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historic capital of East Prussia, since 1945 Russian territory
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Königsberg (, German: [ˈkøːnɪçsbɛʁk] ⓘ or [ˈkøːnɪksbɛʁk] ⓘ) was a German city established in the 13th century, which after the defeat of Nazi Germany became part of the Soviet Union and was renamed to Kaliningrad in 1946. After the fall of the USSR, Kaliningrad became part of Russia. Founded in 1255 on the site of the Old Prussian settlement Twangste by the Teutonic Knights during the Baltic Crusades, Königsberg (German for "King's Mountain") received its name in honour of King Ottokar II of Bohemia, who led a campaign against the pagan Old Prussians, a Baltic tribe that was native to the area.
A Baltic port city, it successively became the capital of the State of the Teutonic Order and the Duchy of Prussia. Königsberg remained the coronation city of the Prussian monarchy from 1701 onwards, though the capital was Berlin. From the 13th century, it was inhabited by Germans and Old Prussians, then also by Poles, Lithuanians and French Huguenots from the 14th, 15th and 17th centuries, respectively. It was a leading centre of the Protestant Reformation and a publishing centre of Lutheran literature.
A university city, home of the Albertina University (founded in 1544), Königsberg developed into an important German intellectual and cultural center, being the residence of Simon Dach, Immanuel Kant, Johann Georg Hamann, Käthe Kollwitz, E. T. A. Hoffmann, David Hilbert, Agnes Miegel, Hannah Arendt, Michael Wieck, and others. It was the easternmost large city in Germany until World War II. Between the wars, it was in the exclave of East Prussia, separated from the bulk of Germany by the Polish Corridor. The city was heavily damaged by Allied bombing in 1944 and during the Battle of Königsberg in early 1945, when it was occupied by the Soviet Red Army; it was annexed by the Soviet Union on 9 April 1945, and the Potsdam Agreement later that year placed it provisionally under Soviet administration. Its small Lithuanian population was allowed to remain, but the Germans were expelled.
After the war, it was largely repopulated with Russians and, to a lesser degree, Ukrainians and Belarusians from the Soviet Union. It was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946, in honour of Soviet Communist head of state Mikhail Kalinin. The city's historic centre was subsequently demolished by the Soviet government. That geographical area became the capital of Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast, an exclave bordered to the north by Lithuania and to the south by Poland. In the Final Settlement treaty of 1990, Germany renounced all claims to the city and, in general, any lands east of the Oder–Neisse line.
The first mention of the present-day location in chronicles indicates it as the place of a village of fishermen and hunters. When the Teutonic Order began the Northern Crusades, they built a wooden fortress, and later a stone fortress, calling it "Conigsberg", which later morphed into "Königsberg". The literal meaning of this is "King's mountain", in apparent honour of King Ottokar II of Bohemia, who led one of the Teutonic campaigns.
In Polish, it is called Królewiec, in Lithuanian Karaliaučius (calques of the original German name).
Königsberg was preceded by a Sambian — or Old Prussian — fort known as Twangste (Prussian word tvinksta means a pond made by a dam), as well as several Old Prussian settlements, including the fishing village and port Lipnick and the farming villages Sakkeim and Trakkeim.
During the conquest of the Prussian Sambians by the Teutonic Knights in 1255, Twangste was destroyed and replaced with a new fortress known as Conigsberg. This name meant "King's Hill" (Latin: castrum Koningsberg, Mons Regius, Regiomontium), honouring King Ottokar II of Bohemia who paid for the erection of the first fortress there during the Prussian Crusade. Northwest of this new Königsberg Castle arose an initial settlement, later known as Steindamm, roughly 7 kilometres (4 mi) from the Vistula Lagoon.
The Teutonic Order used Königsberg to fortify their conquests in Samland and as a base for campaigns against pagan Lithuania. Under siege during the Prussian uprisings in 1262–1263, Königsberg Castle was relieved by the Master of the Livonian Order. Because the initial northwestern settlement was destroyed by the Prussians during the rebellion, rebuilding occurred in the southern valley between the castle hill and the Pregolya River. This new settlement, Altstadt (Old Town), received Culm rights in 1286. First colonists were mainly armourers, weavers and brewers, and the first privilege for weavers and brewers was granted in 1299. The Old Town's first lokator was Gerko from Dobrzyń. Löbenicht, a new town directly east of Altstadt between the Pregolya River and the Schlossteich, received its own town rights in 1300. Medieval Königsberg's third town was Kneiphof, which received town rights in 1327 and was located on an island of the same name in the Pregolya, south of Altstadt. From the 13th century, the city was inhabited by German colonists and indigenous Prussians, from the 14th century also by Poles, and from the 15th century also by Lithuanians.
Within the State of the Teutonic Order, Königsberg was the residence of the marshal, one of the chief administrators of the military order. The city was also the seat of the Bishopric of Samland, one of the four dioceses into which Prussia had been divided in 1243 by the papal legate, William of Modena. Adalbert of Prague became the main patron saint of Königsberg Cathedral, a landmark of the town of Kneiphof.
Königsberg joined the Hanseatic League in 1340 and developed into an important port for the south-eastern Baltic region. The city was not a significant member of the Hanseatic League at the time, although trade relations with England and Flanders arose, and the city also served as an intermediary in trade between Danzig (Gdańsk) and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The chronicler Peter of Dusburg probably wrote his Chronicon terrae Prussiae in Königsberg from 1324 to 1330. After the Teutonic Order's victory over pagan Lithuanians in the 1348 battle of Strėva, Grand Master Winrich von Kniprode established a Cistercian nunnery in the city. Aspiring students were educated in Königsberg before continuing on to higher education elsewhere, such as Prague or Leipzig.
From the late 14th century, in order to finance wars against Lithuania and Poland, the Teutonic Knights imposed new taxes on the city. In return, the city obtained staple right in 1403, which, however, was later violated by the Teutonic Knights themselves.
Although the Knights suffered a crippling defeat in the battle of Grunwald (1410), Königsberg remained under the control of the Teutonic Knights throughout the Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War. Livonian knights replaced the Prussian branch's garrison at Königsberg, allowing them to participate in the recovery of towns occupied by Władysław II Jagiełło's troops. In the Battle of Grunwald, the banners of the Königsberg Commandery and the Old Town of Königsberg were taken by the Poles and then displayed in the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków. In the case of a complete Polish-Lithuanian victory, King Władysław II Jagiełło planned to incorporate the city into Lithuania, rather than Poland, within the Polish-Lithuanian union. During the Polish–Teutonic War of 1414, as the Polish-Lithuanian army was only a dozen or so kilometres from Königsberg, houses in Löbenicht began to be demolished to secure the Old Town.
In the 15th century, the merchant-dominated town of Kneiphof opposed Teutonic policies, while the artisan-dominated Old Town and Löbenicht maintained a more conservative stance.
In 1440, Königsberg became a founding member of the Prussian Confederation. In 1454, the Confederation rebelled against the Teutonic Knights and asked the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon, to incorporate Prussia into the Kingdom of Poland; the king agreed and signed an act of incorporation. The local mayor pledged allegiance to the Polish king during the incorporation in March 1454. This marked the beginning of the Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466) between the State of the Teutonic Order and the Kingdom of Poland. The city, known in Polish as Królewiec, became the seat of the short-lived Królewiec Voivodeship. King Casimir IV authorised the city to mint Polish coins, and allowed local merchants to sell goods throughout the entire Poland. On 19 June 1454, a public ceremony was held in the city, during which the mayors of the Old Town, Kneiphof (Knipawa) and Löbenicht (Lipnik) officially recognised Polish rule and paid homage to Poland.
While Königsberg's three towns initially joined the rebellion, Altstadt and Löbenicht soon rejoined the Teutonic Knights and defeated Kneiphof in 1455. The switching of sides by the Old Town and Löbenicht and the defeat of Kneiphof, as well as the pre-existing trading competition, caused a conflict between Königsberg and Danzig, which sided firmly with Poland, and Danzig actively fought against Königsberg during the war. Kneiphof obtained amnesty and a guarantee of safety from the Teutonic Knights, but this was not upheld, as after the attack of Polish-allied forces from Danzig on the Vistula Spit in November 1455, the knights accused Kneiphof of inciting the enemy and removed its council and burghers. The mayor fled to Stralsund, whereas his son fled to Danzig; the family lost their property.
Grand Master Ludwig von Erlichshausen fled from the crusaders' capital at Marienburg (Malbork) Castle to Königsberg in 1457; the city's magistrate presented Erlichshausen with a barrel of beer out of compassion. In 1465, a landing force from Polish-allied Elbing (Elbląg) destroyed the shipyard near Altstadt, preventing the Teutonic Knights from rebuilding their fleet until the end of the war. In 1465, there was another anti-Teutonic rebellion in the city, but it was suppressed and six townspeople were executed.
In 1466, the city pressed for the Teutonic Knights to accept Polish peace terms, and the mayors of the Old Town and Kneiphof took part in the peace negotiations. Following the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) — which ended the Thirteen Years' War — the reduced monastic state became a fief of the Kingdom of Poland, and Königsberg became the new capital. The grand masters took over the marshal's quarters. The city also broke away from Danzigs's economic influence and took over trade with Lithuania, and trade contacts with Polish Masovia developed. The city established a trading post in Kaunas. In 1467, the city introduced custom duties on ships carrying salt from Danzig to Lithuania. The city also banned the import of beer from Elbing. At that time, the city traded mainly in salt and grain, but also in flax, hemp, wax, potash, and wood.
In 1478, the city came into conflict with Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Martin Truchseß von Wetzhausen, who wanted to cut ties with Poland, and pressured him to pay homage to King Casimir IV Jagiellon.
During the Polish-Teutonic War (1519–1521), Königsberg was besieged without success by Polish forces led by Grand Crown Hetman Mikołaj Firlej. Polish forces captured the Haberberg suburb. The city itself opposed the Teutonic Knights' war against Poland and demanded peace. The city intervened with Albert Hohenzollern to stop his war against Poland, and the mayor of Kneiphof led a delegation to the Polish king, securing a truce.
Through the preachings of the Bishop of Samland, Georg von Polenz, Königsberg became predominantly Lutheran during the Protestant Reformation. After summoning a quorum of the Knights to Königsberg, Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg (a member of the House of Hohenzollern) secularised the Teutonic Knights' remaining territories in Prussia in 1525 and converted to Lutheranism. By paying feudal homage to his uncle, King Sigismund I of Poland, Albert became the first duke of the new Duchy of Prussia, a fief of Poland. Königsberg became an influential centre of the Reformation.
While the Prussian estates quickly allied with the duke, the Prussian peasantry would only swear allegiance to Albert in person at Königsberg, seeking the duke's support against the oppressive nobility. After convincing the rebels to lay down their arms, Albert had several of their leaders executed.
Königsberg, the capital, became one of the biggest cities and ports of Ducal Prussia, having considerable autonomy, a separate parliament and currency. Poland functioned as the guarantor of the city's political freedoms.
Königsberg was one of the few Baltic ports regularly visited by more than one hundred ships annually in the latter 16th century, along with Danzig and Riga. The city flourished through the export of wheat, timber, hemp, and furs, as well as pitch, tar, and fly ash. It was the preferred export port, although not the only one, for parts of Warmia, Masuria, Mazovia and Podlachia in Poland, with the Narew River marking the southern border of the city's trade hinterland, and several important trade routes from other places in Poland also led to the city. It was also one of the main ports (alongside Riga and Memel (Klaipėda), and to a lesser extent Danzig and Elbing) for Lithuania. The city acted as an intermediary in maritime trade between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Netherlands, England and France. Many Poles, including noblemen and Polish Jews, came to the city for trade. The 17th century stock exchange included a painting depicting a townswoman buying goods from a Pole and a Dutchman, embracing the notion that the city's prosperity was based on trade with the East and West, particularly Poland and the Netherlands. In 1549, Dutch ships accounted for 25% of all ships leaving the city and 42% of their global tonnage, and in the following decades these figures rose to almost 60% and 70% respectively.
The University of Königsberg, founded by Duke Albert in 1544 and receiving token royal approval from King Sigismund II Augustus in 1560, became a centre of Protestant teaching. The university had a profound impact on the development of Lithuanian culture, and several important Lithuanian writers attended the Albertina (see Lithuanians section below). Poles, including several notable figures, were also among the staff and students of the university (see Poles section below). The university was also the preferred educational institution of the Baltic German nobility.
Polish Kings Sigismund II Augustus and Sigismund III Vasa were hosted by the city very grandly, in 1552 and 1589, respectively.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Königsberg”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.