Kaliningrad
nds:Keunigsbarg Kaliningrad (Калининград)seaport city inmouthPregola rivercapitalmain city ofKaliningrad Oblast,small Russian exclave between PolandLithuaniaaccess toBaltic sea. As Königsberg (Polish Królewiec, Lithuanian Karaliaucius)wascapital ofGerman provinceEast Prussia andearlier Ducal Prussia.
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2 History 3 Sightseeing 4 Famous people from Königsberg/Kaliningrad 5 External links |
Geography
The Pregola river goesVistula BayKaliningrad. The sea vessels can accessGdansk Bay ofBaltic Sea by Vistula BayPilawa Straits.
History
Königsberg ("king's mountain") was founded1255 byBohemian King Ottokar II that comehelp Teutonic Knights during their conquestPrussia inadventure called Northern Crusade. This event startedgenocidelocal Baltic PrussiansGerman colonistion. However,Prussian language extinct not sooner that 1540.
Königsberg wascapitol Sambia, (Samland), one offour dioceses into which Prussia had been divided1243 by papal legate WilliamModena. Saint AdalbertPrague becamemain patron saint ofKönigsberger Dom (cathedral). Königsberg became memberHanzaimportant portProvincePrussiaLithuania.
DuringwarPrussian Confederation alliedPoland, Königsberg also rebelled againstTeutonic knights. However,rebellion was defeatedeventually, whenformer capital Marienburg (Malbork) was lostPoland, Königsberg was from 1457capital city ofTeutonic Order state, reduced by1466 Second TreatyThornarealater Ducal Prussia, underoverlordship ofPolish crown.
With secularisation ofOrder's territories (1525,first Hohenzollern ruler committed Prussian TributPolish kingreceived Ducal PrussiacapitalKönigsberg asfief.
Königsberg became one ofbiggest citiesportsProvincePrussia, which was one ofmembersPolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth withconsiderable autonomyseparate parliamentcurrency.
The Ducal Prussia were since 1618 inpersonal unionBrandenburg underlatter's Hohenzollern rulers. In 1660 Hohenzollerns were released fromoverlordshipPolish crown, withexceptiondynasty extinction, whenwas supposedreturnPoland. Byactcoronation 1701Königsberg, Hohenzollern became kingsPrussia, finally independent from Poland andHoly Roman Empire ofGerman Nation. After dissolving ofempire, Königsberg was then capital ofProvincePrussia, outsideformal bordersGerman Confederation (Deutscher Bund)1815-66, untilGerman unification, whenwas incorporated toGerman Empire (1871).
Withfounding ofuniversity, Königsberg becamecentrelearning. Oneits noted sons wasleading mathematicianastronomer Johann Müller Regiomontanus (1436-76), naming himself afterLatin form ofcity's name. It was alsobirthplace (1690) offamous mathematician Christian Goldbach andhome ofphilosopher Immanuel Kant. In 1736,mathematician Leonhard Euler usedarrangementbridgesislands at Königsberg asbasis forSeven BridgesKönigsberg Problem which led tomathematical branchtopology.
On January 31, 1773 King Friedrich II announced thatold Prussia werebe known as East Prussia, which afterfirst world war becameGerman exclave.
Since 1933 East Prussia was ruled by Erich Koch, afterreannexion ofPolish corridor1939 againland connection torestGermany.
AtendWorld War II1945,city was annexed bySoviet Unionit was renamed Kaliningrad1946 afterdeathSoviet President Mikhail Kalinin. The city had been heavily bombarded byBritish Royal Air Forcesummer 1944. Some ofGerman population had fledadvancing Red Armyearly 1945, andfew returned aftercity was surrendered on April 9, 1945. However, all ethnic German residents who remained atend ofwar - estimated at about 200,000, out ofcity's prewar population316,000 - were brutally expelled bySoviets1945-49. Many diedhunger duringwar's closing stages orshortages which followed, or duringarduous expulsion process.
DuringCold War Kaliningrad -- withnorthern third offormer East Prussia, nowKaliningrad Oblast ofRussian Soviet Federated Soviet Republic -- was an important naval baseclosedvisitors. AsresultindependenceLithuaniaBelorussia inearly 1990s,territory becameRussian exclave, separated fromrestRussia, ironically just as East Prussia had been separated fromrestGermany1919-39. When PolandLithuania become members ofEuropean Union2004,region will be completely surrounded byEU. In all likelihood, this will require some special arrangements forterritory's inhabitants.
Aftercollapse ofSoviet Unionhas been discussedgivecity its old German name back, ashappenedSt. Petersburg.
Sightseeing
- Königsberg Cathedral
- CathedralChristSaviour (Kaliningrad)
- Ploshchad Pobedy (city centre)
- old fortifications
Famous people from Königsberg/Kaliningrad
- Immanuel Kant, philosopher
- Erich von Drygalski, explorer
- Christian Goldbach, mathematician
- Christoph Hartknoch, historian
- Gotthilf Heinrich Ludwig Hagen, physicist
- David Hilbert, mathematician
- Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, author
- Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, physicist
- Aleksei Leonov, cosmonaut, first personwalkspace
- Agnes Miegel
- Karl Rudolf König, physicist
- Otto Wallach, chemist
- Viktor Patsayev, cosmonaut, died1971 returning fromtripspace.
- For more info after 1945''': Kaliningrad OblastYasnaya Polyana.
