Who's Online
We have one guest and no members online
A Brief History of Königsberg
- Details
- Hits: 1066
The castle of Königsberg was founded in 1255 by the knights of the Teutonic order in the course of their expansion in the Baltic region. During the 1286-1327 period the three settlements which had formed round the castle of Königsberg (Altstadt, Lobenicht and Kneiphof) were granted the status of towns. In 1724, they officially merged into the city of Königsberg.
The historical center of the city with an architecture characteristic of the period was formed in the late Middle Ages. Its symbols were the King’s Castle (mid-13th century), and the Cathedral Church (14th century). Altogether, there are some 730 historical and cultural monuments in the city which up to 1939 had a population of around 350,000.
For centuries, Königsberg was the metropolis of eastern Germany. The city played an important role in Europe’s international relations and became a meeting point of diverse historical and cultural traditions, as well as the home for people of various nationalities and religious beliefs. Thus, the Huguenot settlers (French Protestants) set up many enterprises and whole industries there. Poles, Lithuanians, English and Dutch; merchants from every European country; artisans and learned men of every nationality not only coexisted peacefully: they also respected each other and together they built up their city. They helped form the world’s first Protestant state (1525) – the Duchy of Prussia with Königsberg as its capital.
On several occasions Königsberg found itself in the epicenter of major European conflicts: the Seven-Year War (1756-1763), the Napoleonic wars (1805-1807 and 1812-1814), the First World War (1914-1918) and the Second World War (1939-1945). Founded in 1544, the University of Königsberg became the center of attraction for men of science and culture from Poland and Lithuania. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), the great philosopher, lived and worked here. It was in that city that the first-ever books were printed in Lithuanian.
Arts and commerce flourished here. Grand merchant houses, banking offices, palaces and opera houses were erected in the city center, around the reddish Gothic Cathedral on Kneiphof Island.