Vytautas Landsbergis

Vytautas Landsbergis? / I ( born October 18, 1932 in Kaunas) is a Lithuanian conservative politician and musicologist, 1978-1990 Professor at the Lietuvos Muzikos akademija. He has served as Chairman of the Provisional Parliament ( Seimas ), the first head of state of Lithuania after the restoration of independence in 1990. Later he was president and parliament until 2014 Member of the European Parliament.

Family

Vytautas Landsbergis is one of two sons ( brother Gabrielius ) an upper class family. His father, Vytautas Landsbergis - Žemkalnis, worked up to the Second World War as chief architect in Kaunas.

Education and Teaching

Vytautas Landsbergis graduated Juozas Gruodis - Conservatory in Kaunas. After high school he graduated from 1950 to 1955 the Diploma Programme of the piano at the State Conservatory of Lithuania in Vilnius and worked as a piano teacher in the Čiurlionis art school, taught at the Lietuvos valstybinė konservatorija ( LDC ) at the Faculty of LDC in Klaipėda and at Vilniaus Pedagoginis institutas. In 1969 he received his doctorate with a thesis on the life and work of the composer and painter Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, 1994 habilitation. At the State Conservatory, he taught as a professor of music history and piano. He was renowned as a respected musicologist and expert on the compositional and pictorial work of the Lithuanian national hero Čiurlionis. Already in this work came his connection with the Lithuanian homeland expressed. In 1987, he was among the founders of Čiurlionis society that has made the preservation of the cultural heritage of this important Lithuanian composer to the task. In the 50s, Landsbergis made ​​several part in the Lithuanian Chess Championships.

Chairman of the Sąjūdis Movement

Vytautas Landsbergis is one of the founders of the Lithuanian independence movement Sąjūdis. At the founding congress, he was elected on 22 October 1988, its chairman. Acting small in stature and in like a typical scientist occurrence to Landsbergis proved to be a shrewd strategist, who foresaw the further development perceptive.

His rhetorical brilliance and sharpness made ​​him a strong opponent of the converted Communist Party of Lithuania (KPL ) under Algirdas Brazauskas. Landsbergis led Sąjūdis to superior victories in elections to the Congress of People 's Deputies of the Soviet Union in April 1989 and in the first free parliamentary elections ( the Seimas ) on 24 February 1990.

Politicians in independent Lithuania

The newly elected parliament chose Landsbergis as its Chairman. As explained on 11 March 1990, the independence of Lithuania restored and the Constitution of the First Republic ( 1920-1940 ) was brought into force, was Landsbergis virtue of his office kommissarisches head of state of Lithuania to the enactment of a new constitution. During the year 1990, which was marked by increasing tensions with the Soviet leadership under Mikhail Gorbachev (among commodity blockade in April and May 1990), Landsbergis championed a hard-line, in which the independence of Lithuania was considered as immovable and also no moratorium was conceivable.

After the elections in 1992 ended in defeat of the Conservative Party and a victory for the reform communists, Landsbergis became increasingly overshadowed by Algirdas Brazauskas. In the year 1996, when the reform Communists suffered a regular defeat in parliamentary elections, European Parliament President Landsbergis was (until 2000).

To date, Landsbergis is one of the most famous politicians of Lithuania and his party, the conservative Homeland Union, very influential. He shows repeatedly, even 20 years after independence, a critical attitude towards Russia's government.

Since the first Lithuanian 2004 European elections, he sits as a member of the EPP Group in the European Parliament. He is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Subcommittee on Security and Defence.

Awards

On 2 May 2003, he was awarded by Volker Schimpff as representatives of the Saxon Landtag President Erich Iltgen for his commitment to freedom, democracy and self-determination for the Saxon constitution medal.

Honors

  • Honorary citizen of Kaunas, from January 1994

Notes and References

Works

  • The Royal Conservatory in Leipzig with the eyes of a student, letters of MK Ciurlionis. In: Contributions to musicology. issued by the Association of Composers and Musicologists in the GDR, Issue 1/1979, Berlin 1979, pp. 42-69.
  • Hour of Decision. ( Autobiography ). Tertium Edition, 1997, ISBN 3-930717-39-5.
Sanok European Parliament election, 2004 European People's Party (European Parliament group) Integrated Authority File
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