Dovas Zaunius (senior)
Dovas Zaunius | |
|---|---|
Zauniai family, 1900 First row: Marė, Augustė; second: Berta, Elzė (mother), Dovas (son), Dovas (father), Ema; third row: Ana, Endrius, Marta, Hermanis | |
| Born | 26 January 1845 Rokaiten, Province of Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia |
| Died | 25 June 1921 (aged 76) Rokaiten, Weimar Republic |
| Nationality | Prussian Lithuanian |
| Occupation | Farmer |
| Known for | Political and cultural activism |
| Political party | Lithuanian Conservative Election Societies |
| Board member of | Birutė Society |
| Children | Dovas Zaunius Marta Zauniūtė and seven more |
Dovas Zaunius (German: David Saunus; 1845–1921) was a Prussian Lithuanian cultural and political activist. He supported Lithuanian book smugglers and sheltered Lithuanian activist fleeing the Tsarist police. He was chairman of Birutė Society which organized Lithuanian cultural events and managed the budget of the Lithuanian newspaper Varpas from 1900 to 1905. In 1890, Zaunius co-founded the first of the Lithuanian Conservative Election Societies that sought to elect Prussian Lithuanians to the German Reichstag and Prussian Landtag. Zaunius unsuccessfully ran in the Reichstag elections three times.