šilutė museum

Contacts
Address: Lietuvininkų g. 36, LT-99179, Šilutė.
Tel./fax: (+370 ~ 441) 62 209, (+370 ~ 441) 62 207.
E-mail: info[at]silutesmuziejus.lt, muziejus[at]silute.omnitel.net 
www.silutesmuziejus.lt
Director – Roza Šikšnienė.

Information for Visitor

Opening hours:
1st June – 1st October:
Tuesday to Friday 10–18; Saturday 10–17.
1st October – 1st June:
Tuesday – Friday 9–17; Saturday 9–16.

Admission:
Exposition of Museum:
adults – 1 Lt;
pupils, students, pensioners – 0,50 Lt;
child under 7, disabled – free.
Exposition of Household:
adults – 1 Lt;
pupils, students, pensioners – 0, 50 Lt;
child under 7, disabled – free.

Guided tours:
lithuanian language – 12 Lt;
foreign language – 30 Lt.

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

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 Šilute Region;
Exposition of the Mode of Life;
Exposition from Hugo Scheu Art Collection.

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

Branch Museums

Hermann Sudermann Museum
Address: Macikų kaimas, LT-99156, Šilutės seniūnija, Šilutės rajonas.
Tel./fax (+370 ~ 441) 62 207.
Opening hours: 15th May to 1st October: Tuesday to Saturday 10–14.
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: Macikų kaimas, LT-99156, Šilutės seniūnija, Šilutės rajonas.
Tel./fax (+370 ~ 441) 62 207.
Opening hours: 15th May to 1st October: Tuesday to Saturday 11–15.
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.

Švėkšna Museum
Address: Parko g. 1, Švėkšna, Šilutės rajonas.
Tel. (+370 ~ 441) 62 207, mob. tel. (+370 657) 79 778.
Opening hours: 1st October to 15th May Tuesday to Saturday 9–17; 15th May to 1st October Tuesday to Friday  10–18, Saturday 10–17.
In the Museum there are several departments: numismatics, archeology, history of Švėkšna school, ethnography, and history of Švėkšna. A total of 2,245 exhibits are stored at the museum. A large number of these exhibits belonged to the Švėkšna Manor. The rich legacy of old writing (one of the most valuable publications – the 17th-century Lithuanian Statute). Švėkšna Museum came into existence during the interwar period when showcases meant to exhibit antiquities and coin collections were installed in Švėkšna’s “Saulės” Gymnasium.
In 1994, Švėkšna Secondary School’s Museum became an affiliate of Šilutė Musuem.

History of the Museum
Šilutė 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 Karčiama 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 Šilutė; the remaining exhibits of the estate museum were transferred to it. Up to 1985 it was a branch museum of Klaipeda ethnographic museum.
Founder of the museum is Municipality of Šilutė region.

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.

Šilutė
Šilutė, 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). Šilutė was formed from the villages of Verdainė, Šilo karčiama, and Žibai, located halfway between Klaipeda and Tilžė (Tilsit). The earliest reference to Šilutė 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 Verdainė, on the left bank of the Šyša River, acquired a church in 1550 and a school in 1588. By the end of the 16th century, local markets drew merchants from Klaipeda, Tilžė 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 Šilutė 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 Šilutė 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.