People on Lithuanian money. Vydūnas

149 year ago, on 22 March 1868, Vilhelmas Storosta-Vydūnas, a philosopher, writer, publicist and cultural figure, was born. The portrait of this prominent but probably not fully appreciated in Lithuania person was featured on the 200 litas banknote. Who was he and what is the history of his image used on money?

Who was Vydūnas?

Vilhelmas Storosta was born in Jonaičiai, Šilutė district (which was then part of the Kingdom of Prussia or Lithuania Minor) in 1868. After graduating from Ragnit teacher training seminary, he attended universities in Greifswald, Halle, Leipzig and Berlin, where he studied philosophy, religion, culture, art, history of literature, sociology, natural sciences, Sanskrit, English and French languages. From 1888 to 1892 he was a teacher himself in Kintai and taught Lithuanian and German languages, geography, history and physical education. He was relentless in fighting for the rights of Lithuanians and the Lithuanian language in Lithuania Minor. In 1895, he established a singers’ society in Tilžė and led it for 40 years. Vydūnas published and edited magazines and newspapers where he raised philosophical questions about the human existence, explained the essence of humanism based on self-awareness and intuition as well as sensitivity to kindness and beauty. He was also guided by his philosophical beliefs in cultural activities, he followed them when creating his distinctive passive resistance tactics against Germanisation. Vydūnas created a number of dramas, which were turned into plays at Lithuania’s theatres.
Vydūnas was one of the most unique philosophers in Lithuania and was significant even at the European level. As a person, he was also unique. He had tuberculosis since his childhood, but later overcame it by leading an ascetic lifestyle. He became a vegetarian at the age of 17, practised yoga, enjoyed running, played the harp and even at the age of 80 years old, he was still cycling, skating and running.
In 1938, when his 70th anniversary was approaching, Vydūnas was persecuted by the Nazi Germany government and was sent to prison in Tilžė. However, when cultural figures of global importance expressed their discontent, he was soon released. In 1940, he was even considered as a nominee for the Nobel Prize, but the international situation of the time prevented him from winning. In 1944, Vydūnas emigrated to inland Germany alongside other Tilžė residents. From 1946, he resided in Detmold. This is where he passed away in 1953.

Vydūnas could have been featured on a 10 litas banknote?

As early as in 1990, Lithuania started preparing for the future national currency. A couple of artists quickly started creating banknote designs. A French printing house François-Charles Oberthür was chosen for their production. The banknote projects were even sent out. However, something unexpected happened a couple days later. Suddenly, the process was stopped. Apparently, the French bank refused to grant credit for the printing of Lithuanian banknotes. It is believed that this happened due to political reasons. More specifically - due to the pressure of the Soviet Union government on the French government. The agreement was not signed and the designs of the first Lithuanian paper money remained in France for 7 years, until they were returned to Lithuania in 1997. Nowadays, these banknote designs are on display at the Money Museum. Among them, there is the 10 litas banknote design created by an artist Alvydas Mandeika, boasting a portrait of Vydūnas on its obverse and the port of Klaipėda on its reverse. Truth be told, even in Lithuania the banknote, especially its reverse, was welcomed sceptically, therefore its author was also thinking about other designs related to Lithuania Minor and suggested featuring a fisher’s cottage, krikštai (Lithuanian burial monuments), etc. However, the designs just did not work and thus the creation of a 10 litas banknote was assigned to Gintaras Jonaitis.

Vydūnas on litas banknotes that were in circulation

Litas entered into circulation in Lithuania in 1993. With years passing and national currency taking root as well as the improvement of economic situation, a need to have banknotes of higher denominations arose. Until 1997, the highest denomination of the banknotes in circulation was 100. It was decided to issue a 200 litas banknote. Rytis Valantinas was asked to create it, since he had already created the 100 litas banknote and thus already had some experience. Vydūnas was remembered and chosen to be featured on the 200 litas banknote.

When creating the design, the issue of the reverse arose once again. The author searched for an appropriate image that would represent Klaipėda district and Lithuania Minor. The ideas included depicting the city, port industry or maybe even conveying Vydūnas’ philosophy. A generalising symbol - a lighthouse - was finally chosen. This is how the Klaipėda pier and lighthouse ended up on the banknote. It was a symbol of the Baltic Sea and the love that Lithuanians have for it.

As soon as the banknote was released, the image on the reverse was widely discussed for the waves not crashing the pier from the correct side, the lighthouse shining in the wrong direction, the sea being restless with the sky being monotonous and so on. However, the artist’s main concern was the general logic of the banknote’s composition, whereas the nature and encyclopaedic accuracy were not that important. In this reverse, the sea and the lighthouse are just symbols, expressing the sentiments of Lithuanians towards the sea, and not a landscape painted from a certain viewpoint.
Another interesting fact is that this was the second banknote to feature a restless sea (in addition to the 10 litas banknote featuring an Atlantic Ocean wave threatening to sink Lituanica). No other motif was so popular among the painters.

By the way, the 200 litas banknote was not the only one to feature the lighthouse of Klaipėda. It could also be seen on Klaipėda money issued in 1920s. At the time, Klaipėda district was assigned to be administered by France. Military authorities paid their employees in francs, while  on 22 February 1922 they issued temporary notgelds – marks, to be used for settlements with local residents. They featured the scenery of Klaipėda district, whereas the lighthouse of Klaipėda was on the 10 mark banknote.

When the commission discussed the iconography of Vydūnas’ portrait, the choice was between two images:  an image of Vydūnas as a young man that was well-known to the interwar period Lithuanian society from the photocronicles pages of newspapers and magazines and still well-remembered by many older intellectuals or an image of an older Vydūnas with grey hair, weary from the hardships of war, taken in Germany a couple of years before his death. It was finally decided that Vydūnas should be portrayed as he looked like during the last years of his life.
A characteristic element of his portrait was a completely white beard and hair of the writer, which made the portrait lighter and brighter. Interestingly, a light portrait makes a banknote more difficult to counterfeit.

The banknote printed by Giesecke & Devrient GmbH printing house was unique and interesting, because it was the first Lithuanian banknote to have a metallised hologram strip whose mysterious colourful brilliance made the banknote stand out from the rest. Under the UV light, another impressive security feature can be seen - the rays coming from the lighthouse are glowing and their reflection is visible on the pier.

Vydūnas on a euro coin

In 2015, Lithuania adopted the euro and litas coins and banknotes were removed from circulation, thus becoming numismatic valuables. The 200 litas banknote featuring Vydūnas suffered the same faith. However, we can see a portrait of Vydūnas featured on money once again. This happened in 2018, when Lithuania was celebrating both its 100-year anniversary and the 150th anniversary of Vydūnas. For this occasion, the Bank of Lithuania released a silver 20-euro commemorative coin.