Königsberg

Königsberg was the historic capital of East Prussia and is now Kaliningrad, a city in Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast. It is situated on the Pregel River near its Baltic Sea outlet and developed as a major political and cultural center after its founding in 1255 by the Teutonic Knights. The name means King’s Mountain.

The city housed the University of Königsberg, established in 1544 by Duke Albert of Prussia. It became famous for its association with the philosopher Immanuel Kant, who lived and taught there; Kant’s tomb is in the Königsberg Cathedral on Kneiphof island. Königsberg grew around the river and its network of islands connected by bridges, influencing the city’s medieval layout.

A landmark in the history of science is the Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem, posed by Leonhard Euler in 1736. The problem, which asks whether a walk can cross each bridge exactly once, helped lay the foundations of graph theory and the study of networks. The city’s bridges linked the quarters of Altstadt, Löbenicht, and Kneiphof on several islands.

During World War II, Königsberg suffered extensive destruction from Allied bombing and was captured by Soviet forces in 1945. In 1946 the city was renamed Kaliningrad and became part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, later the Russian Federation. It is now the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, an exclave of Russia separated from the rest of the country by Lithuania and Poland.

Today Kaliningrad preserves elements of its German past while hosting the modern Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University and other institutions. The castle and several historic sites were damaged or demolished in the war, but some architectural heritage remains.