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31-717: Alytus ( Lithuanian: [ɐlʲiːˈtʊs] ) is a city with municipal rights in southern Lithuania . It is the capital of Alytus County . The population as of July 2024 was 50,996. Alytus is the historical centre of the Dzūkija region. The city lies on the banks of the Nemunas river. The major roads linking Vilnius , Kaunas , Lazdijai (border with Poland ), and Grodno in Belarus pass through Alytus. Divided onto two separate entities for centuries, it consists of two parts still frequently referred to as Alytus I and Alytus II ,

62-625: A notable center of commerce on the Nemunas river, serving as the main route for export goods from Lithuania proper . The town was also important as the place where one of the royal economic offices was located. In the third partition of Poland and Lithuania, in 1795, the town was divided between the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia . During the Napoleonic Wars , following the Treaty of Tilsit ,

93-585: A wide variety of tomatoes and discuss the various factors which help produce a rich crop of the fruit. Alytus has an industrial company named Snaigė , which manufactures refrigerators . Alytus is twinned with: The city was previously twinned with: In 1979, one of craters in planet Mars was named 'Alitus' after the city of Alytus by the International Astronomical Union . Town privileges Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of

124-671: Is that "German troops developed a revulsion towards the 'East' and came to think of it as a timeless region beset by chaos, disease and barbarism", instead of what it really was, a region suffering from the ravages of warfare. He claims that the encounter with the East formed an idea of "spaces and races", which needed to be "cleared and cleansed". Although he has garnered a great deal of evidence for his thesis including government documents, letters and diaries in German and Lithuanian, there are still problems with his work. For example, he does not say much about

155-528: The Central Powers managed to capture the town intact, without any major skirmish. In 1915 the town was incorporated into the so-called Ober Ost and both parts were once again united into a single administrative entity for the first time since 1795. Following the end of World War I the area remained contested by newly independent Poland and Lithuania, with the actual control held by the German army stationed in

186-731: The Eurobasket 2011 Group C matches in Alytus. In 2010, Alytus was awarded the Honourable Plate of the European Council. Alytus has a museum dedicated to veterans of both the Afghan wars. In Alytus, several Bonsai exhibitions were held with participants from European and other countries, such as Japan and the United States. Alytus has hosted an annual Tomato tasting since 2007. Participants offer

217-794: The General Staff, and Prince Leopold of Bavaria took control of the Ober Ost . By October 1915, the Imperial German Army had advanced so far to the east that central Poland could be put under a civil administration. Accordingly, the German Empire established the Government General of Warsaw and the Austro-Hungarian Empire set up the Government General of Lublin . The military Ober Ost government from then on controlled only

248-827: The Russian October Revolution in 1917 and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 made some indigenes elect Duke Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg as head of the United Baltic Duchy and the second duke of Urach as king of Lithuania, but those plans collapsed in November 1918. The Ober Ost was divided into three Verwaltungsgebiete (administrative territories): Kurland , Litauen , and Bialystok-Grodno . Each was, like Germany proper, subdivided into Kreise (districts); Landkreise (rural districts) and Stadtkreise (urban districts). In 1917

279-800: The Teutonic side of the border, but it was retaken soon afterwards. On 15 June 1581 Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Stefan Batory granted the town the city rights based on the Magdeburg Law . The event is celebrated as the Alytus Day . Until the Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth the town was a part of the Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and

310-660: The area. When the Germans withdrew in early 1919, the town was seized by the Red Army . On 12 February 1919, the town became a battlefield for the first skirmish between the Russians and the Lithuanian forces, which eventually took control over it. Since then the town has been a part of the Republic of Lithuania . Following the invasion of Poland a large prisoner of war camp for Polish soldiers

341-404: The basic royal charter establishing a borough enabled trade, but not foreign trade, which required a higher-tier charter granting staple right . This European history –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article relating to the law of Europe or of a European country is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Ober Ost Ober Ost

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372-407: The conquered areas east and north of central Poland. After the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk of March 1918, the Ober Ost effectively spanned present-day Lithuania , Latvia , Belarus , parts of Poland , and Courland , all of which had been part of the Russian Empire . Ober Ost governed in a very strict and often cruel way. The movement policy ( Verkehrspolitik ) divided

403-520: The earlier being a smaller town and the latter forming the city centre with parks, microdistricts and industrial areas. The name of the city is believed to be derived from the Lithuanian hydronym Alytupis (river). Its name in other languages includes Polish : Olita [ɔˈlita] , German : Aliten , Russian : Олита Olita , Belarusian : Аліта Alita , Yiddish : אליטע Alite . The first historical record of Alytus dates back to 1377, when it

434-501: The existing cultures. They constructed railroads but only Germans were allowed to ride them and schools were established and staffed with German instructors. In 1915, when large territories came under Ober Ost ' s administration as a result of military successes on the Eastern Front, Erich Ludendorff , von Hindenburg's second-in-command, set up a system of managing the large area now under its jurisdiction. Although von Hindenburg

465-469: The following districts existed: The total area was 108,808 km (42,011 sq mi), containing a population of 2,909,935 (by the end of 1916). With the end of the war and collapse of the empire, the Germans started to withdraw, sometimes in a piecemeal and disorganized way, from Ober Ost around late 1918 and early 1919. In the vacuum left by their retreat, conflicts arose as various former occupied nations declared independence, clashing with

496-429: The late 19th century the town was incorporated into a chain of Russian fortified garrisons along the border with East Prussia . It was tied with the rest of the world by a railway and a new road. In addition, the tsarist authorities constructed several barracks and an Eastern Orthodox church (in modern times converted to a Catholic church ). However, despite the fortification effort by the Russians, during World War I

527-420: The left bank of the river, estimated 60,000 people, most likely Jews from the eastern Soviet Union, and the Alytus forest, then at the eastern suburbs, estimated 35,000 people, most probably Soviet prisoners of war. Historian Gintaras Lučinskas argues that these numbers were politicized and grossly inflated, and the actual number of victims is in single digits of thousands. In 2015, a HVDC back-to-back station for

558-423: The realization of a power interconnection between Poland and Lithuania (LitPol) was inaugurated west of Alytus. The facility built by ABB has a transmission capacity of 500 MW at a voltage of ±70 kV. The coat of arms features a white rose, one of two coat of arms in the country that features roses. "The bridge of White Rose" is the country's largest pedestrian bridge, whose name was chosen by the citizens. The bridge

589-485: The second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the traditions of the self-administration of Roman cities. Judicially, a borough (or burgh ) was distinguished from the countryside by means of a charter from the ruling monarch that defined its privileges and laws . Common privileges involved trade (marketplace,

620-464: The storing of goods, etc.) and the establishment of guilds . Some of these privileges were permanent and could imply that the town obtained the right to be called a borough , hence the term "borough rights" ( German : Stadtrecht ; Dutch : stadsrechten ). Some degree of self-government , representation by diet , and tax-relief could also be granted. Multiple tiers existed; for example, in Sweden ,

651-462: The territory without regard to the existing social and ethnic organization and patterns. Movement between the districts was forbidden, which destroyed the livelihood of many merchants and prevented people from visiting friends and relatives in neighboring districts. The Germans also tried to "civilize" the people in the Ober Ost -controlled land, attempting to integrate German ideals and institutions with

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682-631: The thinly-stretched administrations, which would sometimes number 100 men in areas as large as Luxembourg . The clergy at times had to be relied upon to spread messages to the masses since that was an effective way of spreading a message to people who speak a different language. A young officer-administrator named Vagts related that he listened (through a translator) to a sermon by a priest who told his congregation to stay off highways after nightfall, hand in firearms and not to have anything to do with Bolshevist agents, exactly as Vagts had told him to do earlier. The uncertain situation caused by

713-630: The various factions of the Russian Revolution and subsequent Civil War , and with each other. For details, see: The Lithuanian historian Vėjas Gabrielius Liulevičius postulates in his book War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, National Identity, and German Occupation in World War I , that a line can be traced from Ober Ost ' s policies and assumptions to Nazi Germany 's plans and attitudes towards Eastern Europe. His main argument

744-402: The war and to provide a haven for German refugees from Russia. Ludendorff quickly organized Ober Ost so that it was a self-sustaining region, growing all its own food and even exporting surpluses to Berlin. The largest resource was one that Ludendorff was unable to exploit effectively: the local population had no interest in helping obtain a German victory, as it had no say in the government and

775-585: The western part was ceded to the Duchy of Warsaw . After the Congress of Vienna it became part of the duchy's successor state , the Kingdom of Poland . Although the state was tied with a personal union with Russia, both parts of the town remained completely separate until the January Uprising of 1863. After that date, the autonomy of Poland was liquidated, but both parts of the town remained governed separately. In

806-517: Was built on the remains of a railway bridge, which was blown up by the Russians when they were retreating back in 1915. Alytus has a humid continental climate with quite large seasonal differences. Alytus hosted the Art Strike Biennial between 18 and 24 August 2009 in response to Vilnius becoming European Capital of Culture for 2009. This included a demonstration and a three sided football match. The universal indoor Alytus Arena hosted

837-476: Was established in the city. During World War II , Alytus was under German occupation from 22 June 1941 until 15 July 1944. Following the German occupation of the city in 1941, the camp was converted into a prison camp for Soviet soldiers ( Stalag 343 ). The 1965 Soviet-era book Masinės žudynės Lietuvoje, 1941–1944 lists two major mass graves in Alytus: Vidzgiris forest, then at the southeastern suburbs on

868-613: Was mentioned in the Chronicles of Wigand of Marburg under the name of Aliten . According to the chronicle the spot was occupied by a small, wooden fortress guarding the Lithuanian frontier with the Teutonic Order . The fort and the surrounding village gradually grew, despite being frequently a target of raids of both the Lithuanians and the Teutons. The Treaty of Lake Melno left the town on

899-658: Was set up by Kaiser Wilhelm II in November 1914, initially under the command of Paul von Hindenburg , a Prussian general who had come out of retirement to achieve the German victory of the Battle of Tannenberg in August 1914 and became a national hero. When the Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn was dismissed from office by the Kaiser in August 1916, Hindenburg took over at

930-577: Was subject to increasing requisitions and taxes. There were many problems with communication with local persons within the Ober Ost . Among the upper-class locals, the soldiers could get by with French or German , and in large villages, the Jewish population would speak German or Yiddish , "which the Germans would somehow comprehend". In the rural areas and amongst peasant populations soldiers had to rely on interpreters who spoke Lithuanian , Latvian or Polish . The language problems were not helped by

961-601: Was technically in command, Ludendorff had actual control of the administration. There were ten staff members, each with a specialty (finance, agriculture, etc.). The area was divided into the Courland District , the Lithuania District and the Bialystok-Grodno District , each overseen by a district commander. Ludendorff's plan was to make Ober Ost a colonial territory for the settlement of his troops after

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