Read more about the Act of Independence

In order to sign the document at the time, the Vilnius Conference had to be convened to elect The Council of Lithuania and to adopt the resolution of February the 16th, today known as the Act of Independence of Lithuania. Both, the political left and right, united and 20 Council members in Vilnius on February the 16th, 1918, declared the restoration of the state, built on the foundations of democratic principles and denouncing any former government ties with foreign nations.

Needless to say, the invaders have not just disappeared. After the restoration of independence was announced, Lithuania was still under the German rule. They banned the publishing of the Act and insisted that the Council of Lithuania declare an eternal union with Germany. Luckily for Lithuanians, on November a revolution broke out in Germany and Lithuania was not annexed to it, which led to the final recognition of independent Lithuania.

Paradoxically, it was not Lithuanians but Germans who learnt about the announcement of Lithuania’s independence first. The Act of February the 16th was published on February the 18th in the Berlin newspaper Vossische Zeitung. Later on, after German censors interfered, publicising the document was banned not only in Lithuania but in Germany too. Germany did everything possible to discredit the members of the Lithuanian Council and to prevent the establishment of a sovereign state. Only in mid-October of 1918, Berlin finally gave up and granted permission to form the government of Lithuania.