Little of German Klaipėda remains but there are some restored streets in the oldest part of town wedged between the river and Turgaus aikštė. Pretty Teatro Aikštė is the Old Town focus, dominated by the fine classical-style Drama Theatre (1857). Hitler proclaimed the Anschluss (incorporation) of Memel into Germany to the crowd on the square from the theatre's balcony.
In front tinkles a fountain dedicated to Simon Dach, a 17th-century Klaipėda-born German poet (1605-59), who was the focus of a circle of Königsberg writers and musicians. On a pedestal in the middle of the water stands Äennchen von Tharau (1912), a statue of Ann from Tharau sculpted by Berlin artist Alfred Kune and inspired by a famous German wedding and love song originally written in the East Prussian dialect. The words of the song were originally ascribed to Dach, but it's now thought another member of the same Königsberg circle, the composer and cathedral organist Johann Albert, wrote them. The statue and fountain you see today is a replica of the original destroyed during the war.
