Signatories of the Act of Independence of Lithuania
The signatories of the Act of Independence of Lithuania were the twenty Lithuanian men who signed the Act of Independence of Lithuania on February 16, 1918. The signatories were elected to the Council of Lithuania by the Vilnius Conference in September 1917 and entrusted with the mission of establishing an independent Lithuanian state. The proclaimed independence was established only in late 1918, after Germany lost World War I and its troops retreated from Lithuanian territory. What followed was a long process of building the state, determining its borders, and gaining international diplomatic recognition. The signatories succeeded in their mission and independent Lithuania survived until the Soviet Union occupied the state on June 15, 1940.
The twenty signatories
Image: Saliamonas Banaitis
Image: Jonas Basanavicius (1851 1927)
Image: Mykolas Biržiška
Act of Independence of Lithuania
The Act of Independence of Lithuania or the Act of February 16th, also the Lithuanian Resolution on Independence, was signed by the Council of Lithuania on February 16, 1918, proclaiming the restoration of an independent State of Lithuania, governed by democratic principles, with Vilnius as its capital. The Act was signed by all twenty representatives of the Council, which was chaired by Jonas Basanavičius. The Act of February 16 was the result of a series of resolutions on the issue, including one issued by the Vilnius Conference and the Act of January 8. The path to the Act was long and complex because the German Empire exerted pressure on the Council to form an alliance. The Council had to carefully maneuver between the Germans, whose troops were present in Lithuania, and the demands of the Lithuanian people.
Hand-written original of the document
The original 20 members of the Council of Lithuania after signing the Act of February 16, 1918
Jonas Basanavičius, the chairman of the Council when the Act of February 16 was signed
Hand-written originals of the Act of Independence of Lithuania in the Lithuanian (left) and German languages (right), exhibited in 2022