formed a sizeable portion of the population in the northern counties of the region, especially in rural areas, ranging from 33,9 percent in the Labiau/Labguva (Polessk) county to 74,4 percent in the Heydekrug (Šilutė) county. Also ethnic Polish, Curonian, Latvian and Jewish minorities lived in the region. The majority of Polish and Lithuanian inhabitants were Lutherans, not Roman Catholics like their ethnic kinsmen across the border in the Russian Empire. In 1817, East Prussia had 796,204 Evangelical Christians, 120,123 Roman Catholics, 864 Mennonites and 2,389 Jews. Pre-1914 and present-day situation There were Lithuanian speakers and the Lithuanian language was effective throughout Lithuania Minor at the beginning of the 20th century, though the concentration places of Lithuanians were near Neman – Klaipėda, Tilžė (Tilsit), Ragainė (Ragnit). At the end of the war, the German and Lithuanian population of the former East Prussia either fled or was expelled to the western parts of Germany. There resided about 170,000 Prussian Lithuanians in East Prussia previous to 1914. Lithuanian fellowships functioned in Gumbinė, Įsrutis, Koenigsberg, Lithuanian press was printed in Geldapė, Darkiemis, Girdava, Stalupėnai, Eitkūnai, Gumbinė, Pilkalnis, Jurbarkas, Vėluva, Tepliava, Labguva, Koenigsberg, Žuvininkai. No Germanization was performed in Lithuania Minor prior to 1873. Prussian Lithuanians were affected voluntarily by German culture. In the 20th century, a good number of Lithuanian speakers considered themselves to be Memellandish and also Germans. In 1914, Lithuanian representatives made their first steps to claim Minor Lithuania by signing the Amber Declaration, which called for the unification of ethnic Lithuanian lands. In the interbellum, after the division of Lithuania Minor between Germany and Lithuania, Lithuania started a campaign of Lithuanisation in its acquired region, the Klaipėda Region. In the regional census of 1925, more than 26 percent declared themselves Lithuanian and more than 24 percent simply as Memellandish, compared with more than 41 percent German. The election results to the Parliament of the Klaipėda Region (, ) between 1923 and 1939 revealed approximately 85 percent votes for German political parties and about 15 percent for national Lithuanian parties. The former language of Lietuvninkai (which is very similar to standard Lithuanian) is currently spoken and known by only about several hundred people who were sometime residents of Lithuania Minor. Almost all former Prussian Lithuanians – including Lithuanian speakers – had already identified themselves with German speakers, or Prussians, by the end of the 19th century because of the influence of German