Professor finds Lithuania's 'birth certificate' in German archive

A photograph of the Lithuania's Independence declaration from February 16, 1918 released by Lithuanian Embassy in Berlin, Germany March 30, 2017. Lithuanian Embassy in Germany/Handout via REUTERS

VILNIUS (Reuters) - A professor said on Thursday he had found a copy of Lithuania's lost declaration of independence languishing in a German archive, an achievement hailed by authorities as the discovery of the nation's "birth certificate".

Liudas Mazylis, political science professor at Lithuania's Vytautas Magnus University, told Reuters his find on Wednesday was the culmination of an eight-month search, funded by himself.