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I am doing a family history of our flight from Insterburg to Hamburg. I would like to use your map to trace our route.Is that o.k.? Thanks, Chris

(Admin: Anything posted on this site can be freely copied - just mention the site as the sorcve. as a courtesy.  Then, of course, there are many pictures posted here that I have no copy right to,  and that I don't know the owner of.  In which case you are on your own.)

(Translated: Some years ago I visited Königsberg. It is hard to imagine what has happened there in the years since 1945. That Russians now live there is remarkable from a historical perspective)

(Admin: Sorry Nigel, I did cut your comment short in the interest of brevity, and not because your points were not valid or not of interest to me)

It is obvious that there is not, and never will be in the foreseeable future, the political will among the powers that be to return what is left of East Prussia to German sovereignty. Germany itself, its thinking permanently crippled by the fascists' legacy, would not dare raise the subject, and no Russian government would publicly admit to being willing to dispose of territory handed to it - especially that of their former deadly enemy. The only possible solution is an economic one. Whether for reasons of family sentiment or otherwise, German nationals should take every chance to buy up businesses and homes in the Konigsberg area, so that by degrees the demography is altered until its population has a German majority. A plebiscite could then be held to sanction the territory's return to German sovereignty.  

(Admin: Interesting concept! While at one time Germany was sufficiently flush with cash to essentially absorb the entire East German economy when the DDR was able to join them after finally shedding its corrupt communist leadership  -  Germany's current attempt to single-handedly bankroll the rescue of the slowly sinking EU wreck is likely to leave them a little short in the bank for some time, and this will impact on all German businesses and individuals in terms of being able to invest abroad.  Had this not been the case,   I'm sure they could have easily taken over the entire Kaliningrad Oblast if the price had been right!  It would have just been a matter of putting the money in the right hands via a backdoor into the Kremlin to make this happen given the continuing popularity of schmiergeld  in those quarters as evidenced by the most recent street protest against the massive corruption at all state levels in the Rodina. This isn't necessarily such a wild idea as some Kaliningrad resident's  speculate about the region being separated from the "coastal" Russia and being autonomous. Others speak in favor of the enclave being integral part of the country. And " Sometimes we hear rumors from Moscow about our region being sold to Germany in order to cover Russian debts". This quoted from an article in the Sunday Telegraph (London), January 21, 2001, by Tony Paterson, titled Germany In Secret Talks With Russia to Take Back Konigsberg .”)

(Admin: Thank you for those titles -  Timely, as I'm publishing a new page on this site just for books on the subject matter.

(Admin:  I didn't know the details either until - one day - I came across a reference to the city of Königsberg and couldn't find it on a map anywhere until I looked at pre WWII maps of Eastern Europe and was finally able to located it.  It doesn't matter who the author of this site is;  there is really no original material here.  Any claims made or facts stated are available elsewhere, either in books or on the internet, and readily found if you take the time to go after them.  All I have done is to assemble them in one place, which is this website)

(Admin: Thank you for your comment. I don't believe it is realistic either to expect that these former Prussian homelands will ever be returned to Germany - although renaming Kaliningrad to Königsberg would at least pay some homage to its rich history and the people that lived there over the centuries to help build it - if in name only. But it would be consistent with the Russians renaming Leningrad  to St. Petersburg to do justice to its real history, wouldn't it?  If they can do that in light of Lenin's significant stature in Soviet or Russian history, with Mikhail Kalinin having been just another Stalin  crony and yes-man - who supposedly allowed the NKVD to arrest and torture his own wife and sent off to a labour camp -  naming a once great city like Königsberg after a mediocre Soviet bureaucrat like him is an insult not only in light of the city's significant role in European culture and history, but also to the people who live and work there today! Well, that is my opinion.

Regarding your comment that it is sad that this site only covers one site of the story - the Königsberg story by itself is a relatively small part of the incredible tragedy that was World War II, affecting millions of people, and killing so many of them on all sides. But the fact that there appears to be a deliberate silence around the fate of Königsberg - and the German expellee situation - was a reason for me to set up this site, so it will not be forgotten,  including the fate of the many hundreds of thousands innocent people who lost their homes, their lands and their birthright and in too many cases their lives , and all because of where they lived during the insanity that was WWII.  In this context - when you say "Germany had to pay ..." - this was paid for mostly by millions of ordinary German citizens, including innocent women and children who were never in a position to oppose the Nazi regime in any way, shape or form when they were under the Nazi dictatorship. They absolutely did not deserve this kind of punishment, and no more so than  holding the average - now former - Soviet Union citizen responsible for all the heinous crimes and carnage committed by one of the most murderous dictators in history of mankind, the brutal Joseph Stalin. Apparently still revered in Russia today - it has been estimated that he was responsible for a least 20 million deaths, and they were mostly his own citizens within the Soviet Communist Empire, including the deadly Ukrainian famine he purposely imposed on the region and that killed 5 million in 1932-1934. )

(Admin: I found a source for many old pre-WWII street maps at this site - http://www.landkartenarchiv.de/shellstadtkarte22_193435.php - and this link goes directly to a Königsberg Stadtkarte. but I could not see that address on it.  Could be in one of Königsberg's suburbs.)

(Admin: Did you check here: http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/aircraft.html )

(Admin: It's likely that are referring to Europe's Forgotten Territories, by Charles Wassermann, R. Roussell, Copenhagen, 1960, 304 pages.  Wassermann is a Canadian journalist who travel to the former German territories East of the Oder-Neisse line in 1957 to report on their status.)

The vanishing of this old city is one of the least known tales of the Second World War. Apparently, my great-great-grandmother Gertaud Von Hagen was born in a since-flattened castle that family lore said was called Deuna (apparently not the same one in Central Germany) in a Konigsberg district called Worlack. Does anyone know what the Russians call this district today?

Great website! Is there any link to a map of Konigsberg before the war or even maps dating back to Friedrich Wilhelm I?

(Admin: One of the visitors here sent me a great scan of a pre-WWII map of Konigsberg; you can find it here: Konigsberg Map

I am writing you to enquire as to when the trek back to East Preussen takes place and how we might join in this vacation. I would also like to know if there is a fraternity of descendants to keep our history alive. I would very much like to correspond with you and others about our history-you now have my email. mitt frundlich grussen,Will

(Admin:  Check out this link: http://www.romanova-reisen.de/staedtereisen/kaliningrad_koenigsberg/?PHPSESSID_netsh102931=6223ccebf5b53238b5d05465e67544ee

That  link is of another very useful site if interested in  Prussia: http://ostsicht.de/willkommen.htm . Regarding a group of Königsberger descendants -   I had some links to sites that had information of that kind, but they are starting to disappear ...  I'll see what I can come up with, as it is on my project list for the site to list that kind of info, have a database of sorts.  One of these days I will have more time.)

Where was the orphanage in Konigsberg and do you have a picture of it.  My father and his siblings were at the orphanage for a time before they were sent with foster families

(Admin: I'm aware of two orphanages at Konigsberg.  The Jewish Orphanage was attached to the New Synagogue on the Lindenstrasse (today's ulitsa Oktyabrskaia), and is today the only standing remains of that fine building, after the main structure and temple was destroyed in the Kristallnacht pogrom on the night of November 9–10, 1938.

Then there was the The Royal Orphanage, founded in 1701 by Friedrich I and built just inside the city walls near the Sackheim Gate.  I have no other information about that site)

(Admin: While the Teutonic Knights did apparently kill a lot of the indigenous population in that area during their Baltic conquest, many - if not the majority - of the locals  would have survived,  and they - and their subsequent generations -  lived happily ever after after they were assimilated into the new order.  That was the way of the world in those days - and not any different  from most  other areas in Europe. Tribal warfare by any other name.  But if that was in any way the justification for destroying hundreds of  years of nation building and western culture, by incinerating thousands of innocent people in their beds and voiding  survivors from their home lands some 700 years later in Konigsberg - well, Luke, let's hope you're not in charge of the next murderous army that seeks to set right the wrongs of some distant past by under the motto of " What goes around, comes around")

I was born in the UK during WW11 and reading the devastating account of the assault on your city appalls me. I visited Dresden in July 2011 for the first time and my feelings were the same. War is futile and only a few gain by it, most suffer and in particular the hard working of the lower ranks.

Your site and all the history it tells is harrowing but necessary to tell the world about your once beautiful city and it's humiliating demise. I hope those who can remember it as it was will gain a tiny fragment of pleasure in the rebuilding and reconstruction of some of the old remains. I hope many more will come to visit your site and larn as I have about Konigsburg.

Thx so much - and yet recall - leading German (!!)politicians such as Schroeder (and Merkel?) joined the Russian/Soviet May 8 celebration in Moscow - with banners flying hammer and sickle with placards of Lenin and Stalin! No mention of Soviet mass-murder - of Russians - or others.

This website is interesting and it is now possible to visit Konigsberg with the travel company Regent Holidays which specializes in unusual locations. I have recently read "Forgotten Land" by Max Egremont which is an interesting and very sad account of the last days of Konigsberg and East Prussia. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the world has changed for the better and it is now possible and I hope to see the section of East Prussia currently occupied by Russia returned to Germany in the manner of the former GDR.

(Admin: Thank you, Ian.  I believe it to be highly unlikely that that the Russians will either rename the city back to Konigsberg or return the enclave to Germany.  At the 750 anniversary of the city in 2005 the name Konigsberg was not being used during the celebrations - simply '750 years of Kaliningrad'.  To give this some context, as much as Russia has become more open about acknowledging its troubled past under its previous soviet rule – including such things as the Katyn Forest massacre – it seems there are still a majority of Russians who think that the dictator Stalin is a figure to be admired, and this despite the fact that historians have estimated the number of people that have perished under his absolute and brutal regime to be somewhere between 15 and 30 million. The vast majority of victims would have been his own citizens. In this he is likely only second to his fellow  communist dictator and genocidal butcher Mao Tse-tung in having more deaths of his own citizens on his conscious. So long as the majority of Russians aren't filled with a sense of revulsion when the name of Stalin comes up it is unlikely they are willing to redress any of the criminal actions that were perpetrated in his name. However, there is always hope for the future - but I assume we'll have to wait until ex-KGB operative Putin  - who's wife, incidentally, is from Kaliningrad - is no longer in charge of the country)

(Admin: Thank you for your comments - and with due respect to the citizens of Kaliningrad today who are completely innocent with respect to the destruction of Königsberg,  most recently they appear to have been making an effort to recognize their city's link with the past, including celebrating the 750 year anniversary of Königsberg / Kaliningrad in 2005. Towards this occasion, some of the  bombed-out buildings left standing have been restored to a degree, and apparently more are slated for restoration based on the availability of funds.  I'm still working on a photo page for this site that will attempt to show some of it and will publish it soon.)

(Admin: Point taken - I've changed the language to say "the funding for this included financial support from Germany".  Thanks for pointing that out.)

Hello, I lived in Konigsberg until I was 16 years old, thank you for remembering my home town. I met a Russian born in Kalingrad in Nelson, New Zealand last week, here to play rugby in the Rugby World Cup. His name was Juri. Arno.

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate the Konigsberg site. My ancestors are from that area, and our original name was KRAMER. How wonderful to see the pictures of what once was. Is the movement to change to the name  back to Konigsberg really a hope, or a pipe dream? I would really like to continue hearing more about other sites in the old East Prussia.

Peters Vecrumba

Warmest regards, Peters (LATVIANS.COM, LOBH.ORG, among others)

Thanks for mantaining the memory of Koenisberg alive. My father was in Koenisberg in 1938 and he was impressed by a city he was admiring may the memory never been lost Should any commemoration event be done let me know. I appreciate Your work - Thank YOU

Giovanni Salieri , Seregno,   Italy

My mother was born in Koenigsberg in 1941. She was a war refugee and fled. She ended up with another family in a refugee camp in Norway before she was adopted by an American family in 1946. Do you know if there are any records still remaining to help find her existing family. She passed away in 2003, but I would welcome any information that you have. Her name was Gisela Machinska, but I've heard that her last name might have been changed to make it less German. Thanks.

An incredible website. I am an architecture student, Konigsberg looks like it was a stunningly, beautiful European city. I would have loved to have been able to visit. It is tragic beyond words what happened there. 800 years of history destroyed in such a short space of time, and what its been replaced with utterly depressing.

I studied modern history up to A-level, and what amazes me is how the complete destruction of German cities and the ethnic cleansing of Germans form Eastern Europe is never mentioned, instead it is just completely ignored. It seems to me that very few people in the English speaking world have any idea that this even happened. Such a total eradication of history, culture, architectural and a whole people deserves to be in the history books?

Regards, Ben    

Very nice presentation. 

A truly sad story on the inhumanity of man.

Hello, my name is Maxim. I'm looking for are people which lived Koenigsberg befor war. I'm was finding some things and want give it back. Gold ring "B. K. 8.4.1928" - marry day, and men which birthday 03.05, surname Wehrum (Wehrim, Wehrm, Wehram), Gottsched str.

It is truly sad what happen to this city and the people who once lived there.  Very few people in this country have no idea what happen to Konigsberg.  The cold war obscured the history of what happen to East Prussia.  I have always been fascinated by what happen to Germany during WWII and especially the destruction that occurred throughout the country.  There is a family in our congregation that fled East Prussia in 1945 and wrote a book about their escape.  They just missed getting onto the German ship Von Stuben which was sunk by the Russians. 

Can you tell me about your background and are you from Konigsberg.  I would love hearing your story.

(Admin: Sorry Peter - I have no connection to Konigsberg, other than having found its tragic story and feeling compelled to preserve the memory of this once great city and its people)

Thank you for this web site. Danke schon.  Ich mochte sagen das auf deutsch, aber mein sprechen nicht so gut ist.

I have been researching the events of post WWII Germany, especially Ostprussen, because my ancestors came from a little town south of Konigsberg, called Kinkheim.  Now it is in Poland and renamed Kinkajme. 

Thanks again

My Father was born in Konigsburg in 1917.  He died in Munhiem in 1988. He fought as a Luftwaffe pilot in WWII although because he never spoke of the war I never did learn how he participated or even if he was forced to participate in the fight.  He, my mom, my sister and brother fled Germany in 53 (after my Dad spent 5 years at a labour camp in Siberia after being caught by a Russian Army force literally hours after Hitler died. They went to start a new life in Canada where I was born in 62.  I still remember my Dad having a few paintings and drawings of his birthplace around the house.  Because I am facinated by the war and what happened after, I went looking for and found your site.  I remember my father saying, "you can't go back, it will never be the same".  I was never sure what he ment but after looking at the before-after shots, I think I now understand.  My mom and grandmother spoke about how difficult it was to abandon the city with only what they had on their backs while it

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

If we look at the bombing of Königsberg as some type of justice, we are making a cruel mistake. By 1944/45 the people suffering the Allied bombings were mostly women and children, many of whom were not even German. Refugees fleeing the Soviets began the westward march years ahead of the Germans. These included not only Baltic peoples (Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians) but also the French, English, and Russian P.O.W.’s who had been assigned to farms throughout East Prussia. There are many autobiographical accounts of those P.O.W.’s fleeing to Germany (and helping their East German captors) in the fear of being liberated by the Soviets. That should tell us something.
Moreover, the Allied bombings by this point in the war cannot be mistaken as having any military significance. These attacks were criticized by strategists (then and now) who felt that resources were needlessly wasted at the expense of compromising ground forces. The bombing of such cities as Königsberg and Dresden are signs of frustration and anger.

So when we read of personal accounts, let us remember that these people were children at the time. If we stand on the Biblical adage “a tooth for a tooth” we will find ourselves toothless and no wiser for the pain.
I think it’s important to note that everyone disregarded the East Prussian people. That includes the Germans who refused to allow their flight. When the order to evacuate was finally given, retreating German soldiers ran these civilians off the roads, leaving them to freeze or starve to death, committing them to the peril of crossing open fields and frozen water, and ultimately leaving an unknown number behind the lines when the Soviet advance overtook them. So I don’t think anyone contributing to a site like this is trying to defend the Nazis; to the contrary, I think it demonstrates that the Nazis didn’t care who they butchered so long as they fed their bloodlust and escaped leaving their people to pay the price.

A web site like this reminds us of other innocent civilians caught up in the insanity of WWII. Let us not disregard their stories because of their nationality. If we are to keep our humanity, if we are to remember the civilian cost of war, we must remember all of it.
Dr. Jay von Minden, USA.

We saw terrible things: cremated adults shrunk to the size of small children, pieces of arms and legs, dead people, whole families burnt to death, burning people ran to and fro, burnt coaches filled with civilian refugees, dead rescuers and soldiers, many were calling and looking for their children and families, and fire everywhere, everywhere fire, and all the time the hot wind of the firestorm threw people back into the burning houses they were trying to escape from. – —Lothar Metzger, survivor (Dresden>

The essential premise behind the policy of treating towns as unit targets for area attack, namely that the German economic system was fully extended, was false." This, the BBSU noted, was because official estimates of German war production were "more than 100 percent in excess of the true figures". The BBSU concluded: "Far from there being any evidence of a cumulative effect on (German) war production, it is evident that, as the (bombing) offensive progressed ... the effect on war production became progressively smaller (and) did not reach significant dimensions. (Copied from wikipedia)