According to the previous agreement, Lithuania should return the document to Berlin by the end of the year.

“Lithuanian diplomats are currently talking with their partner Germany about the future of the February 16th display of the Act,” Deputy Foreign Minister Jovita Neliupšienė told BNS.

The resolution of the Council of Lithuania regarding the restoration of Lithuania’s independence was exhibited at the Historical Presidency in Kaunas from February 16 to November 27 this year. Four years before that, it could be viewed at the House of Signatories in Vilnius.

According to the data of the Lithuanian National Museum, which owns the House of the Signatories, 53.4 thousand people saw the document here in 2018-2021. people.

Renata Mikalajūnaitė, head of the Historical Presidency, told BNS that both the Act and the new exhibition about the history of the palace attracted great interest.

According to her calculations, from February 1 to November 30, more than 22 thousand people came to the Historical Presidency. visitors.

According to the director, it was necessary to ensure security and special conditions for exhibiting historical documents.

“We will bring back from the Lithuanian National Museum the same display cabinet that was in the House of the Signatories. It maintains a certain microclimate: humid, temperature, protection from light. The cabinet itself is bulletproof, unbreakable. The act was protected by the officers of the Public Security Service, it was insured. So, there was maximum protection, just like in the house of the Signatories”, R. Mikalajūnaitė told BNS.

Currently, the Act of February 16 has been transferred to the History Archive for safekeeping.

Daiva Lukšaitė, acting as Lithuania’s chief archivist, told BNS that if nothing changes, the document will return to the archive of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs in December.

The original Act of Independence sent to Germany in 1918 was found in the political archive of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs in March 2017 by Vytautas Magnus University professor L. Mažylis.

In 2018, according to the agreement between the German Archive and the Lithuanian Chief Archive Service and the State Historical Archive of Lithuania, the document was handed over to Lithuania for a maximum of five years.

This is the only known original of the February 16th Act. On February 16, 1918, in Vilnius, the Council of Lithuania announced the creation of an independent state of Lithuania.

The copy of the resolution with the original signatures of the signatories is an authentic copy of the Lithuanian state birth certificate.