Landsbergis hailed from an old German Landsberg family that traced its roots to a ministerialis who lived in 1055 at the Werden Abbey.

[2] Landsbergis was born in the family manor in Birželiai [lt] near Pumpėnai to Wincenty Landsberg and Rozalia Jasińska.

[3] His father died in 1857 leaving the family in a difficult financial situation; they relied on assistance provided by a local nobility committee.

[4] Landsbergis' house became a meeting place of various Lithuanian intellectuals, including Vincas Kudirka, Jonas Jablonskis, Liudas Vaineikis, Antanas Kriščiukaitis, Jurgis Bielinis.

[2] In 1894, due to suspicions about his involvement in the Lithuanian book smuggling activities, Landsbergis was forced to leave Lithuania.

[6] Tsarist police launched an investigation into activists connected with Liudas Vaineikis and Landsbergis was arrested on 6 October 1900 and sent to a prison in Liepāja for ten weeks.

[7] On 27 February 1902, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia signed order sentencing 24 Lithuanians to various terms of exile.

[5] He founded and chaired Kanklės of Vilnius Society which was active in 1905–1908 and organized various theater performances, concerts, cultural evenings.

The largest production was the first national Lithuanian opera Birutė which was adapted by composer Mikas Petrauskas from a drama written by Landsbergis.

[5] Among the plays staged by Landsbergis were Pilėnų kunigaikštis by Marcelinas Šikšnys [lt] (1906), Mindaugas by Juliusz Słowacki (1908), Du keliu by Herman Heijermans (1913).

[5] In April 1915, Landsbergis evacuated from Šiauliai[18] and returned to Vilnius where he organized cultural evenings on behalf of the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers.

[8] Landsbergis reworked a ballad by Silvestras Teofilis Valiūnas [lt] about Grand Duchess Birutė into a melodrama which was staged and published in 1906.

The drama explored social and class conflicts between Lithuanians, Polish nobility, and Russian officials and reflected revolutionary moods of 1905–1907.

His works were popular as they featured comic situations and lively dialogues, but the characters were not well developed and their motivations were not fleshed out.

[5][19] In the adapted play, Landsbergis focuses on Golo who, based on the Romantic German tradition, becomes a tragic character and not a black-and-white villain.