Royal Teachers Seminary

The red brick Royal Teachers’ Seminary (Königliches Lehrerseminar) was built in 1908 near the railway station at then Bahnhofstrasse, now 5 S. Nėries St. The complex consists of four buildings. The building of educational facilities with an impressive auditorium is a massive three-story building. It stands out from the others with its massive Gothic pediments. The two-story and three-story buildings had living premises. One has apartments for teachers; the other was a dormitory for seminarians. The auxiliary building had a canteen, a kitchen, a gymnasium, a library, and other premises.  The seminary had its own vegetable garden, a garden and a sports field. It was the most modern seminary in Prussia at the time, with highly qualified pedagogues.

In 1915, the activity of the seminary was temporarily interrupted due to the outbreak of  World War I. 89 percent of the seminarians were drafted into the army, and the remaining 10 percent were distributed to other seminaries.

During World War I the complex was turned into a hospital.  After the war, the studies were renewed and the construction administration, the social welfare board, and the Klaipėda regional police operated in the building. In 1919, the seminary began to function in a normal mode. In 1922-1933 it was a Lithuanian high school; in 1934, it became the German Pedagogical Institute of Klaipėda Region, which was reformed into the Lithuanian Pedagogical Institute in 1935. In 1932, a decision was made to extend the education at the seminary to four years. The seminary was closed, when in 1936 the Government decided that primary school teachers had to be trained in pedagogical institutes. Women could also study at the seminary. It was mandatory for everyone to know the Lithuanian language at a certain level. In the last year of activity (autumn 1935), the seminary had 75 students and 8 teachers.

In 1943-1944, a School of Pedagogy was here. At the end of 1944, it housed the military headquarters, and after World War II, various educational institutions worked in the building: primary schools, gymnasiums, teachers’ seminary, and pedagogical schools. Since 1975, it became the Faculty of Preschool Education of Šiauliai Kazys  Preikšas Pedagogical Institute. In 1991, the building was handed over to the established Klaipėda University.

In 2016, the renovation of the building’s facade, which took almost a decade, was completed by ‘Pamario restauratorius’.

Commemorative plaques are fixed on the facade of the building:  in 1995 –  to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of Klaipėda Pedagogical Institute, in 2008 – in memory of the institutions that operated in the building, in 2017 – to Martin Krukis (1884–1948), who headed the Klaipėda Lithuanian Gymnasium and the State Teachers’ Seminary that operated in the building; in 2019 – to Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas (1918–1957), the commander of the Lithuanian partisan resistance, who studied here in 1937–1939.