Misplaced Pages

Kaliningrad

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 66.74.53.141 (talk) at 10:49, 1 November 2005 (→Famous people from Königsberg/Kaliningrad). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 10:49, 1 November 2005 by 66.74.53.141 (talk) (→Famous people from Königsberg/Kaliningrad)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
For other uses, see Kaliningrad (disambiguation) and Königsberg (disambiguation).
Map of Kaliningrad Oblast

Kaliningrad (Russian: Калининград, German: Königsberg, Polish: Królewiec, Lithuanian: Karaliaučius) is a seaport city, capital and main city of the Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania with access to the Baltic Sea. As Königsberg (Latin Regiomontium, Polish: Królewiec) it was the capital of the German province of East Prussia, the earlier Polish fiefs of Ducal Prussia, and before that of the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights.

Locator map on an international level

History

Order's state

The 14th-century cathedral in Kaliningrad

The original settlement was a Prussian settlement Pregnore probably founded 300 B.C, it was conquered and destroyed during conquest of Prussia.In its place Königsberg ("King's Mountain" in German) was founded in 1255 by Czech king Ottocar II and named in his honor due to his help in Northern Crusades against the native local tribes, and the small Russian statelets of Novgorod and Pskov, which the Roman Catholic Church deemed as "schismatic". Over a long period, the Teutonic Order, assisted by various knights from Western Europe, conquered the local people, the Baltic Prussians. This marked the beginning of the extermination of the local people and German colonisation of the area. The small remaining population of Baltic Prussians eventually became germanised. However, the Baltic-Prussian language did not become extinct until the 18th century.

Königsberg stands upon the river Pregel, a navigable river which flows from the north-western provinces of Poland & Lithuania. At Königsberg it empties into the Frische Haff, an inlet of the Baltic Sea. Until circa 1900 ships drawing more than seven feet of water could not pass the bar and come into town, so that larger vessels had to anchor at Pillau, for long the port of Königsberg, where merchandise was transhipped into smaller vessels. In 1901 a ship canal between Königsberg and Pillau was completed at a cost of 13 million marks, which enables vessels of a 21 foot draught to moor alongside the town.

It was originally the capital of Sambia, or Samland, one of the four dioceses into which Prussia had been divided in 1243 by papal legate William of Modena. Saint Adalbert of Prague became the main patron saint of the Königsberger Dom (cathedral). This Gothic structure was begun in 1333 (not completed until the middle of the 16th century - the west tower is unfinished) and was built upon the Kneiphof and island in the Pregel. The main tower contained the famous Wallenrodt Library, given by Martin von Wallenrodt in 1650. The choir contained murals from the 14th and 15th centuries, late Gothic wood carvings and ancient monuments in the Renaissance style, the chief of which was that of Albert I, Duke of Prussia (d. 1568), by C. Floris, Antwerp (1570). A number of Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order and Prussian princes were interred in the vaults. Adjoining the cathedral, on the north side of the choir, is the grave of the illustrious thinker Immanuel Kant, the "sage of Königsberg". His bones rest under a stone upon which stands a marble pedestal holding a bust in Carrara marble. On the wall behind was a copy of Raphael's "School of Athens", painted by Neide.

Königsberg eventually became a member of the Hanseatic League and an important port for Prussia, Province of Prussia, and Lithuania which had no shoreline. Of its 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 a large quadrangle and was situated almost in the centre of the city. It was formerly a seat of the Teutonic Order. It was altered and enlarged in the 16th - 18th centuries. The West Wing contained the Schloss Kirche, where King Frederick I of Prussia was crowned in 1701, and King William I 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 the Provincial Archives was also housed there. (cf. Baedeker, Northern Germany, London, 1904.)

As a result of the Thirteen Years' War between the Order and the newly combined Polish-Lithuanian federation History of Poland (1385-1569), the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights was reduced by the Peace of Thorn 1466 to the area of later Ducal Prussia, held by the Order under the feudal overlordship of the Polish crown. The Order saw the action of Poland as a betrayal of their original mission in the north, despite the fact that Polish Duke of Mazovia, who had invited the Order to christanise Prussian tribes, had granted the Order only a small amount of land as a fief, and only for the duration of their crusade.

Ducal Prussia

File:Krolewiecherb.PNG
Coat of Arms of Królewiec
File:Pol-lith commonwealth map.jpg
Outline of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with its major subdivisions as of 1619 superimposed on present-day national borders

With the secularisation of the Order's territories (1525), the first Hohenzollern ruler, Albrecht of Prussia, did his obligatory feudal homage to Sigismund I, the King of Poland, and was granted Ducal Prussia with the capital in Królewiec (Königsberg) as a fief.

Królewiec became one of the biggest cities and ports of Ducal Prussia, with considerable autonomy, a separate parliament, and currency, and with German as its dominant language. By 1800 the city was five miles in circumference and had 60,000 inhabitants (including the garrison of 7000). By 1900 this population had grown to 188,000 (garrison 9000).

Anna, daughter of Duke Albrecht Friedrich of Prussia (reigned 1568-1618), married Elector Johann Sigismund of Brandenburg, who was granted the right of succession to Ducal Prussia on his father-in-law's death in 1618. From this time Prussia became ruled by the Electors of Brandenburg.

Brandenburg-Prussia and German Empire

In 1660 the Hohenzollerns negotiated the release of Prussia from the overlordship of the King of Poland for the period of duration of their dynasty, after which it was supposed to return to Polish overlordship. By the act of coronation 1701 in Königsberg, the Hohenzollerns became kings of Prussia, independent from the Polish king, and in 1795 under Napoleon Prussia resigned from the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation.

After the abolition of the Holy Roman Empire of German Nation in 1806, Königsberg remained the capital of the Province of Prussia, outside the formal borders of German Confederation (Deutscher Bund) of 1815-66, until German unification, when it was incorporated in the German Empire (1871).

Königsberg (Królewiec) became a centre of education when the Albertina University was founded by Albert of Brandenburg Prussia in 1544. This university, where Kant taught, stood opposite the north and east side of the cathedral. In 1900 it contained the Municipal Library. In 1862 a new university in the Renaissance style, by Stuler, was completed. The facade was adorned by an equestrian figure in relief of Duke Albert of Prussia, the founder. Below it were niches containing statues of Martin Luther and Melanchthon. Inside was a handsome staircase, borne by marble columns. The Senate Hall contained a portrait of the Emperor Frederick III, as Rector, by Lauchert, and a bust of Immanuel Kant in his 80th year, by Hagemann and Schadow. 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.

File:Konigsberg Schlossturm.jpg
The Königsberg Castle before World War I

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 branch of topology.

Also in the Dritte Fliess Straße was the Palaestra Albertina, established in 1898 by Dr. Lange of New York, 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 King Ottocar of Bohemia, Duke Albert of Prussia and King Frederick I. 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 Bessel (d. 1846), a Botanical Garden and Zoological Museum. The "Physikalisch", near the Heumarkt, contained botanic and anthropological collections and prehistoric antiquities.

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, Tapiaum and Labiau; to Cranz, Tilsit and Danzig. There were two principle theatres: the Stadt (City) Theatre and the Appollo.

Weimar Republic

After World War I, the creation of the Polish Corridor had cut off East Prussia land connection from the rest of 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.

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 from 1933 to 1945. Churchill 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 the RAF's controversial 'terror raids' on cities.

Many of the population began fleeing the advancing Red Army after October 1944, particularly after the German propaganda claimed of atrocities at Nemmersdorf and Gumbinnen. The city surrendered on April 9, 1945, following a desperate four-day battle. However, all German residents who remained at the end of the war, (includes the few who returned after the Amistice) an estimated 200,000 out of the city's prewar population of 316,000, were subject to evacuation, expelled or executed by Soviet forces from 1945-49. Many people died of hunger during the war's closing stages and the shortages which followed, as well as during the Soviets' arduous expulsion process.

Soviet Union

The "House of Soviets", built on the ruins of the Königsberg Castle which was destroyed by Soviet authorities.

At the end of World War II, in 1945, the city became part of the Soviet Union as was agreed 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. Kaliningrad was extremely important to the USSR (as the westmost part of its territory, for the placement of radio and TV broadcast jammers against western mass media and as the place of the main naval base of Soviet Baltic Fleet). It is now less strategically important to Russia, but still serves as a Baltic port that is ice-free year round.

During the Cold War, Kaliningrad -- with the northern third of former East Prussia now the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Federation -- was so important that it was closed to foreign visitors.

Russian Federation

As a result of independence for Lithuania and Belarus in the early 1990s, the territory became a Russian exclave, separated from the rest of Russia. 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.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was discussion about giving the city its old name back, as has happened in several Russian cities like St. Petersburg and the city of Tver, which were known as Leningrad and Kalinin, respectively, during the Stalinist period. But 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.

Kaliningrad's future

Some have argued that because of Kaliningrad's special position and situation, as an exclave of Russia surrounded by EU territory, it should be given special treatment compared to other regions of the Russian Federation. As both the Lithuanian and Polish economy, as well as the economies of the other new members of the EU, are expected to continue to grow and benefit from their membership in the biggest economy on the planet, Kaliningrad could prosper as well. The most optimistic see a future where Kaliningrad could become a "Hong Kong of the Baltic Sea".

These bright scenarios, however, are far from being fulfilled. Kaliningrad faces extreme social, economic, medical and environmental problems. A large part of the population lives in poverty (a bigger percentage than the Russian average). The former largest employer in the area, the military, has suspended most of its activities. An HIV-epidemic is getting bigger and bigger, particularly among drug-addicts and the homeless. Also, the military activities of the last 50 years have left enormous amounts of toxic waste, making large areas uninhabitable.

Instead of being an area with great potential, which could be fulfilled through cooperation with its neighbors, Kaliningrad is a headache for Poland and Lithuania, and the rest of the EU, with a high crime rate, much organized crime and huge social problems.

Geography

Kaliningrad is located at the mouth of the River Pregel, which empties into the Vistula Lagoon. Geographical coordinates 54°43′N 20°31′E / 54.717°N 20.517°E / 54.717; 20.517. Sea vessels can access Gdansk Bay and the Baltic Sea by way of the Vistula Lagoon and the Strait of Baltiysk.

Economy

Sightseeing

Brandenburg Gate, Königsberg

Famous people from Königsberg/Kaliningrad

External links

Categories: