Today Kaliningrad is the administrative centre of Kaliningrad Oblast, an area that became a Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea and geographically separated from the rest of Russia due to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This isolation became even more pronounced politically when Poland and Lithuania became members of NATO and subsequently the European Union in 2004. All military and civilian land links between the region and the rest of Russia have to pass through members of NATO and the EU. Special travel arrangements for the territory’s inhabitants have been made through the Facilitated Transit Document (FTD) and Facilitated Rail Transit Document (FRTD). As of 2012 its population has been reported at 437,450.
In May of 2023 Poland’s map authorities, while claiming that “The current Russian name of this city is an artificial baptism unrelated to either the city or the region”, have advised the return to the historic of name of Królewiec for Kaliningrad in its official documents from the time when it was ruled by the Kingdom of Poland in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kremlin has described Poland’s decision as “madness” and a “hostile act”, as ties between the two countries continue to fray over the Ukraine war.
A Tale of Two Cities
How much is left of the original City of Königsberg? Some people have argued that Kaliningrad is still Königsberg but now under a different name. But that would be true only if one reduces the meaning and substance of a city to a specific location on a map without regard to its origins, historical significance and ethnocultural makeup.
Here, we clearly do have a tale of two cities, that – while located in the same place – they are different cities in terms of their history, culture and ethnicity, as well as nationality or country that they are located in.
Some might still want to claim the two cities are one and the same since enough bricks and mortar were left standing to claim a degree of physical continuity between the two to the extent that – if you looked hard enough- you would be able to find enough of the original Königsberg to justify the claim. But the extent to which the bombed out remains of Königsberg were violated after the Soviets took possession in 1945 – and essentially left to rot until recently, or simply bulldozed away earlier, with the useful bits shipped back to the motherland – the unique and historic City of Königsberg ceased to exist. This was especially true after the last remaining ethnic German was expelled after 1945 to find their way westwards across the distant Oder-Neisse border.
Author Michael Wieck, a Holocaust survivor who grew up in Königsberg and returned in 1992, once wrote that: “Anyone who goes to Kaliningrad today shouldn’t expect to find Königsberg. There is a building here or there that recalls the past, but these leftovers from Königsberg’s existence are like finding bones in a cemetery.”
The following sets of pictures compare the same location in 2005, with roughly 60 years in between.
Click here to go to an archived Russian/German website that has many more images like this!
Rebuilding Königsberg as Kaliningrad
Following the Soviet takeover of Königsberg the new inhabitants – which came from all over the Soviet Union – faced the daunting task of rebuilding the charred remains into the new city of Kaliningrad. This included the inevitable introduction of typical uninspired Stalinist architecture such as the usual drab Soviet-style apartment blocks, further demeaning the tragic fate of the once great City of Königsberg. And since the Kaliningrad Oblast became a strategically important area during the Cold War, Kaliningrad was closed to foreign visitors when the Soviet Baltic Fleet was headquartered there in the 1950s.
The House of Soviets
Often referred to as the ultimate insult to architecture anywhere, the multi-story House of Soviets was built at the site of the destroyed Königsberg Castle. Intended to be the central administration building of the Kaliningrad Oblast, it was left unfinished for over 20 years, when the exterior was painted light blue and windows were installed in July of 2005 at the occasion of the 750 year anniversary of the city. However, the interior remains unfinished and unusable and rumour has it that the building is structurally unsound after the discovery that its foundations were built over previously unknown underground caves dating back to the earliest days of the massive Königsberg castle over which ruins it has been built.
In 2022 the BBC went to Kaliningrad to make a short documentary about the current state of the House of Soviets. Click here to see the documentary.
750th Anniversary Celebrations
Friday, July 1, 2005 marked the 750th anniversary of the founding of the city of Kaliningrad – and that obviously included the period prior to the Soviet annexation of the former East German homelands! Interestingly, the name Königsberg was not used at an time during the three days of celebrations that included a meeting between Russia’s President Vladimir Putin , German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac.
Restoration and Renewal
The civic rulers of Kaliningrad must be given some credit for wanting to pay respect to the rich architectural history of Königsberg. As recently as 2014 – and as part of a project known as “Heart of the City” – the “Kaliningrad City” Urban District Administration held an Architectural Competition to rebuild Königsberg City Center in the context of regenerating certain aspects of the historical part of the city and its longstanding Prussian heritage.
The Dom Cathedral on Kneiphof Island
As detailed elsewhere on this site, the RAF bombing raids of August 29 & 30 1944 destroyed most if not all of the churches of Königsberg . This included the Dom Cathedral on Kneiphof Island, a Gothic building of reddish brick, with a tower 164 ft. high begun in 1333 and restored in 1856, and the burial place of all Teutonic Order generations; it adjoined the tomb of Immanuel Kant, next to the city library, the former University building in which Kant held his lectures.
It wasn’t until after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December of 1992 that work began to reconstruct the cathedral , and in the early 2000s the restoration appears complete. It included a new organ that Vladimir Putin is said have donated the funds for . Apparently, Germany contributed to some of the restoration costs.
The New Synagogue
Above on the left is the former Jewish Orphanage and all that remained of the adjacent in 1896 dedicated Grand New Synagogue on Lomse Island after it was destroyed during the the Kristallnacht riots of November 9 & 10, 1938.
Nearly 80 years later, the grand New Synagogue has been rebuilt as an exact replica at the very same location adjacent to the former Jewish Orphanage on what was then called Lindenstrasse, but is now Oktyabrskaya Street. Click here to see a video representation of the restored synagogue in anticipation of its official opening on November 8 of 2018.
Former Police Headquarters
Former Main Post Office
Former Hansaplatz
Former Luisen Theatre
Former Albert University
Former Kreuz-Apotheke building
Early in 2013 the reconstruction of the the “Kreuz-Apotheke” buidling was announced by the mayor of Kaliningrad Alexander Yaroshuk.. The work would be carried out by the company “Rossban”. This Google image shows the renovated building in 2021.