Königsberg was a city in Eastern Prussia. Since World War II the whole area was taken over by the Soviet Union under Stalin and the city was renamed Kaliningrad in the Kaliningrad Oblast, today Russia.
It borders with Lithuania in the East/North-East, the Baltic Sea in the West and Poland in the South.
Polish name: Krolewiec
Statement by Joost Lemmens : Ref. East Prussia name: I would like to remark that the current Russian inhabitants of the region call their homeland this way (Vostochnya Prussia -- no, maybe not the military and top officials, but the common people anyway) -- just because it IS East Prussia, and they see no need to hide this fact. In fact they are generally quite interested in and open-minded about its German past.
Even the town of Kaliningrad is still being called "Kënigsberg" or simply "Kënig" by the man in the street, as well as this name being used by many local enterprises.
History of Koenigsberg
The city of Koenigsberg was named after the king Ottocar II , who came with the Baltic or Northern Crusaders to Old Prussiland(Alt Preussenland). Ottocar II , who also tried to claim Austria, was later killed in battle.
A town named Brandenburg near Koenigsberg was founded by the margrave of Brandenburg, son of Albrecht ,Albert the Bear.
Koenigsberg at the Pregel river was the capital city of Prussia, later called East Prussia.
The Teutonic Knights,under the emperor and the pope direct, held the administration of Prussia since 1228.By 1440 the burgers of the Hanseatic League cities of Prussia founded the Prussian Confederation (Preussische Bund) against the Teutonic Knights, who by then had become overbearing.
The Prussian Confederation was under the leadership of the Hanse cities Elbing , Danzig and Thorn. The Prussian Confederation had to appear before the emperor Frederick III Habsburg in their case against the Teutonic Knights.
It was arranged that Casimir IV Jagiello and his wife Elisabeth Habsburg would grant protection to Prussia. However Casimir IV tried to annex Prussia and war broke out against him (1453-1466).
When the Teutonic Knights could not pay the German and Bohemian soldiers, the soldiers took the Marienburg (Malbork) castle in lieu of pay and sold it to the Grand Duke of Lithuania, King of Poland. The Teutonic Knights moved out of Marienburg and moved their headquarters to Koenigsberg.
The grandmaster of the Teutonic Knights (Deutscher Orden) ruled Prussia until Albrecht Albert of Brandenburg Prussia became grandmaster in 1511. During the turmoils against the Catholic church and the attempts of Martin Luther to reform the church , Albrecht became familiar with protestant preachings . On Luther's advice Albrecht resigned as grandmaster and from then on ruled Prussia as duke of a protestant state instead. The emperor Maximilian I Habsburg had made an agreement with Sigismund I Jagiello, (the son of Casimir IV and Elisabeth Habsburg) at the Congress of Vienna . At the same congress the emperor had also adopted Louis of Hungary. Therefore protestant Albrecht of Brandenburg Prussia did not get help from the emperor, who was more interested in gaining estates for Habsburg. The Habsburgs were not interested in the Reformation either. When the empire was nearly eighty percent Protestant , the Habsburgs started the Counter-reformation.
The western part of Prussia remained under the Catholic archbishopric rule.Ermeland in eastern Prussia was able to fight off the Polish attempts to annex. Ermeland was declared exempt bishopric by the pope.
The margraves of Brandenburg, who were at the same dukes of Prussia continued ruling since 1525.
In 1618 Brandenburg and Prussia became one state : Brandenburg-Prussia.
In 1701 the margrave of Brandenburg and duke of Prussia was crowned King in Prussia.
By 1772 Frederick II the Great was able to fully gain souverainty over all parts of Prussia. In order to identify the parts of Prussia, who had come under different political systems and to tell them apart from the State of Brandenburg-Prussia, Frederick II the Great coined the names "West-Prussia" and "East-Prussia" (Westpreussen , Ostpreussen) and the combined State of Preussen.
Famous Koenigsberger:
For more info after 1945 see : Kaliningrad Oblast and Trakehnen.
Outside link to J. Lemmens photos from current East Prussia and Koenigsberg territory: http://www.euronet.nl/~jlemmens/trakehnen.html