page_title: Klaipėda
section_title: Duchy of Prussia
hierarchical_section_title: Klaipėda / History / Duchy of Prussia
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Kłajpeda - Teatr Dramatyczny English: Klaipeda - Drama Theatre
context_page_description: Klaipėda is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. It is the third largest city in Lithuania and the capital of Klaipėda County.
  The city has a complex recorded history, partially due to the combined regional importance of the usually ice-free Port of Klaipėda at the mouth of the Akmena-Danė River. It was controlled by successive German states until the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. As a result of the 1923 Klaipėda Revolt it was annexed by Lithuania and has remained with Lithuania to this day, except between 1939 and 1945 when it returned to Germany following the 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania and Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
  The population has shrunk from the city to its suburbs and the hinterland. The number of inhabitants of Klaipėda city shrank from 207,100 in 1992 to 157,350 in 2014, but the urban zone of Klaipėda expanded well into the suburbs, which sprang up around the city and surrounded it from three sides. These are well integrated with the city and the majority of inhabitants of these suburbs work in Klaipėda.
context_section_description: Against the wishes of its governor and commander, Eric of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Memel adopted Lutheranism after the conversion of Hohenzollern Margrave of Brandenburg Albert of Prussia and the creation of the Duchy of Prussia as a fief of Poland in 1525. It was the onset of a long period of prosperity for the city and port. It served as a port for neighbouring Lithuania, benefiting from its location near the mouth of the Neman, with wheat as a profitable export. The Duchy of Prussia was inherited by a relative, John Sigismund, the Hohenzollern prince-electors of the March of Brandenburg in 1618. Brandenburg-Prussia began active participation in regional policy, which affected the development of Memel. From 1629–1635, the town was occupied by Sweden over several periods during the Polish-Swedish War of 1625–1629 and the Thirty Years' War.
  After the Treaty of Königsberg in 1656 during the Northern Wars, Elector Frederick William opened Memel's harbor to Sweden, with whom the harbor's revenue was divided. Prussian independence from Poland and Sweden was affirmed in the Treaty of Oliva in 1660.
  The construction of a defence system around the entire town, initiated in 1627, noticeably changed its status and prospects. In November 1678 a small Swedish army invaded Prussian territory, but was unable to capture the fortress of Memel.
caption: Klaipėda Drama Theatre
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