Silute Museum

Address
36 Lietuvininku St, LT-99179, Silute.
Tel./fax: +370-441-62209, +370-441-62207.
E-mail: muziejus@silute.omnitel.net

Opening times
1st June – 1st October: Tuesday – Friday 10–18; Saturday 10–17.
1st October – 1st June: Tuesday – Friday 9.00–17.00; Saturday 9–16.

Additional services
Booking of excursions through Silute town;
Booking of excursions through Silute Region;
Employees of the museum deliver lectures.

Museum’s collection
The collection of museum comprises exhibits of archaeological finds, numismatics, the written language, photographs, weapons, nature, ethnography and folk art.
The total amount of exposits of the museum is 24 000 items.

Exposition

Furniture of Lithuania Minor Estate in the 18th-19th century;

Furniture of the Dweller of the Land (Lietuvninkas) in the end of 18th century and in the first half of 19th century;

Nature in Silute Region;

Exposition of the Mode of Life.

Exhibitions
Exhibitions of art, folk art, ethnography are organized in the museum.

Branch Museums
Hermann Sudermann Museum
Address: Macikai village, LT-99156, Silute Region.
Tel./fax +370-441-62207.
Opening times:
15th May to 1st October: Tuesday to Saturday 10.00–14.00.
This museum commemorating the famous German writer Hermann Sudermann (1857-1928), who was born and grew in Macikai, tells the story of his life and creative activities.

Macikai Concentration Camp Museum
Address: Macikai village, LT-99156, Silute Region.
Tel./fax +370-441-62207.
Opening times:
15th May to 1st October: Tuesday to Saturday 10.00-14.00.
The museum was opened in 1995 in the former Macikai Concentration Camp (1939-1948). Copies of archival documents, plans of the camp, various articles, lists and photographs of prisoners, journals and drawings are displayed in the former isolation cell.

Sveksna Museum
Address: Parko g. 1, Sveksna, Silute Region.
Tel./fax +370-441-62207.
Opening times:
1st October to 15th May Tuesday to Saturday 9.00–17.00;
15th May to 1st October Tuesday to Saturday 10.00–18.00.
In the Museum there are several departments: numismatics, archeology, history of Sveksna school, ethnography, and history of Sveksna. A total of 2,245 exhibits are stored at the museum. A large number of these exhibits belonged to the Sveksna Manor. The rich legacy of old writing (one of the most valuable publications – the 17th-century Lithuanian Statute). Sveksna Museum came into existence during the interwar period when showcases meant to exhibit antiquities and coin collections were installed in Sveksna’s “Saules” Gymnasium.
In 1994, Sveksna Secondary School’s Museum became an affiliate of Silutė Musuem.

The Information Centre of Cultural Tourism
Address: 4 Lietuvininku St., LT-99185, Silute.
Tel. +370-448-62207.
E-mail: muziejus@silute.omnitel.net
http://www.pamarys.lt/tic/

Museum's history fragments
Silute Museum was founded by Hugo Scheu (1845-1937), a German estate owner. Destroyed during World War II, the museum was officially reopened in 1949 and transferred to a building, which had been previously owned by the Ritten family of horse-traders.
Hugo Scheu bought an estate in 1892 in Silas Karcema of that time and arranged a little museum in its two rooms. Here he accumulated a peculiar collection of furniture of Lithuanian farmer; collected a number of household articles, clothes archaeological find concentrated a big library, a collection of maps.
After the founder's death until the War his son Erich Scheu managed the museum.
During the War the museum was seriously damaged, a part of exhibits disappeared.
After the War, in November 1949, an ethnographic museum was officially opened in Silute; the remaining exhibits of the estate museum were transferred to it. Up to 1985 it was a branch museum of Klaipeda ethnographic museum.

Other news about the Museum
Founder of the museum is Municipality of Silute region.
Head of the museum is Roza Siksniene.

Hermann Sudermann
H. Sudermann (1857-1928), German novelist, dramatist born in Macikai (Matziken), Lithuania Minor (East Prussia).
He spent his youth in Lithuania Minor and visited his native area in later years. He frequently depicted Lithuanians and their milieu in his plays and prose, especially in the novel Frau Sorge (Lady Care, 1887); in Litauische Geschichten (Lithuanian Stories, 1917), including Die Reise nach Tilsit (Voyage to Tilsit), Jons und Erdme (Jons and Erdme), Die Magd (The Servant Maid), Miks Bumbullis; and in Das Bildbuch Meiner Jugend (The Picture Album of My Youth, 1922). He collected material for a planned novel Der Erloser (The Savior), which he never completed.
The Lithuanian peasants, farmlands, fishermen and servants in his writings emerge as simple, hospitable, industrious, good-natured people, who cleave to their customs and way of life despite the constant and pervasive German influence. Fascinated with their closeness to nature and elemental qualities, he sometimes tended to overemphasize their vices (e.g., drunkenness) or to reduce them to sinister grotesques.
Most of his works have been translated into Lithuanian and his plays were frequently performed on the Lithuanian stage.

Silute
Silute, town in western Lithuania, 45 km Southeast of Klaipeda. Until 1923 it was under German rule and was called Heydekrug. In 1970 it had a population of 12,400 (4,389 in 1925, 8,969 in 1959). Silute was formed from the villages of Verdaine, Silo karciama, and Zibai, located halfway between Klaipeda and Tilze (Tilsit). The earliest reference to Silute is found in a document from 1511-15, by which 1511-15, by which permission was granted to open an inn for traveling merchants, granted permission to open an inn for traveling merchants. Soon farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, and tradesmen began clustering in the area. The village of Verdaine, on the left bank of the Sysa River, acquired a church in 1550 and a school in 1588. By the end of the 16th century, local markets drew merchants from Klaipeda, Tilze and Konigsberg. The famine and plague of 1709-11 reversed an early upsurge of population, but after 1721 the number of inhabitants began to grow again. In 1818 Silute was made the center of a county. When Klaipeda railroad was completed in 1875, its commerce with German cities expanded considerably. There were 2,042 inhabitants in 1892.
After centuries of German rule Silute was rejoined to Lithuania in 1923. It prospered as a market town. At the same time, local industry produced lumber, bricks, candy, fruit, drinks, soap, and alcoholic beverages; there were several mills and machine repair shops, as well as banks and branches of large, nation-wide agricultural companies. A German and Lithuanian high school, an agricultural school, and a farm economics program for girls provided education. Two Lutheran Evangelical churches and one Catholic Church, built in 1550, 1922, and 1850, respectively served religious needs.
During the last 15 years its boundaries were expanded and it was made the center of an administrative district. The major factory processes lumber and make furniture. Other establishments include machine repair shops, textile plants, a distillery, a dairy, an animal fodder processing plant, and a sanitation machinery factory. There are two secondary schools (Russian and Lithuanian), an agricultural technical school, a medical and two occupational schools, a 270-bed hospital and 65-bed tuberculosis dispensary, a children's tuberculosis hospital, a theater and an ethnographic museum.