Klaipeda, known as Memel in German, is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. In 1252, the Teutonic Order founded Klaipeda as the castle of "Memelburg", later shortening it to "Memel"; its Curonian name "Klaipeda" means "even ground". Memel was a part of the Duchy of Prussia for centuries, and Sweden had trade rights in the harbor as a result of the Thirty Years War.
From 1807 to 1808, during the Napoleonic Wars, Memel was the temporary capital of Prussia and the home of Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia and his family. Memel would become the most northerly city of the German Empire after the unification of Germany in 1871, and the region was detached from Germany under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles following the end of World War I. In January 1923, as the Triple Entente debated on what was to become of the occupied city of Memel, local Lithuanians staged a revolt and took the city for their newly-independent country. 30% of Lithuania's entire production and 70-80% of Lithuania's imports resided in Klaipeda, and the Lithuanians were reluctant to hand the city over to Nazi Germany as a part of a 1939 annexation treaty. The city suffered during World War II, and all but 50 of its inhabitants evacuated the city as the Soviet Union's Red Army invaded East Prussia. The city became the largest marine base of the USSR as a part of the Lithuanian SSR. Although Lithuania gained independence in 1991, a significant percentage of the population (19.6%) were ethnic Russians. In 2007, the city had a population of 185,936 people.
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