Königsberg Castle
Encyclopedia
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
in Königsberg
Königsberg
Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
(since 1946 Kaliningrad, Russia), and was one of the landmarks of the East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
n capital Königsberg.
History
At the beginning of the first century AD, the Germanic tribe of the GothsGoths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
erected Tuwangste Fortress near the Pregel River
Pregolya
The Pregolya or Pregola is a river in the Russian Kaliningrad Oblast exclave.It starts as a confluence of the Instruch and the Angrapa and drains into the Baltic Sea through Vistula Lagoon. Its length under the name of Pregolya is 123 km, 292 km including the Angrapa. The basin has an...
at an important waypoint in mostly Prussian Baltic territory. It was alternatively known as Twangste, Tvangeste, Twongst, Twoyngst. The name of this fortress was derived from the Gothic word "wangus" and describes cutting down trees in an acorn forest. As the oak was a symbol of Perkūns, the God of Thunder, it was held in high regard, forbidding even native Baltic Old Prussians
Old Prussians
The Old Prussians or Baltic Prussians were an ethnic group, autochthonous Baltic tribes that inhabited Prussia, the lands of the southeastern Baltic Sea in the area around the Vistula and Curonian Lagoons...
to touch the trees.
After conquest of the area by the Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...
in 1255, the fortress at Kneiphof
Kneiphof
Kneiphof was one of three towns in the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights that became the city of Königsberg . Kneiphof was originally Knypabe , meaning 'area flushed by water' in Old Prussian.As other members of the Prussian Confederation, Kneiphof rebelled against the Teutonic Knights in...
in Königsberg was renamed and a new Ordensburg
Ordensburg
An Ordensburg was a fortress built by crusading German military orders during the Middle Ages. "Ordensburg" was also used during Nazi Germany to refer to training schools for Nazi leaders.- Medieval Ordensburgen :...
castle was developed in 1257. The castle was greatly enlarged and refortified in several stages during the 16th to 18th centuries.
The fortress, later designated a castle, was the residence of the Grandmasters of the Teutonic Order and later residence for Prussian rulers.
The 1815 Encyclopaedia Britannica refers to "the magnificent palace in which is a hall 83.5 m long and 18 m broad without pillars to support it, and a handsome library. The gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
tower of the castle is very high (100 m) and has 284 steps to the top, from where a great distance can be seen". This extensive building, enclosed in a large quadrangle and situated almost in the center of the city, was formerly a seat of the Teutonic Order. It was altered and enlarged from the 16th to 18th centuries. The west wing contained the Schloßkirche, or palace church, where Frederick I
Frederick I of Prussia
Frederick I , of the Hohenzollern dynasty, was Elector of Brandenburg and Duke of Prussia in personal union . The latter function he upgraded to royalty, becoming the first King in Prussia . From 1707 he was in personal union the sovereign prince of the Principality of Neuchâtel...
was crowned in 1701 and William I
William I, German Emperor
William I, also known as Wilhelm I , of the House of Hohenzollern was the King of Prussia and the first German Emperor .Under the leadership of William and his Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the...
in 1861. The arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
emblazoned upon the walls and columns were those members of the Order of the Black Eagle
Order of the Black Eagle
The Order of the Black Eagle was the highest order of chivalry in the Kingdom of Prussia. The order was founded on 17 January 1701 by Elector Friedrich III of Brandenburg . In his Dutch exile after WWI, deposed Emperor Wilhelm II continued to award the order to his family...
. Above the church was the 83 m long and 18 m high Moscowiter-Saal, one of the largest halls in the German Reich.
Until the latter part of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the apartments of the Hohenzollerns and the Prussia Museum (north wing) were open to the public daily. Among other things, the museum accommodated 240,000 exhibits of the Prussian collection, a collection of the state and university library as well as many paintings by the artist Lovis Corinth
Lovis Corinth
Lovis Corinth was a German painter and printmaker whose mature work realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism....
. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, various pieces of captured Russian art were stored there, possibly including parts of the Amber Room
Amber Room
The Amber Room in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg is a complete chamber decoration of amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors...
. An extensive collection of provincial archives was also housed there. Also the Blutgericht, a wine selling tavern, was situated within the castle.
Following the bombing of Königsberg by the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
in the Second World War in 1944, the castle completely burnt down. However, the thick walls were able to withstand both the aerial bombing and Soviet
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
Artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
, as well as urban fighting in April 1945, allowing the ruins of the castle to stay standing. The largely demolished Königsberg became part of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946.
Kaliningrad was to be rebuilt as a model town on the remains of Königsberg, without reminders of the German past left standing. Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Brezhnev
Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in...
consequently ordered that the remains of the castle be disposed of so they would no longer stand as a reminder of "Prussian militarism." Despite protests from students and intellectuals from Kaliningrad, the ruins of the castle were blown up on Brezhnev's personal orders in 1968. However, the ruins of the nearby Königsberg Cathedral
Königsberg Cathedral
Königsberg Cathedral is a Brick Gothic style building in Kaliningrad on an island in the Pregel . The island was called Kneiphof in German times.-14th Century to World War II:...
, which included the tomb of Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
, were left standing, and in the late 1990s and early years of the 21st century were rebuilt and restored.
Current situation
"Revenge of the Prussians". The outside of the building was finally completed pending a visit of president Putin in 2005. The inside remains unfinished.
The current Kaliningrad city administration debated whether to rebuild the castle with the financial assistance of the Russian Department of Culture. In contrast to the Königsberger Dom
Königsberg Cathedral
Königsberg Cathedral is a Brick Gothic style building in Kaliningrad on an island in the Pregel . The island was called Kneiphof in German times.-14th Century to World War II:...
, there would be the difficult task of erecting the castle upon new ground, so plans were dropped for the time being. Instead, the centre square is cobbled.
In June 2010 the regional Minister of Culture, Mikhail Andreyev, announced that a referendum on the reconstruction of the castle would be held in the city of in March 2011. Previously, it had been intended to hold the referendum in October 2010, but budgetary pressures caused a delay.
Since September 2001, the German magazine Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel
Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...
has financed the excavation of parts of the castle's cellar, which was carried out with the Kaliningrad Art History Museum. It is hoped that various buried treasures of the previous castle museum are uncovered, and possibly the rest of the Amber Room
Amber Room
The Amber Room in the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg is a complete chamber decoration of amber panels backed with gold leaf and mirrors...
. So far, thousands of articles have been discovered. In June 2005, an occult silver casket with medals and amulets was found, causing a sensation among experts. It is planned that after completion of the excavation, parts of the castle's vaults will be made accessible as an open air museum.