litvanica and wrote other texts in Lithuanian.
Official source
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