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KaliningradThe city was founded (1255) as a fortress of the Teutonic Knights by King Ottocar II of Bohemia, whom the former name of Königsberg supposedly honors. It joined (1340) the Hanseatic League and became (1457) the seat of the grand master of the Teutonic Order after the knights lost Marienburg to Poland. It was the residence of the dukes of Prussia from 1525 until the union (1618) of Prussia and Brandenburg and became (1701) the coronation city of the kings of Prussia.
The Univ. of Königsberg (founded 1544) reached its greatest fame when Kant (who was born and lived his entire life at Königsberg) taught there. The university building, the 14th-century cathedral, and most of the old city were severely damaged by fighting in World War II. As part of the northern section of East Prussia, the city was transferred to the USSR in 1945, and the German population was expelled. The city (renamed Kaliningrad for Mikhail Kalinin in 1946) was rebuilt after 1945, although the old castle was demolished; the population became almost entirely Russian. In the 1990s, ethnic Germans from other parts of the former Soviet Union began moving to the city. The city and region have suffered economically since the breakup of the Soviet Union, which isolated the region from the rest of Russia. Since 1996 the region has been a special economic zone; in 2006 the special economic status was extended for 25 years.
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- Hamann, Johann Georg
Hamann, Johann Georg, 1730–88, German Protestant theologian, b. Königsberg (now Kaliningrad). Although opposed to the rationalism of Kant and the German Enlightenment of Herder and Lessing, he...
- Kant, Immanuel
Kant, Immanuel, 1724–1804, German metaphysician, one of the greatest figures in philosophy, b. Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). Kant was educated in his native city, tutored in several fa...
- Poland
Poland, Pol. Polska, officially Republic of Poland, republic (2005 est. pop. 38,635,000), 120,725 sq mi (312,677 sq km), central Europe. It borders on Germany in the west, on the Baltic Sea an...
- Vistula Lagoon
Vistula Lagoon, Pol. Zalew Wiślany, shallow inlet of the Baltic Sea, 322 sq mi (834 sq km), c.60 mi (100 km) long and from 6 to 11 mi (9.7–18 km) wide, N Poland and W Russia, separated from th...
- East Prussia
East Prussia, Ger. Ostpreussen, former province of Prussia, extreme NE Germany. The region of East Prussia has low rolling hills that are heavily wooded, and it is dotted by many lakes (especi...
- Ottocar II
Ottocar II or Přemysl Ottocar II, c.1230–1278, king of Bohemia (1253–78), son and successor of Wenceslaus I. Ottocar shrewdly exploited the disorders of the great interregnum in the Holy Roman...
- Prussia
Prussia, Ger. Preussen, former state, the largest and most important of the German states. Berlin was the capital. The chief member of the German Empire (1871–1918) and a state of the Weimar R...
- Lithuania
Lithuania, Lithuanian Lietuva, officially Republic of Lithuania, republic (2005 est. pop. 3,597,000), 25,174 sq mi (65,201 sq km), N central Europe. Lithuania borders on the Baltic Sea in the ...
- Russia
Russia, officially the Russian Federation, Rus. Rossiya, republic (2005 est. pop. 143,420,000), 6,591,100 sq mi (17,070,949 sq km). The country is bounded by Norway and Finland in the northwes...
