Kaliningrad: Encyclopedia II - Kaliningrad - History

Kaliningrad - History

Kaliningrad - Teutonic Order

Around 300 BCE an Old Prussian settlement called Pregnore was founded near the site of modern Kaliningrad. This settlement was conquered and destroyed during the conquest of Prussia by the Teutonic Order. In its place Königsberg ("King's Mountain" in German) was founded in 1255 by King Otakar II of Bohemia and named in his honor due to his involvement in the Northern Crusades. Over a long period, the Teutonic Knights, assisted by various knights from Western Europe, conquered the indigenous Baltic Old Prussians. This marked the beginning of the extermination of pagan Baltic culture and German colonisation of the area. The small remaining population of Old Prussians eventually became Germanised. However, the Old Prussian language did not become extinct until the 18th century.

Königsberg was originally the capital of Sambia, or Samland, one of the four dioceses into which Prussia had been divided in 1243 by the papal legate William of Modena. Saint Adalbert of Prague became the main patron saint of the Königsberg Cathedral, one of the main landmarks of the city.

Königsberg eventually became a member of the Hanseatic League and an important port for the southeastern Baltic region, trading goods for Prussia, Poland, and Lithuania.

As a result of its defeat in the Thirteen Years' War at the hands of Poland, the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights was reduced by the Peace of Toruń in 1466 to the area of later Ducal Prussia, held by the Teutonic Order under the feudal overlordship of the Polish crown. The Order saw the actions of Poland as a betrayal of their original mission, despite the fact that Konrad I had granted the crusaders only the small Chełmno Land as a fief for the duration of their mission to Christianize the pagan tribes.

Kaliningrad - Ducal Prussia

With the secularisation of the Order's territories in 1525, Albert of Prussia of the Hohenzollern dynasty paid his obligatory feudal homage to Sigismund I of Poland and was granted Ducal Prussia as a fief with its capital in Königsberg. It became one of the biggest cities and ports of the Province of Prussia, having considerable autonomy, a separate parliament and currency, and with German as its dominant language.

Anna, daughter of Duke Albert Frederick, married Elector John Sigismund of Brandenburg, who was granted the right of succession to Ducal Prussia on Albert Frederick's death in 1618. From this time the Duchy of Prussia and Konigsberg were ruled by the Electors of Brandenburg.

Kaliningrad - Brandenburg-Prussia and German Empire

In 1660 the Hohenzollern dynasty negotiated the release of Prussia from Polish sovereignty for the duration of their line, after the expiration of which the territory would revert back to Poland. By the act of coronation in Königsberg in 1701, Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg became King Frederick I of Prussia, independent in Prussia of both Poland and the Holy Roman Empire. After the Partitions of Poland, Königsberg became the capital of the newly-created province of East Prussia within the Kingdom of Prussia.

Königsberg became a centre of education when the Albertina University was founded by Albert of Prussia in 1544. The university was situated opposite the north and east side of the Königsberg cathedral. In 1900 it contained the Municipal Library. In 1862 a new university in the Renaissance style, was completed. The facade was adorned by an equestrian figure in relief of Albert of Prussia, the founder. Below it were niches containing statues of Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon. Inside was a handsome staircase, borne by marble columns. The Senate Hall contained a portrait of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, and a bust of Immanuel Kant, by Friedrich Hagemann. The adjacent hall ("Aula") was adorned with frescoes painted in 1870. The university library was situated in Dritte Fliess Straße and contained over 230,000 volumes. There were 900 students in 1900.

Koenigsberg as well was the place where the first printed books in Lithuanian language were published and it for long remained the center of the publishing in Lithuanian because here there were educated Lithuanians (from Lithuania Minor, which was as well part of East Prussia; in Lithuania Minor sermons after the protestant reformation were held in Lithuanian, and thus Lithuanian prayer books were needed). Protestantism and policies of Prussia promoted education and this helped as well. First non-religious Lithuanian books were published later as well.

It was the birthplace (1690) of the mathematician Christian Goldbach and the home of the philosopher Immanuel Kant. In 1736, the mathematician Leonhard Euler used the arrangement of bridges and islands at Königsberg as the basis for the Seven Bridges of Königsberg Problem which led to the mathematical branches of topology and graph theory.

Also in the Dritte Fliess Straße was the Palaestra Albertina, established in 1898 for the encouragement of the higher forms of sport among the students and citizens. Nearby were the government offices, adorned with mural paintings by Knorr and Schmidt.

In the König Straße stood the Academy of Art with a good collection of over 400 pictures. About 50 works were by old Italian Masters; and some early Dutch paintings were also to be found there. (A summary list of some of the paintings can be found in Baedeker's Northern Germany, London, 1904.) At the Königs Tor (King's Gate) stood statues of Otakar I of Bohemia, Albert of Prussia and Frederick I of Prussia. Königsberg had a magnificent Exchange (completed in 1875) with fine views of the harbour from the staircase. In Bahnhof Strasse (Railway Street) were the offices of the famous Royal Amber Works – this district was celebrated as the "Amber Coast". There was also an Observatory fitted up by the astronomer Friedrich Bessel, a Botanical Garden and Zoological Museum. The "Physikalisch", near the Heumarkt, contained botanic and anthropological collections and prehistoric antiquities.

Of Königsberg's notable structures, the 1815 Encylopaedia Britannica refers to "the magnificent palace in which is a hall 274 feet long and 59 broad without pillars to support it, and a handsome library. The gothic tower of the castle is very high (330 feet) and has 284 steps to the top, from where a great distance can be seen". This extensive building, enclosed in a large quadrangle and situated almost in the centre of the city, was formerly a seat of the Teutonic Order. It was altered and enlarged in the 16th - 18th centuries. The west wing contained the Schlosskirche, where Frederick I of Prussia was crowned in 1701, and Wilhelm I of Germany in 1861. The arms emblazoned upon the walls and columns were those of the Knights of the Order of the Black Eagle. Above the church was the spacious Moscowiter-Saal, one of the largest halls in Germany. Until the latter part of World War II the apartments of the Royal Family and the Prussia Museum (north wing) were open to the public daily. An extensive collection of provincial archives was also housed there.

By 1800 the city was approximately five miles in circumference and had 60,000 inhabitants (including a military garrison of 7,000). After the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Königsberg remained the capital of East Prussia, which was outside the formal borders of the German Confederation of 1815-66. it was incorporated into the German Empire in 1871.

Königsberg flourished as the capital of East Prussia. An extensive local railway network was established linking the city to Breslau, Thorn, Insterburg, Eydtkuhnen, Tilsit, and Pillau. In 1860 the railroad connecting Berlin with St. Petersburg was completed and made Königsberg an even more important commercial centre. Extensive electric tramways were in operation by 1900; and regular steamers plied to Memel, Tapiau and Labiau, Cranz, Tilsit, and Danzig. Two large theatres were built during this time: the Stadt (City) Theatre and the Appollo. By 1900 the city's population had grown to 188,000, with a 9,000-strong military garrison.

Kaliningrad - Weimar Republic

After World War I, the creation of the Polish Corridor cut off the East Prussian land connection from the rest of Weimar Germany. The Ostmesse (East European Fair) at the Königsberg Tiergarten was organized every year since 1920, it was intended as a compensation for the geographical distance that handicapped the economic development of East Prussia and its capital Königsberg. In 1922 the first permanent airport and commercial terminal solely for commercial aviation was built at Königsberg-Devau. In 1929, Königsberg amalgamated with some surrounding suburbs.

Kaliningrad - Third Reich

In 1932, Prussia's legal (Social Democratic) government under Otto Braun was ousted by the Reich Government, and Gauleiter Erich Koch replaced the elected local government during Nazi rule from 1933 to 1945.

In 1935, the Wehrmacht designated Königsberg as the Headquarters for Wehrkreis I, which originally took in all of East Prussia. Wehrkreis I was extended in March of 1939 to include the Memel area. In October of 1939, it was extended again to include the Ciechanów and Suwałki areas. In 1942, the Wehrkreis was again expanded to include the Białystok district. Army units that called Königsberg home inculded the I Infantry Corps, which was part of the pre-Nazi era Standing Army; the 61st Infanterie Division, which was formed upon mobilization from Reservists from East Prussia. It took part in the invasion of Belgium, and Russia.

Winston Churchill [WWII, Book XII] referred to Königsberg as "a modernised heavily defended fortress". The entire centre of Königsberg was subsequently destroyed by the British Royal Air Force in August 1944 during World War II [refer: "Prussia" by Giles MacDonogh, London, 1994, p.380], during the RAF's controversial 'terror raids' on German cities.

Many people fled Königsberg in the wake of the Red Army's advance after October 1944, particularly after German propaganda began spreading rumors of atrocities at Nemmersdorf and Gumbinnen. The city surrendered on April 9, 1945, following a desperate four-day battle. Almost all German residents who remained at the end of the war, an estimated 200,000 out of the city's prewar population of 316,000, were expelled from the city. Many people died of hunger during the war's closing stages and the shortages which followed.

Kaliningrad - Soviet Union

At the end of World War II in 1945, the city became part of the Soviet Union as agreed upon by the Allies at the Potsdam Conference. It was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946 after the death of Soviet President Mikhail Kalinin, one of the original Bolsheviks. The city was repopulated with Soviet citizens. As one of the westernmost territories of the USSR, the Kaliningrad Oblast became a strategically important area during the Cold War. The Soviet Baltic Fleet was headquartered in the city in the 1950s. Because of its strategic importance, Kaliningrad was closed to foreign visitors.

Kaliningrad - Russian Federation

Due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Kaliningrad Oblast became a Russian exclave, separated from the rest of Russia. Kaliningrad is today the only Russian Baltic Sea port that is ice-free all year.

When Poland and Lithuania became members of the European Union in 2004, the region became completely surrounded by the EU. Special travel arrangements for the territory's inhabitants have been made.

Today, there is some debate about giving the city its old name back, as has happened in several Russian cities like St. Petersburg and Tver, which were known as Leningrad and Kalinin, respectively, during the Stalinist period. However, the continued use of "Kaliningrad", at least for the next few years, seems certain. "Kenig" (short Russian form of "Königsberg") is often used in advertisements for tourism companies in this region.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki