ENAfter the Lithuanians seized the Klaipeda District in 1923, the legal status of the Catholic Church in this area gained a political character. The negotiations between the Holy See, Germany and Lithuania concerned the establishment of a delegacy subordinate to the Warmian bishop or a separate diocese with the German bishop at its head, or even the erection of an apostolic vicariate in this region. Ultimately, Pope Pius XI by his bull Lituanorum gente of 4 April 1926 created a separate Klaipeda’s prelature with the bishop of Telsche.