Wilhelm Storost, artistic name Vilius Storostas-Vydūnas, mostly known as Vydūnas, was a Prussian-Lithuanian teacher, poet, humanist, philosopher and Lithuanian
writer, a leader of the Prussian Lithuanian national movement in Lithuania Minor, and one of leaders of the theosophical movement in East Prussia.
Vydūnas in 1930
Vydūnas playing harp at home
Vydūnas holding a funeral speech in 1931
The Prussian Lithuanians, or Lietuvininkai, are Lithuanians, originally Lithuanian language speakers, who formerly inhabited a territory in northeastern East Prussia called Prussian Lithuania, or Lithuania Minor, instead of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, later, the Republic of Lithuania. Prussian Lithuanians contributed greatly to the development of written Lithuanian, which for a long time was considerably more widespread and in more literary use in Lithuania Minor than in Lithuania proper.
Prussian Lithuanians in 1744
The 7th stanza of Lietuvininks we are born was dedicated to German Emperor Wilhelm I (Lithuanian: Vilhelmas I)
Prussian Lithuanians with national costumes in the 19th century
A 1938 reproduction of the Act of Tilsit, signed in 1918