Königsberg

The core of the city was the castle , which, when founded in 1255, was called "Royal Mountain" (in Latin Regiomontium , later Regiomonti , in German Königsberg ). According to the most common version ^{[6] [7]} , it is named after the King of the Czech Republic Przemysl Otakar II (with the decisive help of which he was founded). However, there are other interpretations of the toponym , for example, from the Prussian toponym of Gothic origin Konungaberg , where kuniggs is the head of the clan (prince), berg is Breg, shore ^[8] .

From the moment the castle was founded, neighboring peoples usually called it in their own languages: lit. Karaliaučius (Karalyauchius) , Polish. Królewiec (Krulevec) (Old Polish Kralowgród - Royal Castle), Czech. Královec (Kralovec) . Under the name Korolevts (Korolevts) or Korolevits, the castle and the area around it for a long time, starting from the 13th century , are also mentioned in various Russian sources: chronicles, books, atlases ^{[7] [9]} . In Russia, this name was widely used before Peter I and, occasionally, in a later period ^[10] , up to the beginning of the 20th century ^[11] , including in fiction, for example, in the texts of M. Saltykov-Shchedrin ^{[12] [ 13]} . However, after Peter I and before renaming in 1946, Russians more often used the German version.

Until 1721, only the castle officially had the name Königsberg, although long before that, in everyday life, the population had united three adjacent cities under this name.

Order period

Somewhere at the turn of the 10th – 11th centuries, the Prussian settlement of Twangste ( Prussian: Twangste ) arose whose control infrastructure was quite developed. The townspeople were provided with food by the population of the nearby village of Lipnik ( Prussian. Lipnick ), the protection of the settlements at the mouth of the Pregel River ( Prussian. Preigile ) was carried out by warrior soldiers who settled in the nearest and distant Tuvangst district.

After the troops of the Czech king Przemysl Otakar II , invited by the Polish king “to fight the Gentiles”, came to the aid of knights who were defeated by the local population, on September 1, 1255, on a hill on the high right bank in the lower reaches of the Pregel River on the site of the knights destroyed by the Prussian city The Teutonic Order was founded castle . In Polish, he was named Krolevets ( Polish Królewiec ) in honor of the Czech king, and in German - Königsberg ( German Königsberg ).

Initially, the castle was wooden, but in 1257 the construction of a stone, or rather, a brick castle began.

In 1260, during the Great Prussian uprising, the troops of several Prussian tribes besieged the castle , but could not take it. The unsuccessful attempts of individual Prussian tribes to destroy the castle were repeated in 1263 and 1273.

In subsequent years, German colonists began to arrive in the conquered lands, they gradually mixed with the local Prussian population, which later forgot their language and culture and almost completely assimilated. In the 16th century in Königsberg, the Prussians still accounted for about 20% of the population.

A settlement appeared near the castle walls, which also began to be called Königsberg. City law, on the basis of Kulm law, was awarded to the settlement on February 28, 1286, by the Landmaster of Prussia Konrad von Tirberg ^[14] .

Since Königsberg's growth was limited by city walls, other settlements began to grow around, because the proximity of the city and the castle brought many advantages.

In 1300, the settlement of Löbenicht also received city rights. Although administratively these two cities were independent, in fact they constituted a single whole. This double city also became known as Königsberg. To avoid confusion, the original Königsberg was called Altstadt , that is, the “old city” of Königsberg.

The first mention of the construction of the Cathedral is in 1333. Located in the city center, on the island of Kant (formerly Kneiphof ).

The third Königsberg settlement to receive city rights was Kneiphof in 1327. It was separated from Altstadt by the sleeve of the Pregol River ( German Pregel - Pregel) and is located on the island of the same name . In fact, he was also part of Koenigsberg.

After the thirteen-year war of 1454-1466, the Teutonic Order recognized itself as a Polish vassal and moved its capital to Königsberg from Marienburg (now Malbork in Poland). In 1525, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Albrecht transformed the theocratic state into the secular Prussian Duchy , subject to Poland , and he himself became a duke. The capital of the new state was Koenigsberg.

In 1523, with the assistance of the Duke of Albrecht, Hans Weinreich founded the first printing house in Koenigsberg in Löbenicht, where the first book was printed in 1524. ^[15] The printing house served as the economic base for orders from the ducal court, church, city administration, and later the university.

In 1544, Koenigsberg University opened in the city, later named "Albertina" - after the Duke of Albrecht .

Patrimony of the Kingdom of Poland 1466-1657.

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  Königsberg 1652

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  Przemysl Otakar II

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  Konigsberg Cathedral , modern view

The Age of the Prussian Duchy and the Kingdom of Prussia

Since the XVI century, the city has become an important center of Lithuanian culture, the first book in Lithuanian has been published here, important figures of Lithuanian culture Martinas Mazhvidas , Kristionas Donelaitis , Ludvikas Reza and others lived.

Not later than in 1660 in Königsberg began to publish its own newspaper . This newspaper was delivered to Russia and included in the reviews of the European press, which in the Ambassadorial Order were for the Boyar Duma and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich ^[16] .

The “triple” city (Altstadt, Löbenicht and Kneiphof), which was actually single, but consisted of three administratively independent parts (each of the three cities had its own town hall, its burgomaster, its own court, etc.) lasted until 1724 .

In 1724, three cities, numerous villages, towns and outskirts, as well as a castle, which before that was not part of any of the cities, but had a special status of government residence, were united in the city of Königsberg.

In the same year, Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), the most famous native of the city in his entire history, was born in Königsberg.

During the Seven Years' War on January 11 ( 22 ), 1758 ^[17], Russian troops entered Königsberg. Residents of the city swore allegiance to Empress Elizabeth . After this, Frederick the Great did not visit the city until his death. Until August 23 ( September 3 ), 1762 ^{[17], the} city ​​belonged to Russia, and was the center of the educated governor general of East Prussia ^[18] . Prussia was returned under the terms of the St. Petersburg peace treaty concluded with her by the Russian emperor Peter III .

In 1776, the famous writer Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776-1822) was born in Königsberg.

19th Century City Development

During the XIX century, the modernization of the city's defenses was carried out. Many bastions , ravelins , defensive ramparts were built, most of which have survived to this day . Of particular interest are the city gates. They were erected in a neo-Gothic style and are interesting architectural monuments.

In the XIX century, the city grew significantly. In 1782 there were 31,368 in the city, in 1888 - 140,909, in 1910 - 249,600, in 1939 - 373,464 inhabitants. The railway came to Koenigsberg in 1857, and in 1862 it closed with the railways of Russia.

In connection with the growth of the city there was a need for public transport . In May 1881, the first Konka route was opened in Königsberg (an electric tram was already launched in Berlin that same year). Konka owners were joint-stock companies. Compared to shakes, the cost of a trip on a ridge was much more democratic: from 10 to 20 pfennigs (depending on distance) versus 60 pfennigs per passenger, 70 pfennigs for two, 80 for three, and marks for four passengers on shakes.

And in May 1895, the first trams left on Konigsberg streets. In 1901, the city bought all the Konka lines (with the exception of the lines in Hufen) and proceeded to electrify them.

Königsberg - Kaliningrad in the 20th Century

In 1919, Devau Airport was opened in Königsberg - the first airport in Germany and one of the first airports in Europe and the world. In 1922, air traffic was organized by Königsberg - Riga - Moscow .

In the XX century, the city expanded significantly, went beyond the defensive ring . New stations were built, including the Main Station , many residential buildings, suburban areas (for example, Amalienau ) created under the Garden City program, church buildings, office buildings in art nouveau and Bauhaus style. The architects Hans Hopp and Friedrich Haitmann made a particularly significant contribution to the change in the city’s appearance during this period.

An oriental fair was held in the city, the main exhibition hall of which was the House of Technology .

Much attention was paid to the construction of monuments and small city sculpture, for the creation of which graduates and teachers of the Königsberg Academy of Arts were widely involved (the sculptors Friedrich Reusch and Stanislav Kauer made a particularly significant contribution). Reconstruction and archaeological research was carried out in the castle.

After the Nazis came to power, during the “ Kristallnacht ”, the New Synagogue , built in 1894–1896 ^[19] , was destroyed in Königsberg, and militarism was actively promoted by Gauleiter Erich Koch .

Even before the end of World War II , in August 1944, the city of Königsberg was badly destroyed by British bombers during Operation Retribution ^[20] . The bombing was mainly carried out in the city center, where there were practically no military facilities. Many civilians were killed, the old city and many ancient monuments burned down, the castle was badly damaged. Later, the city was stormed by Soviet troops .

Before the assault from the winter of 1944-1945, the city and the garrison under the command of General Lyash were surrounded. The assault began on April 5, the battle for the fifth fort was especially fierce. During this assault, Soviet troops under the command of Marshal Vasilevsky first used the tactics of starting an infantry attack before the end of artillery preparation, which avoided enemy fire on the approach to the fortifications and caught the garrison of fortifications by surprise. The flip side of the coin was the significant loss of the troops storming from the fire (ongoing artillery preparation); Among other things, select guards units suffered heavy losses; their memory was subsequently immortalized in the monument “ 1200 Guardsmen ” located in the city center on Guards Avenue. And on April 10, a red banner was raised above the Der Dona tower, where the Amber Museum is now located, marking the end of German city history.

By the decision of the Potsdam Conference, the northern part of the German province of East Prussia, together with its capital - Königsberg - was to be transferred to the Soviet Union ^[21] . Later, when signing the border treaties, the Konigsberg region was fully recognized as the possession of the Soviet Union.

Only 20,000 of the 370,000 German residents who lived in it before the war remained. Although, immediately after the war, work began on adapting the Germans to the new government - the newspaper New Time was published in German, schools were organized where teaching was conducted in German , a decision was made to evict the German population in Germany . Almost all of them were sent to Germany by 1947, only some experts helped to restore the work of enterprises until 1948 and even before 1950, but they were also denied Soviet citizenship, and subsequently they were deported to Germany.

Instead, Soviet citizens were relocated to the city.

On July 4, 1946, after the death of Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, Konigsberg and the Konigsberg region were renamed Kaliningrad and the Kaliningrad region in his honor.

After the Second World War, excavations were occasionally carried out on the site of the ruins of the Royal Castle. In 1969, by decision of the first secretary of the CPSU regional committee, Nikolai Konovalov, the ruins of the castle were blown up, despite many protests.

However, the castle remains undeveloped and the question of systematic archaeological excavations of this 13th-century monument remains open ^[22] . The city administration in 2010 proposed to hold a referendum in the spring of 2011 on the need to restore the castle ^[23] .

• Monument to Frederick I (1697, Andreas Schlüter )
• Monument to Frederick William I in a niche near the southern wall of the castle (1730, Johann Meissner)
• Equestrian monument to Frederick William III on Paradeplatz near the University (1851, August Kiss, Rudolf von Printz)
• Monument to William I (1894, Frederick Reusch ) at the castle
• Monument to Bismarck (1901, Friedrich Reusch) on the castle square
• Sculpture "German Michel" (1904, Friedrich Reusch) at the Wrangel Tower
• The sculpture "Archer" (1908, Fritz Heinemann) at the Castle Pond
• Monument to Field Marshal Ludwig York (1913, Walter Rosenberg)
• Monument to the soldiers who died during the First World War (Mother, seeing off her son to the front, 1920)
• Equestrian statue of cuirassier of the Wrangel regiment with a banner in his hand (1934, Otto Emil Richter)
• The sculpture group "Youth Rush" (H. Albrecht) at the Higher Trade School (now the Kaliningrad Technical College )
• Bust of Queen of Prussia Louise (1874, Christian Rauch ) at the church of her name
• Professor's cemetery (Kaliningrad)

• Königsberg Forts
• Zacheim Gate
• Königsberg Castle
• Konigsberg bedbugs
• Konigsberg Academy of Arts
• Oriental Fair

• Tsarskoye Selo Library, books on the history of Königsberg (Address books in German), PDF
• Königsberg .
• The main dates of the history of the city .
• Archive of photographs of East Prussia
• Köster B. Königsberg. Today's Kaliningrad. The architecture of German time.
• Ignatiev A. Kaliningrad or Koenigsberg? Controversy with supporters of the renaming of the city .
• Otto von Lyash. So Königsberg fell .
• Kulakov V.I. History of Koenigsberg in Russian historiography since 1945
• Interactive map with old and new photographs of Koenigsberg and Kaliningrad now
• Kulakov V.I. Koenigsberg is below us. Depths of Altstadt
• The television series Königsberg. The bridge where the East meets the West . "
• Adamov B.N. Konigsberg in the First World War .
• Smooth R. Black-and-white days of Koenigsberg, September 3, 2014 .