1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania
On 20 March 1939, Nazi Germany's foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop presented an oral ultimatum to Juozas Urbšys, foreign minister of Lithuania. Germany demanded that Lithuania give up the Klaipėda Region which had been detached from Germany after World War I, or the Wehrmacht would invade Lithuania and the de facto Lithuanian capital Kaunas would be bombed. The Lithuanians had been expecting the demand after years of rising tension between Lithuania and Germany, increasing pro-Nazi propaganda in the region, and continued German expansion. It was issued just five days after the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. The 1924 Klaipėda Convention had guaranteed the protection of the status quo in the region, but the four signatories to that convention did not offer any material assistance. The United Kingdom and France followed a policy of appeasement, while Italy and Japan openly supported Germany, and Lithuania accepted the ultimatum on 23 March 1939. It proved to be the last territorial acquisition for Germany before World War II, producing a major downturn in Lithuania's economy and escalating pre-war tensions for Europe as a whole.
East Prussia after the ultimatum took force; the Klaipėda Region/Memelland is depicted in blue and East Prussia in red.
Hitler making a speech in Memel the day after the ultimatum was accepted
German warships in the port of Klaipėda the day after the ultimatum was accepted
Ulrich Friedrich-Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was a German politician and diplomat who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nazi Germany from 1938 to 1945.
Ribbentrop in 1938
Ribbentrop and the Japanese ambassador to Germany, Kintomo Mushakoji, sign the Anti-Comintern Pact on 25 November 1936
Ribbentrop as SS-Gruppenführer, 1938
The French Premier Édouard Daladier (centre) with Ribbentrop at the Munich Summit, 1938