The Commemorative Plaque, Dedicated to Antanas Merkys

A commemorative plaque has been unveiled on the building of the presently established DnB bank (10 Liepų st.), which is dedicated to a famous politician and the last Prime Minister of the Independent Lithuania of the interwar period – Antanas Merkys.
The building at 10 Liepų st. (former 3 Aleksandro st.) is one of the most beautiful buildings in Klaipėda. A bank is presently established in the building. The building was reconstructed in 1905 based on the Art Nouveau style. The premises were arranged in a way to serve the function of a private bank. Governor Antanas Merkys lived in this building from 1927 until 1932.
Antanas Merkys was born in 1887 in Bajorai, Skapiškis parish. Merkys graduated from the Riga Alexander Gymnasium. During the World War I, he was drafted into the Russian military. Merkys graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Kiev University. A. Merkys participated in the formation of the Lithuanian state ever since the battle for independence, serving as the Minister of National Defence, the Governor of the Klaipėda Region, the Mayor of Kaunas, and the State Commissioner of the Recovered Vilnius Region. From 1939 until 1940, he was the last Prime Minister of the Interwar Period Lithuania. He was appointed President when President Antanas Smetona has left the country (June 15th, 1940 to June 17th, 1940). When the Soviets took over Lithuania, he tried to flee to Sweden, but he was apprehended by the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (abbr. NKVD) and exiled along with his family. He was taken to many prisons. In 1954, A. Merkys was granted freedom and released from prison, but he died shortly after (in 1955) in the Malenko Home for the Disabled, in Vladimir Oblast.