• Velau (Znamensk) The city was taken on January 23, 1945 during the Insterburg-Koenigsberg operation.
• Gumbinnen (Gusev) Having launched an offensive on January 13, 1945, the soldiers of the 28th Army were able to overcome enemy resistance and by the end of January 20, break into the eastern outskirts of the city. At 22:00 on January 21, by order Supreme Commander the capture of the city was announced, thanks to the distinguished troops and salute to the 12th art. volleys from 124 guns.
• Darkemen (Ozersk) The city was captured on January 23, 1945 during the Insterburg-Koenigsberg operation. In 1946 the city was renamed Ozyorsk. After the Second World War, the city was heavily damaged, but the city center still retains its historical appearance.
• Insterburg (Chernyakhovsk) Troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front, 22.1..45. attacked on all fronts. On the Koenigsberg direction, the fierce resistance of the enemy on the Pregel River was crushed with a decisive blow and they stormed a powerful stronghold, a communications hub and the vital center of East Prussia, the city of Instenburg .... ... Seventh: The 6th Army continued its advance on Instenburg. As a result of decisive actions of the right flank and center, the resistance of the enemy's Instenburg lines was broken through. On the left flank, by the end of the day, they were still fighting ...
• Kranz (Zelenogradsk) Krantz was busy Soviet troops February 4, 1945. Fierce battles were fought on the Curonian Spit, but Kranz himself was practically not injured during the war. In 1946 Krantz was renamed Zelenogradsk.
• Labiau (Polessk) The city was captured on January 23, 1945 during the Insterburg-Koenigsberg operation. In 1946 it was renamed Polessk in honor of the historical and geographical region of Polesie.
• Neuhausen (Guryevsk) On January 28, 1945, the village of Neuhausen was taken by the 192nd rifle division under the command of Colonel L. G. Bosanets. On April 7 of the same year, the Königsberg district was formed with the center in Neuhausen, and on September 7, 1946 the city was renamed in honor of the Hero Soviet Union Major General Stepan Savelyevich Guryev (1902-1945), who died during the assault on Pillau
• Pillau (Baltiysk) The city was captured on April 25, 1945 by the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front and the forces of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet during the Zemland operation. The 11th Guards Army of Colonel General Galitsky participated in the assault on Pillau. November 27, 1946 Pillau was named Baltiysk.
• Preussish-Eylau (Bagrationovsk) The city was captured on February 10, 1945 during East Prussian operation. September 7, 1946 the city was renamed in honor of the Russian commander hero Patriotic War 1812 General Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration.
• Ragnit (Neman) The fortified city of Ragnit was stormed on January 17, 1945. After the war, Ragnit was renamed Neman in 1947.
• Raushen (Svetlogorsk) In April 1945, Raushen and the settlements adjacent to it were occupied without fighting. In 1946 it was renamed Svetlogorsk.
• Tapiau (Gvardeysk) The city was captured on January 25, 1945 by the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front during the Insterburg-Koenigsberg operation: 39 A - part of the forces of the 221st Rifle Division (Major General Kushnarenko V.N.), 94th Rifle Corps (Major General Popov I.I.)
• Tilsit (Sovetsk) The troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front, resolutely developing the offensive, defeated the enemy's Tilsit grouping and cut off all the roads connecting Tilsit with Insterburg. Subsequently, with a swift strike by units of the 39th and 43rd armies at 22h. 30m. On January 19, 1945, they captured the powerful German defense center in East Prussia, the city of Tilsit.
• Fischhausen (Primorsk) The city was captured on April 17, 1945 during the Zemland operation.
• Friedland (Pravdinsk) The city was captured on January 31, 1945 by troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front during the East Prussian operation: 28 A - part of the forces of the 20th Rifle Division (Major General A.A. Myshkin), 20th Rifle Corps (Major General N.A. Shvarev)
• Haselberg (Krasnoznamensk) On January 18, 1945, the city was taken by the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front during the Insterburg-Königsberg operation. In 1946 it was renamed Krasnoznamensk.
• Heiligenbeil (Mamonovo) The city was captured on March 25, 1945 during the destruction of the enemy's Hejlsberg grouping.
• Stallupenen (Nesterov) The city was captured on October 25, 1944 by troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front during the Gumbinnen operation.

Originally posted by chistoprudov at Germany in Russian.

These lands are often called Koenigsbershchina. This is the westernmost and the smallest region in terms of area. Russian Federation. It is located in Central Europe and is separated from the rest of Russia by the territory of other states - Poland in the south and Lithuania in the north and east. A piece of the former Prussia, and then the former Germany, is now a semi-exclave, which is located 400-500 kilometers from Russia.
Here they say: “you are in Russia”, here there are other ideas about distances (which for the locals is “very far”, for many Russians it is a daily road from home to work), here on weekends many go to buy food abroad. Here everything seems to be in Russian, but somehow differently.

Brief historical background:
“At the end of the 19th century, after the division of the Prussian province, East Prussia became an independent province of the German Empire.

After the defeat of Germany in the First World War, under pressure from the victorious countries (USA, France, Great Britain), the country was forced to cede to Poland a number of its territories in the lower reaches of the Vistula River plus a 71-kilometer stretch of the Baltic Sea coast. Thus, Poland gained access to the Baltic Sea and, accordingly, isolated the territory of East Prussia by land, which turned into a German semi-exclave.

After 1945, by decision of the Potsdam Conference, Prussia was liquidated as public education. East Prussia was divided between the Soviet Union and Poland. The Soviet Union got one third of East Prussia along with the capital Königsberg (which was renamed Kaliningrad). With the collapse of the USSR, this region became a semi-exclave territory of the Russian Federation. A small part, which included part of the Curonian Spit, was transferred to the Lithuanian SSR.

All settlements, and many geographical objects (rivers, bays of the Baltic Sea) of the former East Prussia were renamed, replacing German names with Russian ones.

My journey around the Kaliningrad region began with Baltiysk, the westernmost city in Russia, where the largest military base is located. navy on the Baltic Sea. After visiting the destroyer "Restless", I went to car rental and for 1600 rubles I rented a Skoda Octavia for a day. Bloggers from Kaliningrad helped me make a short route around the region. In Kaliningrad itself, I saw almost nothing. Visually, the “scoop” occupied the entire city, and there were almost no beautiful buildings left.

1. Kaliningrad city draft board.

2. Residential building on repair street. One part is German, the other is Soviet.
I drove along Pobedy Avenue, along Kutuzova Street and neighboring lanes, but I couldn’t find anything special without a guide.

3. Gothic against the backdrop of a scoop. The Königsberg Cathedral, built in the Baltic Gothic style (1333), is one of the few Gothic buildings in Russia.

Pre-war photo of the cathedral ()

4. I decided to spend the night in Sovetsk (this is the former Tilsit). A large town and the second largest in terms of population in the Kaliningrad region. 120 km from Kaliningrad.
A single room at the Rossiya Hotel cost me 1,200 rubles, guarded parking - 60 rubles. All night long someone was crying behind the wall.

5. Father Lenin does not understand why his monument stands on the square of a European town. View from the window of my room.

6. Morning in Sovetsk. Departure from the guarded parking lot in the backyard of the hotel. The very center.

7. I drove to the Neman embankment, left the car at the Sovetsk-Panemune checkpoint (international automobile checkpoint between Russia and Lithuania) and went for a walk.
On the left - Russia, on the right, after 300 meters - Lithuania. You can even see the houses.

8. The customs terminal is connected to the Lithuanian coast through the Queen Louise Bridge. Construction of the bridge began in 1904. The width of the river in this place reached 220 meters. The bridge rested on two bulls and the rise of its three arches became the pride of the city. Unfortunately, on October 22, 1944, the engineering units of the Wehrmacht blew up the bridge to delay the advance. Soviet army. The spans of the bridge and its northern portal were destroyed. Only the southern portal of the bridge has been preserved. It is he who is depicted on the coat of arms of Sovetsk and is a symbol of the city.

This is what the bridge looked like before the war:

And this is what the main streets of the city looked like:

9. Now the main street of the city looks like this.

10. What a balcony! What a grid! Everything just needs to be repaired.

11. Beauty!

12. Suddenly, under a layer of asphalt - German paving stones. On many streets it has been preserved - it was laid for centuries. It is a pity that it is not pleasant to drive a car on cobblestones, so it is rolled into asphalt.

13. Some buildings have been restored, but there are few such examples. The house of 1899 should definitely be decorated with a creepy green sign, where without it.

15. Unfortunately, instead of restoring a magnificent building and making it a tourist attraction (as they do in Europe), people use the castle as a support for an external pipeline.

17. Almost all old roads in the region are densely lined with lindens.

18. In Gusev, even the locals could not advise me what to see. I had to look for myself.
Beautiful building of the former people's bank in the neo-Gothic style. Today it is a dormitory of a plant of lighting fittings.

19. Incredibly monstrous extension to a wonderful building. So without finding anything interesting, I set off for Chernyakhovsk (former Insterburg).

20. I park next to the building of St. Michael's Church, which used to be a Lutheran church.

22. Church of St. Bruno of Querfurt - a Catholic church in the city center. After the Second World War, the church building was used as a military warehouse until the early 90s, when the heavily damaged building was transferred to the Ministry of Culture for rebuilding into an organ hall. In July 1993, the temple was returned to the Catholic community.

23. Clothes from Europe. The city of Insterburg was founded as a castle in 1336 by the German knights of the Teutonic Order during the conquest of Prussia.

24. Many interesting German buildings have been preserved in Chernyakhovsk, it is a pity that they are not in perfect condition.

25. Window frames in the entrances with only one glass (single glass).

26. Exit from the entrance to the street.

27. In Chernyakhovsk he joined me Vasya Maksimov from Reedus. It became more fun.

28. "Basement" and a swastika on the door.

30. Homeless Volodya.

31. Artifact "Construction company H. Osterreut" and "hello from Andrey." This Andrey, who wrote the wonderful inscription, is, of course, incredibly cool.

32. There are three types of buildings in the city:
- old german houses,
- laconic soviet buildings (as in the upper right corner)

33. - and modern freaks.

34. On some streets, bicycle paths are visible under the snow. Now cars are parked on them.

35. The quality and elegance of German and Soviet brickwork.

36. Residents are repairing their apartments as best they can. White plastic windows look like false teeth.

37. Old German water tower built in 1898.

Pre-war photos of the city:

Insterburg Castle. Now there is almost nothing left of it.

38. Not far from the city are a stud farm and the Georgenburg Castle, which was built in 1337 on the high bank of the Inster River. After the War of 1812, the castle was bought by the Simpsons, who came from Scotland and founded a stud farm. In 1899, the Prussian state bought the castle and the estate for three million marks.

After the war, all the horses became our war trophy. On the basis of the former German stud farm "Georgenburg" in 1948, the Chernyakhov State Stable was formed. Since then, the stud farm has been famous far beyond the region.

After the war, a transit camp No. 445 for German prisoners of war was located in the castle, almost 250 thousand people passed through it. After that, the castle was used first as a place of detention, then as an infectious diseases hospital, which lasted until the 70s.

39. The territory of the stud farm.

40. Try to translate the inscription...

41. A typical village of a completely non-Russian look.

43. The final point of our journey was the city of Gerdauen (now Zheleznodorozhny). It is the best example of a city that has been preserved intact with medieval buildings, which are fairly dilapidated and continue to collapse.

45. Several buildings from the 17th century have been preserved. But, alas, they didn't last long.

46. ​​Kids ride downhill against the backdrop of the 15th century Order Church.

48. 15th century!

50. Vasya and I wanted to look at the abandoned Kinderhof brewery, which is now being pulled to the brick, but we were detained by border guards. It turned out that we did not notice the sign that we were entering the border zone. And in two hours we had to return the car at the airport and rush to the return flight ...

We spent 40 minutes at the frontier post, received a warning and rushed back to Kaliningrad. On the way, and like an idiot I flew into a ditch. We were lucky - we were quickly pulled out by a Niva passing by. Thank you kind people!

51. Due to a traffic jam at the local Moscow Ring Road, we barely had time to check in. In the inspection zone, my favorite adjustable wrench was taken away from me, although they let me through at Sheremetyevo. And so ended my journey through Koenigsbershchina.

When a new region entered the country. The Kaliningrad region replaced East Prussia on the maps, recaptured from Germany during World War II. German residents were replaced by Russians. A new page in history has begun.

The other part of the former Prussia passed to Poland. Everything is the same there: cities, architecture, roads. Today there is a border here: not only states, but civilizations and even time itself.

I am starting a series of reports from Kaliningrad and Poland.

1 A decrepit truck jolts along a narrow, patched road. Let the same meet - they will not disperse. The truck is old, but the road is even older, then they didn’t make such big cars, and the speeds were slower. There is nowhere to expand, trees are planted along the sides of the road, the same age as the road.

2 In Russia, these alleys are called “the last soldiers of the Wehrmacht”: every year they claim the lives of careless drivers. Hitting a tree at speed means almost certain death. To make the “soldiers” better visible, the trunks were painted with white stripes.

3 On the other side of the border, the same trees, the same roads, but visually - differently. Do not explain in words.

4 Roads. This is what distinguishes neighboring countries. Initially, they had the same conditions: both of them, the territory was inherited from the Germans, after the fall of the Nazi regime.

5 The Poles built bike paths and sidewalks, literally in the middle of nowhere, in some roadside villages.

6 Russians sell pumpkins from the roadside, at a pedestrian crossing.

7 The road surface in the Kaliningrad region is generally good and getting better. When the roads are being repaired, one lane is blocked, and a man with a cane is placed in front of the beginning of the working area. And in Poland they do it too, only instead of a man - an automatic traffic light.

8 There are no bike paths and sidewalks, but who will stop it. A Russian person will not disappear, even if there is no bus, he will walk along the road. But do not think that everything is equally bad.

9 Our part of East Prussia is much more diverse. There are also old German bridges here.

10 And ancient paving stones, which were used to pave roads in the days before cars were invented. You won’t see anything like this on Polish tracks, but we have it for a hundred years - it will still lie. So what if it's uncomfortable to ride on it!

11 And there are two excellent highways in the Kaliningrad region, for a small region this is a real breakthrough. In the part of Poland where I traveled, away from major cities there are no highways at all. But they are building.

12 What the Russians inherited from the Germans, they did not protect. They settled in free houses, and began to live and live. Over time, the houses needed repairs, so it was done locally. Why negotiate with a neighbor when you can just paint your part of the wall?

13 In the region, it is still possible to find entire streets of German buildings, the houses on which look decent and tidy. Here everything is individual.

14 In the course of the total renaming, the German settlements received toponyms that are understandable to the ear and the eye. But the population has decreased significantly, fewer Russians have arrived than Germans have left. Cities became towns, and those became villages. Stone urban development, architectural delights, all this was useless. And in general, not to fat, the war has just ended!

15 I don’t know who gave this tradition, but in these very villages there are such playgrounds.

16 But the beautiful Gothic churches are in a sad state. Almost all are abandoned, although formally transferred from cowsheds to the Russian Orthodox Church. But those would have to deal with the Orthodox "abandons".

17 But you do not hesitate, protected by the state. And here is a bright mosaic, a round-eyed peasant sower generously throws seeds on the bloodied earth. At first I thought that the mosaic was made by the Russians after the war, but in fact, it was on the church before: the mosaic was placed on the wall in the twenties, in honor of those who died in the First World War.

18 The useless village of Chekhovo, on the way to the Polish border, Was the city of Uderwangen. The Germans were expelled from here, peasants were brought from the villages of central Russia and punished to live here. After seventy years of such a life, a couple of German abandoned buildings and “eternal” paving stones remained from the city.

19 Although, I will not deceive, a lot of things were finally “finished off” in the nineties. But the German heritage was dealt with as best they could. Sometimes consciously, so strong is the hatred of the Soviet people for the damned fascists.

20 After the end of the war, Russians and Germans lived side by side in the new Kaliningrad region for two years. In the forty-seventh, the question was put squarely, and every German family received an order to leave their homes within 48 hours.

21 Local residents were deported as punishment for the crimes of the Nazis, placing the blame on everyone. This has always been done, nothing new.

22 Beautiful old houses. These are hard to find.

23 The post office is working.

24 But the crocodile is not. Stumbled over the remains of a playground. I look, and there is something green and toothy.

25 Children from the village of Chekhov play in the ruins former school. It was closed recently, but now there is nowhere to study. Consolidation program, you need to go to other cities.

26 Let's get back to comparisons. For hundreds of years this land was united and developed in the same way. After the war, when the territory was divided by the USSR and Poland, there was a fork, but still, the socialist countries existed side by side. This is how modern microdistricts with apartment buildings appeared.

27 But over the past 25 years, our countries have been moving in different directions. I will have a separate report-comparison of the same sleeping areas in two countries. This is interesting.

28 Do not think that everything is bad in Russia, but everything is good in Poland. Fuck two. This is Poland, for example.

29 And this is Russia. Slav brothers :)

30 Everything in the world is relative, and even more so when comparing countries with each other. But it is necessary to compare, it is important for understanding where we are going and where we can come. Yes, this is Poland.

31 And here is Russia. We can and we do if we want. You need to look at others more often and learn.

32 In some ways, it will no longer be possible to catch up. After all, not a single church has been abandoned in East Prussia!

33 We have the opposite picture.

34 Perhaps the fact is that there was no deportation in Poland, and the same people continue to live there as under the Germans, while we settled new territories with strangers? This version explains a lot. However, we will figure it out. There are more stories to come.

Albinus Robert "Lexikon der Stadt Koenigsberg Pr. und Umgebung"
quick guide to German about people, places, phenomena that left their mark on the history of the main city of the EaP
http://vk.com/doc11780017_199525627

Bachtin Anatolij, Doliesen Gerhard "Kirchen in Nord-Ostpreussen"
Thanks for the paper version. mebius777 And swinokotleta
http://vk.com/doc11780017_105732762

Dignath Walter, Ziesmann Herbert "Die Kirchen des Samlandes"
http://vk.com/doc11780017_105732173

Gause Fritz Königsberg in Preussen
Gause Fritz "Königsberg in Prussia. History of one European city»
http://vk.com/doc11780017_125903690

Gumbinnen Stadt und Land Bilddokumentation. Band 1
Anyone who is even a little stupefied in German should be clear to him.
Contributed by esesna mebius777
http://vk.com/doc11780017_148872451

Kurt Dieckert / Horst Grossmann - DER KAMPF UM OSTPREUSSEN
https://vk.com/doc11780017_241454535- 9MB, fully recognized text (of course, errors may occur), at the end of the picture)

Muehlpfordt Herbert - Koenigsberger Skulpturen und ihre Meister 1255-1945
https://vk.com/doc11780017_335005374- 40mb

Neumaerker Uwe, Knopf Volker "Görings Revier: Jagd und Politik in der Rominter Heide"
mebius777 shared scans of this wonderful book, they weighed about a gigabyte, I had to play around and it turned out to be 132mb in one file
http://vk.com/doc11780017_199835018

Schulz Horst "Der Kreis Preussisch Eylau. Geschichte und Dokumentation eines ostpreussischen Landkreises"
Threw the paper version starec_grigoriy
http://vk.com/doc11780017_152187667

Stadt und Kreis Darkehmen (Angerapp). Ein Bild- und Documentationsband
there are also many familiar bukaf. Threw the paper version starec_grigoriy
http://vk.com/doc11780017_148875478

Schoen Heinz "Tragoedie Ostpreussen 1944-1948"
Language: German, but a lot of all sorts of non-boy photos and information. Particularly interesting is the second part of the book, compiled from the memoirs of German soldiers. Highly recommended for language connoisseurs
http://vk.com/doc11780017_132004078

Annanurov Aman-Murad "Battle for Koenigsberg"
You can say a bibliographic rarity. Released in 1965 in Ashgabat with a circulation of 5000 copies, which, by Union standards, is slightly less than nihua.
Devoted to combat way 18th Guards Division of the 11th Guards Army in East Prussia. The author writes about things that few people wrote about at that time. However, read, there are not very many pages, but as points for further research - that's it!
http://vk.com/doc11780017_103501783

Bakhtin Anatoly Pavlovich "Castles and fortifications of East Prussia"
drag and so it is clear what awaits when reading
http://vk.com/doc11780017_116470346

Butovskaya Svetlana Georgievna "City on fire"
A work of art about the situation in Koenigsberg before the assault.
The volume is quite small - 100 pages.
https://vk.com/doc11780017_208388958- 1.5mb

East Prussia. Quick Reference
Year of publication 1944, intended for officers of the Red Army
http://vk.com/doc11780017_117227637

East Prussia since ancient times. Team of authors
The most famous edition of 1996. One of the very first voluminous works in our area, from antiquity to WW2. But there is one caveat: some of the few illustrations (not all) when translated into b / w format are a little shitty, but you can find them on the Internet without difficulty, because the babayans are hundreds of years old
http://vk.com/doc11780017_148866260

Golchikov Sergey Alexandrovich "Battlefield - Prussia"
the first critical analysis of the East Prussian operation, although all data is taken from open sources, at one time gave rise to considerable holivars
http://vk.com/doc11780017_116471136

Drigo Sergey Vasilyevich "For a feat a feat"
about the Heroes of the Soviet Union - participants in the battles in East Prussia / S.V. Drigo. - Ed. 2nd, add. - Kaliningrad: Kaliningr. book. publishing house, 1984. - 358 p.: ill. : portrait, maps; 24 cm - Alf. decree. names: s. 353-355. - Geogr. decree: p. 356-357. - 10000 copies.
mebius777
http://vk.com/doc11780017_125294337

Ivanov Yuri Nikolaevich "Dancing in the crematorium"
Autobiographical book about the first months of Soviet power in Koenigsberg. Without reading this book, you will never get an idea of ​​\u200b\u200bfeelings and experiences. Soviet people on German soil
http://vk.com/doc11780017_131430460

The history of wars of the twentieth century in the monuments to their participants in the Kal. region
known to many as "shit book", yes it is!!!11
http://vk.com/doc11780017_116468879

Kaliningrad 1960-1964-1968
there are three reference books of the corresponding years in the archive

Coast of East Prussia

Brownsburg.

The regional center in the Konigsberg district (21 thousand inhabitants). Located on the river Passarge, 8 km from its confluence with the Frisch Gaf, on the northeastern slope of the Elbing Upland, on the main highway Berlin - Tchev (Darschau) - Koenigsberg, from which a branch to Melsack and Elbing departs here. Passarguet divides Brownsberg into Old and New town and in this place is accessible for the passage of motor vessels. In Brownsburg there are district and city authorities, financial and customs departments, a local court, hospitals, 2 hospitals, 12 outpatient clinics, a cigarette factory, and breweries.

Brownsburg built in 1241; was the seat of the Bishop of Ermland. In 1284 he joined the Hanseatic League. From 1466 he went to Poland. From 1626 to 1635 it belonged to Sweden, from 1656 to 1663 - to Brandenburg, from 1772 it passed to Prussia.

Wormdit.

A city in the Braunsberg district of the Königsberg district, 7,800 inhabitants (1939). The city is located in Ermland, 61 m above sea level, on the river. Drevenets and railways ah Königsberg-Allenstein and Morungen-Heilsberg.

The city has a tax office, a forestry department, a court, a bank, a hospital, a real school, and a library. The following branches of production are represented: brick making, flour-grinding, machine-building and tobacco industries.

Heilsberg.

A city in the region of the same name in the district of Königsberg in East Prussia. Occupies 24 sq. km, population 11,787 people. Located at the confluence of the river. Simzer in the river. Alle, at the junction of the railway lines Zinten - Bischofsburg, Elbing-Rastenburg and Wormdiet-Bartenstein. The seat of the district court, landrat and financial management. There is a castle (1350-1400), a Catholic church (XIV century), the Great Gate (the remains of the city wall), a real school, an advanced female school, and a radio station. developed Agriculture, livestock and grain trade.

Rastenburg.

The regional center of the rural district of the same name in the Konigsberg district. Occupies 31 sq. km with a population of 19,634 people. Located on the river Huber, 105 m above sea level, railway lines Königsberg - Likk and Bischofsburg - Angerburg and narrow gauge railways Rastenburg - Zensburg, Rastenburg - Rhein, Rastenburg - Nordenburg (or Gerdauen), Rastenburg - Drengfurt, Palace of the Teutonic Order, built in 1329 year, the Church of George of the XIV century;. In the city there are district and city authorities, a district court, branches of a savings bank and a bank, a gymnasium, a real school, an oberlitse, a trade school, a district hospital, a stud farm, mills, sugar and breweries, bazaars - the sale of cattle and horses.

Velau.

The regional center of the government district of Koenigsberg. Population 8 600 inhabitants.

The city is located at the confluence of the river. Alle in the river. Pregel (both rivers are navigable), 10 m above sea level, on the Königsberg-Eidtkunen and Wehlau-Heilsberg railways. There is a church and a town hall of the XIV century, a number of buildings of the XV-XVII centuries, financial and tax departments, a court, a landrat, a burgomaster, a provincial hospital Allenberg, an orphanage, a real school, men's and women's elevated schools, museum. Industry: mills, paper mills, woodworking industry.

Gumbinnen.

The district seat of the Gumbinnen district. Area 13 sq. km, population. 24,534 people. Located on a plain at the confluence of the river. Rominte in the river. Pissa, 42 m above sea level. Railway junction Berlin-Königsberg-Eidtkunen, Gumbinnen-Angerburg and Gumbinnen-Spittkemen. District government center. It houses the Landrat, regional and city authorities, the main postal directorate, financial and customs departments, the district court; In the central part of the city in the old castle there is a cadet infantry and cavalry school. There is also a garrison here.

Educational institutions of Gumbinnen: a branch of the administrative academy of Konigsberg, a gymnasium, a real school, a lyceum, trade schools. There are bank branches and savings banks in the city. There are enterprises for the production of agricultural machinery, steam mills, and a power station. Trade is dominated by agricultural and livestock products (cattle and horses).

In 1914, a battle took place near the city of Gumbinnnen. Russian troops defeated the Germans and forced them to retreat deep into East Prussia.

Tilsit.

Tilsit is the regional center of the government district of Gumbinnen. Occupies 50 sq. km with a population of 58 thousand people.

It is located on the left bank of the navigable Neman River, through which the Queen Louise Bridge (416 m) passes.

The city lies on the railway lines Tilsit-Königsberg, Tilsit-Insterburg, Tilsit-Stallupenen, Tilsit-Klaipeda (Memel) - Majoren and Tilsit-Laugssargen. The narrow-gauge railways Tilsit-Splitter and Tilsit-Mikiten pass through it.

In Tilsit there are district and city authorities (landrat, burgomaster), financial and customs departments, a court, a branch of the state bank, a real school, two lyceums, a regional hospital and a clinic for pulmonary patients.

Tilsit is a significant industrial and commercial center. The woodworking and food industries are developed: pulp production, brewing, distilling.

Until the 19th century Tilsit was called Tilse. It arose in 1288, in 1552 received the rights of the city. Here, on July 7, 1807, the Treaty of Tilsit was concluded between Russia and France. During the First World War, Tilsit was occupied by Russian troops.

Insterburg.

The city of Insterburg covers an area of ​​44.11 sq. km, is part of the Gumbinnen government district of the province of East Prussia. In 1939, 48,700 inhabitants lived in Insterburg. Located on the river Angerapp at its confluence with the river. And not ter - at the beginning of the navigable river. Pregel.

Insterburg is an important junction of the railways Berlin-Königsberg-Eidtkunen, Insterburg-Deutsch-Aylau, Insterburg-Tidzit, Insterburg-Lick and narrow-gauge railways, Insterburg-Kraupichken, Insterburg-Skaisgirren and Insterburg-Tremnen.

Insterburg is a district center and the seat of local authorities (Oberburgomaster with advisers, district court, financial and customs departments). There are chambers of commerce and industry.

A gymnasium, a real school, a tench, two secondary schools, an agricultural school, a district hospital, a clinic, an agricultural testing station.

The following branches of production predominate: brick, chemical, artificial stones, sugar, alcohol, vinegar and mustard. There is also a tannery, a steam mill, small enterprises for the processing of meat products.

The main buildings of the city: the former palace of the order (XIV century) and the Lutheran church (1610-1612). In the north of the city there is the famous Georgenburg estate (610 inhabitants) with Ordensburg. founded in 1350; V last years turned into a horse farm.

Insterburg was founded in 1336 and was originally a castle. In 1583 he received the rights of the city. During the First World War, it was occupied by Russian troops from August 24 to September 11, 1914.

Goldap.

Gumbinnen District Center, 29 sq. km with a population of 13 thousand people. Located at the foot of the Seesker height, on the river. Goldap, 2 km from the lake. Goldap, 167 m above sea level. Railway junction Likk-Insterburg, Goldap-Stallupenen and Goldap-Königsberg. The residence of the district authorities, financial and tax administration.

Educational institutions: real school, lyceum, winter agricultural school. There is a regional hospital, a savings bank. Flour-grinding and brick industry.

First world war Goldap was occupied by Russian troops:

Angerburg.

District seat of Gumbinnen government district, 31 sq. km, population 11 thousand inhabitants.

Located on the river Angerapp, 2 km north of its confluence with the lake. Mauersee, 116 m above sea level. Junction of railways going to Goldap, Raetenburg, Gerdauen, Letzen and Gumbinnen. This is where the Masurian Lakes navigation line starts in the direction of Lötzen-Nikolaiken-Rudshanni. Akgerburg houses the landrat, burgomaster, court, financial and tax departments. There is a real school, an advanced women's school, an agricultural school, a hospital, a bank branch.

Angerburg was founded in 1571.

Allenstein.

The county seat of the government district of Allenstein. The city occupies an area of ​​53.13 square meters. km - with a population of 50,396 people, of which 25,673 are male. The city is located on the river. Alle, 119 m above sea level. It is the Major node of the message paths. The railway lines Berlin-Torun-Insterburg and Ke*kigsberg-Neidenburg-Warsaw intersect here. Roads branch off from them to Elbing and Lykk. This advantageous position of the city gives it great strategic importance,

Allenstein is the seat of the county and district authorities. It houses the judicial authorities, financial administration, chambers of commerce and industry, and crafts. Before the war, there was a Polish consulate in Allenstein.

Educational institutions: a gymnasium, a real school, an oberlitse, a secondary school for girls, an advanced trading school, an agricultural school.

Sanitary institutions: hospital, children's clinic, hospital for tuberculosis patients. Near Allenstein there is a hospital and a sanatorium Kortau. The most important ancient buildings are the palace-cathedral with a capital (1360-1370), the Great Gate (XIV century) and the Jacobi Catholic Church. The town hall and government offices have been rebuilt.

Allenstein is the center of a thriving livestock and hop trade. Industry: brickwork, sawmills, furniture and matches, to a lesser extent machine-building. Banks. In the northern part of the city there is a city park.

The city was founded in 1348 and was originally a fortress. In 1353 he received the rights of the city, in 1466 he went to Poland, in 1772 - to Prussia. In August 1914 he was occupied by Russian troops.

The fascist party newspaper Allenschteiner Zeitung is published in the city,

Nydenburg.

District seat of the rural district of Neidenburg in the government district of Allenstein. The Niedenburg district occupies 1146.11 sq. km with a population of 39,730 people. There were 9,200 inhabitants in Neidenburg. The city is located on the river. Nide and Allenstein-Torun railways to Neidenburg-Ortelsburg.

In Neidenburg there is a district administration - landrat, a communal administration - a burgomaster with deputies and advisers, a labor front administration for recruiting labor (Neidenburg, Deutschestrasse, 15, tel. 422), a financial customs administration, a bank, a regional savings bank.

There is a gymnasium, a regional hospital, a nursing home.

The city has a developed woodworking and flour-grinding industry, as well as the production of bricks. Known as a major livestock market.

Osterode.

District town of the rural district of Osterode in the government district of Allenstein. Covers an area of ​​21.41 sq. km with a population of 19,519 people. The city is located at the mouth of the river. Drevents. Railway junction Berlin - Torun-Deutsch-Ailau-Insterburg, Elbing-Hohenstein, Osterode-Morungeya, Osterode-Dzyaldovo (Soldau).

District administration center (landrat, district party bodies, financial administration, district bank, savings bank). There is a castle of the Teutonic Order, a gymnasium, a real school, a lyceum, an advanced trading school, a financial school, an agricultural school, a district hospital, a hospital, and railway workshops.

Lick.

The district seat of the government district of Allenstein. Territory-34 sq. km, population - 16,482 people. It is located in the southeastern part of the Masurian Lakes near the eastern coast of the lake. Likk, at the confluence of the river. Lykk, 132 m above sea level. The Königsberg railway junction is Prostken, Likk-Allenstein, Likk-Sensburg and Likk-Insterburg. The residence of the district and city authorities, the customs administration, the district forestry administration. The ancient Lykk castle is located on the island of Lake Lykk. There are real schools, oberlitse, district hospital. Animal husbandry and horse breeding are developed.

Letzen.

District seat of Allenstein County. Occupies 43 sq. km with a population of 16 thousand people.

Lötzen is located among the Masurian Lakes, on the northern coast of Lake. Leventhinsee. Letzen is a junction of the Konigsberg-Prostken, Letzen-Johannesburg and Letzen-Angerburg railways. Height above sea level 120 m.

Here are the Landrat, the district court, the financial department.

Letzen was founded in 1335. There is a museum, a gymnasium, a lyceum, a school of fishing and agriculture, and a bank branch. The following branches of production are represented: woodworking, flour milling, shipbuilding (construction of ships of small tonnage, boats of various types). Trade in timber, livestock, fish, grain. Through the system of lakes-navigation to Angerburg and Nikolaiken-Rudshanni.

Not far from Lötzen is the small fortress of Boyen.

Ortelsburg.

The district town of the Ortelsburg rural district, in the district of Allenstein, covers an area of ​​39 square meters. km with a population of 14,234 people. It is located on the Allein Stein-Lick, Ortelsburg-Rothflis and Ortelsburg-Neidenburg railways. The city has an ancient castle, a real school, a higher lyceum, a museum, and a hospital. The woodworking industry, brick production, flour-grinding, brewing, and horse-breeding are well developed.

At the beginning of the First World War, Ortelsburg was occupied by Russian troops.

Johannesburg.

District seat of Allenstein County, 6,500 inhabitants. Located at the confluence of the river. Pissek in the lake. Warschau (Roschsee); 116 m above sea level, at the largest forest area in East Prussia and at the intersection of the Allenstein-Lick, Johannieburg-Lötzen and Johannisburg-Dlottoven railways.

Seat of the Landrat and city authorities. There is a court, the main tax and financial departments, two forestry departments.

The city has preserved the remains of an ancient castle. From educational institutions we can note a real school, a secondary female school, an agricultural school. The city also has a regional museum, a regional hospital, and a savings bank. Industrial enterprises: sawmills, mills, brick, plywood and canning factories. Trade mainly in grain, livestock, timber, fish. Along the river Pissek is connected by motorboats to Rudshanni and Nikolaiken.

In 1914 Johannisburg was occupied by Russian troops.

Marienwerder.

Marienwerder-district seat of the government district West Prussia. The area occupied by the city. 20 sq. km. The population is 20 thousand people.

The residence of the government president, landrat and burgomaster, district and district courts. Financial and postal departments, tax administration, district savings bank, gymnasium, real school, oberlitse, women's secondary and agricultural schools. Available local history museum"West Prussia".

The city is located 5 km from the river. Vistula, 34-63 m above sea level.

From Marienwerder there are railways to Marienburg "Riesenburg, Freistadt, Grudziandz (Graudenz) and Schmintau,

The tobacco, clay, canning industries are developed, there is a power station.

The city has a large number of ancient buildings, among which stand out a cathedral in the Gothic style of the XIV century with a tower 55 m high and a castle built in the XIII century.

Under the Treaty of Versailles, the former district of Marienwerder went to Poland. Germany had only its northeastern part, which became known as the district of West Prussia. In November 1939, the Germans united the captured Danzig with part of the Polish territory, and this district formed administrative unit imperial subordination - the imperial region of Danzig-West Prussia with three government districts. The city of Marienwerder moved away from East Prussia and as part of new area is the center of the district of the same name,

Elbing.

Elbing occupies 31 sq. km with a population of 86 thousand people.

Located on the navigable river1 Elbing, 3 km from the lake. Drausensee, 8 km from the southern coast of the Frisch Gaf, 6 m above sea level.

Elbing lies on the Berlin-Dirschau-Königsberg-Eidtkunen, Elbing-Bruneberg and Elbing-Osterode railway lines. It is connected by steamship to Kolberg, Pillau, Koenigsberg, Danzig, Marienburg, Stettin and Hamburg.

The city is divided into two parts: the old one, located on the right bank of the river. Elbing. and new. Old city It is rich in old buildings of the 13th-16th centuries, while industrial enterprises are located in the new quarters. Ahead is the metallurgical industry (Schichau shipbuilding plants, steam locomotives, machines and turbines), factories of motor vehicles, tractors, motors and agricultural equipment, as well as wooden parts for aircraft construction. The food industry is represented by breweries and distilleries.

Elbing is the administrative and cultural center of the district. It houses the district and city authorities, the border commissariat, the district court, pedagogical academy, trade and craft schools, a real school, an average male and female school, a city library of 56,000 volumes, an archive, a Historical Museum, 3 hospitals, 5 hospitals. Elbing was founded in 1237.

Marienburg.

Marienburg is the regional center of the West Prussian region. Occupies 28 sq. km with a population of 27 thousand people. Located on the high right bank of the navigable river Nogat (200-meter bridge), 15-19 m above sea level, at the junction of the railways Berlin-Königsberg, Marienburg-Deutsch-Aylau, Marienburg-Torun (Torya), Marienburg - Allenstein, Marienburg - Tigenhof.

Marienburg is the residence of the landrat and burgomaster, the district court, the water management, the district cash desk. There are two archives: the city archive, founded in 1398 with a library of 2,400 volumes, and (archive of the Marienburg castle (Friedrichplatz, 4). Museums: the state collection of the castle, opened in 1824, and the Nogatgau local history collection, organized in 1925. Gymnasium , lyceum, real school, hospital.

Industry: rubber, parquet, ceramic, soap; there are sawmills. The city is crossed by bus lines. Navigation on the river Nogat,

Doitsch-Aylau.

The city in the rural district of Rosenberg in the district of West Prussia, separated in 1940 from East Prussia, occupies 23 square meters. km with a population of 14 thousand people. Located off the southern coast of the lake. Geserich See, 100 m above sea level. On the Berlin-Insterburg, Deutsch-Eilau-Marienburg and Deutsch-Eilau-Soldau railway lines.

There is a gymnasium, a lyceum, an accounting school, a sawmill, a potato flour factory and an engineering plant. Developed agriculture and animal husbandry,

Riesenburg.

City in the district of Rosenberg, also separated in 1940 in new district West Prussia. Riesenburg is located on a spit between the river. Liebe from the east and the lake. Schlosssee from the west, 30 m above sea level. It is a junction of the Marienburg-Deutsch-Eylau, Riesenburt-Freisttadt and Marienwerder-Miswalde railways. According to the data for 1939, 8,100 people lived there. There is a real school. From industrial enterprises - mills, sawmills and a sugar factory.

Reproduced from: East Prussia. Statistical review. 1945. Tags: