Smalininkai is a small city in Lithuania

Lithuania

Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

. It is situated in the former samogitia

Samogitia

Samogitia is one of the five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. It is located in northwestern Lithuania. Its largest city is Šiauliai/Šiaulē. The region has a long and distinct cultural history, reflected in the existence of the Samogitian dialect...

n part of Memelland on the right-hand shore of the Neman River

Neman River

Neman or Niemen or Nemunas, is a major Eastern European river rising in Belarus and flowing through Lithuania before draining into the Curonian Lagoon and then into the Baltic Sea at Klaipėda. It is the northern border between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast in its lower reaches...

, 12 km (7.5 mi) west from Jurbarkas

Jurbarkas

Jurbarkas is a city in Tauragė County, Lithuania. It is on the right-hand shore of the Neman River at its confluence with the tributaries Mituva and Imsre...

. It was part of German East Prussia

East Prussia

East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...

 and was called Schmalleningken. Between 1923 - 1939 and since the World War II it is part of Lithuania.

Name

The name describes a place of tar and pitch burners ("smala": tar, pitch; -ingken: village).

History

Since 1422 (Treaty of Melno

Treaty of Melno

The Treaty of Melno or Treaty of Lake Melno was a peace treaty ending the Gollub War. It was signed on September 27, 1422, between the Teutonic Knights and an alliance of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at Lake Melno , east of Graudenz...

) Schmalleningken was a border-village at the Lithuanian-German customs frontier. 1792 it was appointed to a market town. 1845 the village became a parish and 1878 a church was built. 1902 a light railway was built from Pogegen

Pagegiai

Pagėgiai is a city in the south western Lithuania. It is located in the region of the former prussian tribe of Skalvians. It is the capital of Pagėgiai municipality, and as such it is part of Tauragė County.-Name:...

to Schmalleningken. The village had in 1925 1,741 inhabitants and was incorporated into the Landkreis Tilsit-Ragnit in 1939.

Literature

• Kurschat, Heinrich A.: Das Buch vom Memelland, Siebert Oldenburg 1968