On May 17, we celebrate the birthday of Mykolas Römeris and remember this distinguished lawyer not only as a scholar, but also as a tireless traveler. The war and the difficult postwar years prevented him from traveling as much as he had been used to in his youth. Only in 1923 did he finally manage to leave for a longer journey across Europe. In those days, travel was far more complicated and time-consuming than it is today. But speed is not what matters most — it is what a person experiences during the journey.
The trip from Kaunas to Berlin alone took five days:
On August 4, 1923, at 4:40 PM, he departed from Kaunas by train and reached Klaipėda at 9 AM the next morning. The train journey itself took 16 hours.
Since the airplane to Königsberg was not flying that day, he waited until the next morning because he was determined to experience air travel. He spent the night in Juodkrantė with the Majus family, and the next day he bought a ticket and flew out on the afternoon of August 6. The airplane was small — there were only four passenger seats on board.
In Königsberg (then part of Germany), he purchased tickets for the steamship and for trains within Germany.
On August 8, 1923, he departed from Pillau (then Pillau, now Baltiysk) at 11 AM. At 3 PM he was in Sopot and continued onward. After spending the night sleeping outside beside the steamship’s funnel smoke, he reached Swinemünde (now Świnoujście) at 8 AM on August 9.
From there he traveled by train to Pasewalk, where he changed trains for Berlin.
Detailed descriptions of the journey can be found in Mykolas Römeris’ diary.
In the photograph: a Junkers airplane model, likely the one Römeris used to fly from Klaipėda to Königsberg; a Seedienst Ostpreussen ship on which he sailed from Pillau to Swinemünde; and the Supreme Tribunal in 1923.
