When I was a child, I knew a map of Poland and thought that the Kaliningrad region is the whole of Russia, so when someone told me Russia is the biggest country in the world, I thought they lost their mind because Poland is clearly bigger.
The sheer loss of history and culture that occured in the second world war is simply unquantifiable. Entire cities that stood for centuries were just raised to the ground. I see it in my hometown too.
My grandpa‘s family had to flee from Eastern Prussia when he was a kid. This was the first time I got an adequate explanation and visualization of what happened back then, thank you!
My mom was born in konigsberg in 1938.during WWII my grandma took her 7 children to Bavaria through the middle of the war all alone .she was a great lady.
Kaliningrad is a very important naval port for Russia, as most of their ports, with the exception of their ports in The Black Sea, freeze over during the Winter. Without it, the Russia navy would be severely limited.
In 1998, I worked in a care home in Germany. We had a few old ladies from this area, who retained their strong East Prussian accent even more than 50 years after they were forced to leave. Many were traumatised, full of nostalgia for their homeland and never really adjusted to life as "exiled" people. In a few years there'll be no more Germans with any first-hand connection to this area....
There is none of Prussian left in Koningsberg. Most were killed with friendly allied carpet bombing. Prussian is heavy dialect .... The Frauen surely missed it. 😭
There is certainly nobody alive from the times before Prussia occupied these lands by slaughtering its previuos nations with sword and fire, by the holy and deceptive knights of the Teutonic Order.
Without negativity, but we Russians are not to blame for the fact that you in Europe are constantly raiding us. Even the thousands of kilometers that separate France, Britain, Germany, from Russia do not stop you from attacking us in the 19th and 20th centuries. Why we are the largest country in the world because as soon as a new dominant force appears in Europe or Asia, they always try to conquer Russia for the last 500 years and when they lose, we take away part of the territory. This is if you do not remember even more ancient history when the same Germans went to Russia with crusades (bloody) campaigns (12-13 centuries), although we were also Christians. In Prussia, before the Germans, the Baltilian peoples lived, whom the Teutonic knights slaughtered in the same northern crusades.
Hate to break it to you, but these are all ramifications of a destructive, murderous and treacherous regime. (not unlike Stalin's...) Normal humans always seem to fall victim to demagogue 'leader' turning them in to mass canon fodder on any which side.
When I was a kid, around 7 perhaps, it was the time when I would obsessively look at maps. I noticed the small part near Poland and saw no label or whatsoever, I put my finger to it and told everyone that I'm going to claim it as my country.
If you go there and tell them that right now, they might crown you king and secede. From the sound of it, they could use a good reason to ditch Russia.
@@benderbender-ij7ldThat would not bode well from Russia. That is, unless you were to answer to Putin (and potentially lukashengo (or whoever belarus’s leader is)) only. That’s because it’s a very strategic location in terms of taking over 3 other nations and securing large russian influence over the Baltic Sea, and is the only year round warm water port
When I was in 1st grade and was learning about Poland's neighbours I always wondered why Russia wouldn't just give away this piece of land, since their country wasn't even connected to it by land. I was 6 and had no idea about how important this land is.
Hah. You know, l live here, in Kaliningrad, and l sometimes think, what will happen, if NATO will try to capture city. At all, if war between us and NATO will start.
@@christofabt8958 if war will start - it's base for many units of Russian army. They WILL try to capture it or destroy. Because there is Russian baltic fleet base.
My grandmother had to flee from Königsberg, but she always talked about it how beautiful it was when it belonged to germany. She lived more than 70years in Hamburg but she still call her home Königsberg and not Hamburg.
Konigberg was just another Hanseatic city... It was likely just her nostalgia talking... Nothing that special about Konigsberg, other than it being the only major city in East Prussia, which was largely an agricultural backwater. Yet it seems like most Prussian descendents fled from Konigberg itself, and that no one lived outside of the city, even though the rural population made some 90% of it...
@@Vitalis94 Noting special except that many famous German philosophers came from there. Such intellectual giants like Immanuel Kant. Then you have the fact that before the rise of the Prussian elites, it was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
@@davidford3115 Well, there are a lot of even tiny towns which birthed famous people. Konigsberg was never a part of the PLC, though. Prussian duchy was fully autonomous.
@@davidford3115 It was allways Prussian. Nothing of it was Polish or Lithuanian in any way. It was just part of a political and military alliance. Just like Vichy France and Germany...
By all my Russian ancestors' accounts, it was a beautiful place. But they did not know how to maintain that level of beauty, or repair what had been destroyed during the war. Many like my great-grandfather were merely peasants trying to get as far away from the horrors they had witnessed in Moscow.
Kaliningrad / Königsberg / Królewiec was part of Germany for 75 years (1871-1945), before that it was part of Prussia for about 200 years (1701-1871), before that it was dependent on Poland (as a fief) for 200 years (1466-1674), and before that it was owned by the Teutonic Knights for over 200 years (1255-1466), and before that, it belonged to the Baltic tribe of Prussians.
Russia has the dna to invade and owns every lands it captured. It took the far east in that way , the kurils , the Georgian two regions , the kaliningrad, outer manchuria , a host of other territories , now it is doing so again with Ukraine.
My family from my mothers side is from there- my grandmother was eaten up inside by her homesickness to the area her whole life and I grew up with the stories. She was one of the civilians that had to flee. My grandfather was a professor at the University of then still wiith the German name Königsberg.
that land dosent belong to germans , like estonia , dosent belongs to germans or other area where germans immigrated dosent belong to them , like volga germans, they where settlers
It’s always sad when a historic city disappears, but Germans in the comments acting like they didn’t actually plan to do the same with slavic cities like Warsaw is just silly!
Two wrongs don't make a right No slavic city was ever completely & permanently populated of it''s indigenous inhabitants , no other city centre was ever permanently physically eliminated The victims were the women children and elderly 80% died in 1945-48 before the remainder werre expellled Please temper your chauvanism
@@andrewschon1 I’m probably the furthest thing from a chauvinist, and however you made that assessments from my comment is beyond me, but sure, go off.
literally half of all west slavic boroughs lost their slavic populations and became german during drang nach osten? warsaw was obliterated by the germans in ww2? rebuilt only by the poor poles themselves? germans and russians both are the scourge of the earth, always have been. You treat them humanly and they will consider you weak
I live in kaliningrad and I wanna tell why it was rebuilded like regular soviet city. first of all Konigsberg was totaly destroed ( I mean it was totaly burned to the ground, you can easily find photos in web ) by british airforce bombing in august of 1944, after that just use your imagination: thousands of soviet people, who just tired after war, came there and begin big construction, their goal was not to repair this beautiful german buildings, they just want to build places for living , repair infrastructure easy and fast . And still Kalingrad have 2 old districts full of german archeteture ( about 35 % of city )
Back in the day after the war they didn't value old architecture the way we do now, so a lot of it is understandable. It was way easier to take the burnt buildings down and build something fast instead of trying to preserve and restore, and in Soviet times preserving and restoring something from before was never really a thing. But it would be an interesting place to visit some day, I think.
I lived in Kaliningrad in the 90s as a student of the Kaliningrad State Technical University. I spent five years in this city. I loved Kaliningrad! I loved the food here and ate lots of Baltic sprats. I visited many places in Kaliningrad including the grave of Emmanuel Kant, (the German philosopher), the Amber Museum, the Oceanography Museum, etc. I saw many German tourists arriving in Kaliningrad who visited ancestral homes and the graveyards of their grandparents. I lived on one of the longest streets in Kaliningrad at the time known as Ulitsa Gorkovo. Russian people all over the Russian Federation are very nice people. I travelled so many times from Kaliningrad to Moscow by train via Lithuania and Belarus. I travelled to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia by coach a few times.
Great video thank you. My Grandmother and her family lived in Konigsberg until it fell to Russia in 1945 and they evacuated by boat, she spoke of it fondly.
@@vitus6302 No, we won't. Part of the principle of the european peace order is that borders are not to be moved by force to avoid any further conflict in europe.
@@reeboothemad5514 convenient that this rule is being enforced after that land was taken from Germany. It’s better to wait to honor that rule after Germany got its land back and maybe even something a little extra on top.
@@vitus6302 Convenience has nothing to do with that rule. There is practically no place in europe that has not been overtaken or overthrown in one way or another at some point in history. That is in fact the reason for this stance on borders for the EU - it is equally unconvenient for everyone. There is no status quo. Do you really think there is any point in history other than now, that all states could agree upon, that we should reset the borders to? Do you realize that there were times that the majority of Europe was under rule of the Huns or the Romans or Napoleon? Would those times be convienient for you? Who do you think should get to decide about that? Keeping borders unchanged is the only way to achieve lasting peace. And to be blunt -your second sentence is a prime example of why such a rule is needed in the first place.
@@reeboothemad5514 the Huns are not native to Europe. I would be more inclined to let France have even more German land than they have now than have any German land in Slavic possession. France and Germany have the same ancestors and only split up in the last 1200 years. As far as I am aware Slavs are relative newcomers to Europe arriving here sometime in the 6th century long after the ancestors of the Germans were here. If Slavs can prove that either a) their ancestors arrived here at the same time or before ours or b) their ancestors and ours are the same (not talking about apes here but about our people arriving here at the same time and then through some weird event developing completely different languages) I am happy to let the borders be as they are. But right now it seems to me that a newcomer to Europe has taken possession of my birthright so obviously this will lead to conflict down the way.
@@vitus6302 You are still trying to arbitrarily set a status quo. Nothing of what you wrote lets you set any borders. You do not have a birthright to the Kaliningrad enclave and neither do I. Your reasoning is just the same as Putins when he argues about Ukraine. Again: The only way to avoid conflict is to accept the borders and not change them by force. The only thing to gain by clinging to borders of the past is a new conflict, possibly including war.
Just saw on the news that Russia is accusing Lithuania of blocking passage of people/goods from Kaliningrad through to mainland Russia because of EU sanctions. I had no idea what they were talking about. This video shows up in my recommended feed and now I know. Great explanation of what's going on.
You explained the video very clearly, my respect for that. Also, the comparison photos from 8:25 onwards where shocking, and it made me real sad to see how beautiful that city once was…
He only took pictures in 1941. Why? By the time Soviet started occupying East Prussia, 90% of building were already gone by strategic bombing. There was none to keep.
The Nazis did more to destroy German culture than anyone. They antagonised and saw everyone around them as inferior... and the fate of Konigsberg is just a taster of the end result.
@@frostyguy1989 oh ofc,let me guess the nazis are also to blame for the 2+ million women the soviets violated in the first couple days of occupation alone, right? And they caused global warming and the covid. Its totally not like the soviets would have attacked them within a few years.
I don't like being tricked. "Pause the video and try to trace the walk in your mind." Then "This is how Euler solved the problem." And finally "Euler's problem had no solution." I don't remember who the sponsor is - I stopped the video and already blocked them from my mind.
The moment I heard euler, I knew a math problem was forthcoming. Everyone knows hearing euler, Descartes, la grange or Newton means some super complex math problems are coming.
As Lithuanian let me add one point - The 1st secretary of Lithuanian SSR A. Sniečkus although was really loyal to Soviet regime stated another reason of not willing to accept the Kaliningrad. The reason was that the land is very poor there therefore no real value would be added. In the modern days Kaliningrad is still very poor and whoever would willingly accept taking this part would have to invest too much money to build proper infrastructure. So not really worth it.
That's the same reason why Finland declined to get back the Karelian part that they lost during WW2. Even small eastern Finnish towns are light years ahead of the towns on the other side of the border. Truly sad to think that Vyborg could've been the biggest city in Finland today.
Visited Kaliningrad in 2019; gotta say, also the city where Kant lived his whole life. And even when it is now a really Russian city, there are statues of Kant around the place
It is fascinating to read so many stories in the comments and I always recognize the incredible escape of my grandfather (at that time a little boy) from East Prussia. Nowadays you can't even imagine what it was like back then: Escaped Soviet fire only by repeated luck, almost froze to death several times, found his family again, was rescued from deep snow, sat on the last train out of his town, drove across a (the Nazis had already planted bombs to destroy it) bridge on a train. To this day he has never returned to his homeland, because he cannot bear the fact that all his memories no longer exist or now have Russian names. So many did not survive this escape.
On the other hand, the Germans do visit the Polish part of Prussia - most of my early childhood memories involve Germans visiting and giving me some German made chocolates. Previously it were the children of the Germans that used to share the house with my grandparents, nowadays it’s their grandchildren that visit, but they mostly opt to visit the church, as the house doesn’t exist anymore. I’ve heard of people declining to visit Wrocław because it was Polish, though.
@@victorkramer2596 I live in Evpatoria , it is in Crimea Germans shot 12560 people here in Januaru 1942 The population of the city was 50-60 thousands before the war What would you expec t ? Every fifth was shot
In short, 1st because Poles invited Teutonic order, and then Lithuanians denied Khrushchev's offer. Two biggest security mistakes looking at it today if you ask me lol
follow this chanel blindly they said exactly why russia attacked ukraine for its nnew proven oil reserves and will take kherson as it holds strategic canal to crimea exactly to this day russia want to annex kherson melitpol for crimea water security
At 3:42 min you can see an image of "Riga, die Hauptt-Statt in Lifflant" which translates to "Riga, the capital of Livland". Livland is a historic territory in the norhern Balticum, but Riga is not Königsberg. Just noticed it.
I don't understand why most people call territories conquered in wartime occupied? Shall we, then, remake the whole world and return it to the old days?
🟡the US Uk campaign to cripple Russian economy and isolate Russia has failed the Ukraines are falling slowly and America is growing more and more desperate. The US UK are acting like a teenager who could not get his way and is smashing all the furniture 🪑 at home 🏡
Great video! Another interesting fact is that the great ‘German’ philosopher Immanuel Kant lived in Konigsberg all his life. In fact he was a man of such pedantic regular habits it is thought he only ventured outside Konigsburg a couple of times in his life. The great irony relating to this excellent video is that Kant’s philosophy is actually the basis of modernism and the modern world, we all act and think in a Kantian way every day! I would recommend a great book on this called ‘Brexit, Kant and Othello’ by S.James.
Indeed, the one time kant actually planned to take a trip, his neighbors were so curious to see him leave, the notably averse kant cancelled rather than face all the onlookers in the street.
Looking at that part of the map always confused me as a kid. I never knew how a small land mass could be owned by Russia, despite not being connected to it by over 180 miles (300 km).
@@khodahh - Puerto Rico too - and part of Japan and about a thousand other military bases scattered over the world like some kind of James Bond villian lol
I caught the train from Vilnius to Kaliningrad in 2010. To go from such a visually appealing city that was easy to explore to a city where everything looked bleak was depressing. It felt like a place that had been forgotten by Russia. I couldn't find an affordable hotel so I stayed with a lovely lady in her apartment, this was pre Airbnb popularity. Catching local buses was easy, but I couldn't find many local attractions other than the harbour and an amber museum and a WWII bunker. I almost got denied at the border because no one on the train could speak English, it wasn't until I showed my flight ticket to Moscow that I was allowed in. Definitely an all round culture shock.
I saw lots of pics \ videos of Kaliningrad that time. You goddamn right, it was sooooooo glooooooomy. But after World Cup 2018 everything changed a lot. Now it's top-5 of city for domestic travel. Come and see by your eyes one time.)
Why would anyone there speak dirty englese, dude? This colonial dialect should be banned in a decent society. Learn Russian, get out of your medieval cave
My grandfather was from there, a village called Nassaven (nowadays Lesistoje) in the circle Gumbinnen next to the Rominther Heide. Went with him there on his last trip a couple of years ago. Lots of shared tears and wonderful encounters between the old eastern Prussians and the elderly Russians that got resettled there, very friendly people. Fun fact: Russia actually offered it back to Germany after the collapse of the soviet union but due to Polish concerns it was declined. And nowadays it is again inhabited by a huge German population, the Wolga/ Russia Germans that got send into exile to Kasachstan and Siberia by Stalin moved there in masses ever since the collapse, so we could actually communicate with many new locals in German
There are still a number of daily trains running from Minsk to Kaliningrad through Vilnius. There is a long standing international agreement for their transit.
@@than217 At about the 1:00 mark, Sam mentioned "travel." There are containers and truck trailers shipped, but I don't think there are any open or heavy military transport.
@@petrasvilkas Yeah, but he didn't mention any long standing international agreement for train travel or what that entailed. Like can Russia send weapons trails along the lines, etc. I was just curious if you knew more about it since you mentioned it in your comment.
That’s how I learned the Evil Empire republics used to be independent countries like Latvia or Lithuania and demonstrated their strategy of world domination.
Just think bout 🇬🇧 when they drew up the country lines in the Middle East n all the headaches that created for the tribes living there for generations! Still having to deal with the fallout of those decisions to this day.
@@oasis1282 I’m not. Russian communists subjugated them. I believe Lithuania was the first to separate from the USSR and celebrates “Lithuania Independence Restoration Day” as they were involuntarily made part of the Soviet Union in 1940. Their independence was re-established in 1990 as the first to declare independence from the Evil Empire. They were victims of communism not evil Russian Marxist perpetrators.
Instead of people talking about Russia attacking out of Kaliningrad by land and sea. Think of this. There is one dredged channel out to the Baltic and the Vistula Lagoon is only 17 feet deep. A single ship scuttled in the channel would cut off the city.
There are 2 (soon to be 3) canals on the lagoon, 1 is in Russian hands, but there is another by the Klaipeda harbor, and the Poles are currently building their own as well.
Even if they somehow managed to get out of the lagoon... the baltic sea can easily be cut off by Denmark, Germany and Norway (which are all part of the NATO) from the Atlantic. It'd be only a matter of time for the NATO countries to push the russians back. Of course nukes make the question for time-management rather useless for Europe but looking at the Russian offensive against Ukraine none can be sure those nukes even have the fuel to travel to Warsaw, much less Berlin.
@@dubravkokovacevic3489 To hear these people talk, they sound like an invasive species of seaweed more than proponents of the great and ever expanding NATO... Then again, pretty much the same thing 🤔
Thank you so much for structured and educational videos. If it wasn't for you, I would never be curious about history, I always hated it since school because I have difficulty remembering dates. But now a lot of my friends and me too are history nerds thanks to your videos. By the way 1500 dollar per month couldn't be the average wage in Russia back in 2014. According to official sources it was 1000 dollars a month back in 2014 and now it's 850 dollars. But of course in reality most of the people earn much below average. We have a tremendous wage gap between major cities (Moscow and Saint Petersburg) and the rest of the country. 1500 dollars a month could be an average wage in Moscow though while the rest of the country's average in reality was and still is around 600 dollars a month.
В России все регионы выравнены и зарплата примерно одинакова везде ,но если ты занят своим бизнесом ,то можешь быть миллионером ,в любой части России. Средний русский живёт лучше ,чем средний европеец !
According to the Statistisches Bundesamt, in total, out of a pre-war population of 2,490,000, about 500,000 died during the war, including 210,000 military dead and 311,000 civilians dying during the wartime flight, postwar expulsion of Germans and forced labor in the Soviet Union; 1,200,000 managed to escape to the western parts of Germany, while about 800,000 pre-war inhabitants remained in East Prussia in summer 1945.
Being German, this is very well researched content. Thanks! I'm pleasantly surprised that you even mentioned the Russian offer, made by general major Geli Batenin, to return Königsberg/Ostpreußen to Germany, which isn't widely known and only became puplic almost 30 years later in May 2010.
There is this very much unknown bit of recolonization efforts made by the German nationalists in the 90s, when they tried to re-settle few villages in Kaliningrad oblast...
Germany sure knew how to keep things secret even in recent times. But I don't know why I'm speaking of Germany since it's the US puppet master that decides for you.
@@jaikee9477 Oh yeah, just some neo-Nazis, sure, but it's still an interesting bit. It also illustrates how dumb "reclaiming" Kaliningrad really is, no (sane) German would ever want to move there.
...and they knew there would be another one coming. G. Zhukov said in Berlin in 1945: "They will never forgive us for this victory". Turns out he was right again. Europe and Russia have fought for ages with some peace periods in between..
U.S and uk got the bigger piece of the pie…good win from the U.S the only nation to use nukes to win a war…well played… I watched the documentary where it’s said the days after the drop of fat man n little guy..the Japanese surrendered. Not only they nuked them but they trolled them with the bombs😂…then made it so no one else can use them after they won…gotta give it to the U.S that’s just devious…then took South Korea and created nato to make Russia the next enemy after just using them to win the ground war😂. Claimed most of the territory, then invaded the Middle East right after to gain ground on the Russians…well played nato.
@@cash-only-por-favor that was cause: 1. Russia invaded Poland and was perfectly fine with Germany controlling most of Europe, as long as it got its slice of the pie 2. Between 1939-1941 they strong armed Romania into the axis and fed the German war machine with oil. 3. They freely redrew the borders of “liberated” countries, like Poland and Czechoslovakia and forced Eastern Europe under the yoke of communism. The people’s of Europe weren’t freed, there master was just slightly better.
@@ddggfcffPoland then was a quite eastern than now. So USSR takes back Belorussian lands. The question is: how did Belorussian lands become a part of Poland thouse times?
Lithuania really dodged the biggest possible bullet by refusing to annex Kaliningrad… Russia would definitely attempt a “special military operation” on them if they did 😂
@@anotheranon3118 As Russia is closing in, we should 'liberate' and demilitarise Belarus in order to create a buffer state....🤣 Sounds weird when you apply that Russian 'logic'.
Considering uk and usa sign a contract guarantee defence of ukraine I would be very surprised if uk or usa would or any nato countries would get involved if russia did invade . And now with sanction in make more likely as they have little to lose once the oil gose in 5 years time
Man, it is wild to think that european leaders were actually opposed to german unification. I've only ever thought about germany as just another european country, but this happened (barely) within my lifetime.
I was against German reunification (they always called it that, but it was NOT a return to any version of Germany which had ever existed before). I thought that this would be terribly difficult for West Germany to achieve (and I was right about that). It seemed to me that East Germany could manage in the European Union on its own like Hungary or any of the other formerly communist countries. It had been the most prosperous one. Austria is a separate German-speaking country with a separate history, and East Germany could have been too. Also, there was a danger that the new Germany would be too big compared to France, which is probably true. As for having the same money and travelling from one city to another easily, you can do that between Munich and Vienna or Warsaw anyway.
@@hendreenkhaznawi9040 "like dumb, soo stupid." is not a very profound argument ! The division of Germany into different zones was not supposed to be a punishment, it was a convenient way of administering a country which would otherwise have gone on being Nazi. Before many years had elapsed, increasing unification and independence was allowed, except in the Rusian zone, so that was not "like dumb". But the former Russian zone became so completely different from the Bundesrepublik within the EU that the cost and difficulty of reunification then became enormous, hence my feelings at that time. Also, my point that it was perfectly possible to have several countries speaking German was valid.
Whenever someone of my family puts too much food on their plate and still manage to devour all of it, my mother always says "those are the East Prussian genes". (My grandparents and great grandparents of my mothers side are East Prussian)
My great grandfather was born in Königsberg, Ostpreußen. We still have old photographs from around 1906 and even some paintings dating back to the 1860s. Königsberg was once regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in eastern Europe, home to Immanuel Kant, David Hilbert and many other great minds. The war wiped it out completely - a painful loss.
Being from just south from historical Allenstein (also East Prussia) I find it amusing how most of the Germans who fled East Prussia seem to come from Konigsberg itself. My grandparents used to live in a house with a German family back in the 1960s. There were few waves of Germans who were deported/moved to Germany - first in the 1945, then in the 1950s, and 1960s, last in the 1970s. Being of Polish-Masurian descent and being born and raised in former East Prussia, I have many family member in Germany. Ironically, even the Polish speaking, Protestant Masurians were seen as the "Krauts" and were forced to flee the region after the war. The Masurians are completely gone nowadays, and our dialect died off just because some dumb settlers from Poland proper had seen us as "German". They saw anything non-Catholic and non Polish as bad. I fully sympathize with the Germans that fled Prussia. I consider it my own homeland, my Masurian ancestors colonized it in the 1400s-1600s together with the Germans. And maybe you as German might see me as non-native, ursuper. On one hand, had there been no war, no Hitler, East Prussia would've been German today - and me as well, I think. But things happened differently. It's very sad what happened to the region, and it's still not talked about that much. Even today former East Prussia is seen as it was during the Communist times - It is a reclaimed land and mainstream medio don't talk about how the natives were treated. There had been a "controversial" movie made some years ago, about Polish settlers moving into Prussia after WW2, and how they treated both the Germans and Masurians, but it's very much a taboo topic, and although things are much better, German heritage of the land is very much talked about nowadays, no one wants to talk about the post-war attrocities. These seem as "justified" because the Nazis and the local Germans alike did worse things to Poles, but I personally think that violence doesn't make other violence right. Sure, some of the local Germans were the fifth column before the WW2 - I mean, they created the lists of important Poles and the area and they massacred them - leading to the infamous Bromberg Massacre (very much loved topic by the neonazis nowadays), but I've read some books and even spoke with some old witnesses about the Germans being beaten to death on the streets after the war, just because the Poles were angry.... I mean, humans can be so bad to each other...
I recently inherited - from my formerly soviet gramps - silverware allegedly once looted from there. I'm a central European bastard living a German life, could i possibly argue that it just returned home?
@@XmarkedSpot I mean, Germans talk alot about gaining lost land, and the smartest way to do that would be just... settling there? And slowly taking control, by economically dominating the locals? Yet nowadays no Germans wants to live in Stettin, Breslau, Posen. Instead it is Poles who move to Berlin, Dortmund... I mean, I'm from Prussia, so I don't have the same nostalgia as my fellow Poles have to, say, Lviv or Vilnius, but it is there, so I get it, nostalgia and all... Belonged to you folks and all, now it's gone. Sad. But such nostalgic thinking just... means nothing. If you want it so much, just... live there? But no, you would just prefer having it under the German government's control, all Russians removed, so that you could be happy about it being German. And I get it, having it be inhabited by Russians just isn't the same, right? Other culture, "occupying YOUR land" isn't great, right? But if you really cared about the land, you would, I dunno... Maybe support the local German heritage? All those German graves left behind. German palaces rotting, Teutonic castles in ruin... But yeah, just whine about your inheritance being lost.
@@Vitalis94 Don't get me wrong, i have no nostalgia for an era i never had witnessed. I might - actually do - have a German surname (since the Habsburgs resettled Swabs to Hungary after kicking out the Ottomans) but if i'm German at all then it's by nurture and culture than mere happenstance. Also, what whining? I just told that i inherited a thing, not lost it.
I didn't knew all that. Even through my ancestors all come from german parts that aren't german anymore. There is still a german dish that is called "Königsberger Klöpse". Now I know where this name might comes from 😂
Not very long ago the idea of Russia taking this action seemed very very unlikely. Unfortunately now it seems a distinct possibility. Things change very quickly.
Thats why being a nationalistic German and liking hitler is the dumbest thing one could be. If you are a real patriotic German, than you hate hitler with a burning passion.
He achieved opposite of his aims. Jews got their own state, half Europe run by bolshevics and Germany bombed to rubble. If it was not for western sector, ie west Germany being pumped full of money from USA and Britain via Marshall plan and occupation forces spending, west Germany would still be poor and ruined like East Germany was
I need to add a note to this. Once Sweden and Finland's ascension to NATO is complete, the official name of "The Baltic Sea" changes legally to "NATO Lake".
@@ПонтогонПонтогонович Ye you can pack up your stuff from there, especially now when Finland joined NATO - they would annihilate you with artillery fire they posses between Helsinki and St. Petersbourg. Time to pack Baltic fleet and to move it to Murmansk, isn't it? Good luck with ice and winter, we both know why you need access to Baltic desperately.
The bridge thing is simple. You can't make a single path crossing each bridge once and only once when more than two nodes have an odd number of bridges connecting to them. This map shows four nodes, all of them with an odd number of bridges. It can't be done. Add one extra bridge (or close a bridge, swim, row a boat, or skate across on the ice when it freezes) so that two of the nodes will have an even number of bridges, and it becomes simple - you start and end at the two nodes that have odd numbers of bridges.
You forgot to mention that the main reason why Konigsberg was fully destroyed was because whole group of armies north actually got trapped in there after the Vistula-Oder offensive operation!!!
The reason for erasing Königsberg were the original plans from WW1 to cleanse whole East Prussia from german (heritage) to make it fully russian - because of its naval importance. If you look at the proceedings of the the Russian attack on EP in Summer 1914 and you read the memoirs of Lew Kopolew who witnessed the systematic destruction/annihilation of anything remotely german in 1945 you will learn that everything else is just a disguise for genocide.
There is a country surrounded by South Africa (with little to no contact to the outside world if not via South Africa), called Lesotho. Could you please make a video on how it came to happen that this country is inside another country…
Russian average is way lower than $1500 - this is only applicable to Moscow. Other few major cities have significantly less and the rest of Russia lives with the same average wage of $400 as Kaliningrad.
These western puppets will say anything to discredit Russia. They even support modern-day Nazis but "Ohh Russians are poor, Russia is nothing without oil"
But you forget the cost of things is 10 times less then in usa A taxi ride that would cost 30$ in usa. Would cost 3$ in russia A cheap meal that would cost 10$ in usa. Would cost 1$ in russia Rent that would cost 1000$ in a cheap usa city..would cost 100$ in a cheap russian city You need to also include cost of things. Doesnt make sense to convert a foreign currency in us $ and assume a country is poor cause average person make 5000$ a year. When its surely cost only 4000$/year to live with dignity in the country
@@mathewvanostin7118 Actually the prices in Moscow and Saint Petersburg are the same as the prices in the USA if not more expensive, so your comment is bullshit soviet propaganda!
@@mathewvanostin7118 thats a ridiculous logic that ignores that the US also has fluctuating cost of living depending on area. The idea that americans cant eat food for below 10 dollars is a straight up fucking lie. there is a reason why russians move out of russia at the rapid rate that they do. The reality of russia outside of moscow is an almost feudal poverty that has yet to be properly rectified, and there is a reason why when you hear about russian population centers it usually falls on the same three or four. the entirety of russia has a smaller population than the US. that is not indicative of economic liberation, but rather the opposite.
If it ever happend, it can only connect Malay Peninsula to Sumatra Island, the rest is impractical (either too far away between two landmass or too dangerous due to geographical feature).
The settlement of modern-day Kaliningrad was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement Twangste by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades led by Bohemian (Czech) king Ottokar, and was named Königsberg in honor of King Ottokar II of Bohemia.
When I was five years old, my grandmother proposed me the Seven Königsberg Bridges problem. I spent some weeks trying to solve it but my age was low enough not to succeed. But I solved many other problems that she presented me, generally about train maneuvres at train terminals and branches. She knew how to motivate me! Now I'm about to conclude a paper on a detailed explanation of cognition, full of mathematical objects.
@@ghost_1153 Thank you, but I'm not yet ended, so I don't deserve. An idea born in Königsberg from its bridges, which others' ideas made them be built, inspired much of my life much later and helped me to think rationally. True, many other things have inspired me, but my memory will always have a place for Königsberg. I am grateful.
Mitterand was still being shell shocked of being overrun in a matter of weeks in 1940. He is said to have stated: 'I love Germany so much that I like to have two of them'.
Lacking from your history was HOW East Prussia, became East Prussia. Some discussion of how the Danzig Corridor was created after WW1, was necessary to complete the area's history.
As one who considers Lithuania their second home, this entire development has been weighing on my mind. I really don't know what's going to happen, but it is scary.
Man as a lithuanian I see our leading politics have lost their minds, thinking that they can go to war with russians and earn lots of money and destroy opposition by doing so...
Is it the wish of Lithuanian people to provoke another special operation? Or is your government deciding for you that they would much rather live under constant fire of missiles, rather than enjoy peace? Got to remind people that Russia is going easy on Ukraine, because ethnic Russians live there and it's a "younger brother" -kind of nation. I can certainly tell they don't consider Lithuanians as such nation, so if military action is taken, things would look grim...
@@1STstream It's only our government. They have bought riot equipment for our military now and they have already shown how their own special forces bring sacks with pieces of rocks into any bigger protest against the government and hire some problematic people to start any riot stuff against their own riot squad. Then they use their owned national TV and radio, as well as hire commercial media to send a message to the people and the world that a Lithuanian language teacher organised and carried out a riot against the government in order to take over the rule of the country by force... The fact is that our government borrow up billions of euros from the EU and use it for anything. Now it seems like every higher office is in their pocket and they control any key prosecutor, police department, mass media, judges, etc.. Now they are playing a Russian game for the west as we understand, must be given lots of money for that, or simply told that if they will not do what is told, the financing is gonna stop and the media, the prosecutors, judges, simply get out of their control. So I bet they are gambling and they believe the Russians won't attack and even if they will, we still have kgb files hidden and some highest position politicians who had worked for kgb, their children and grandchildren as well... I bet they believe that Russians would keep them as loyal dogs even if they had attacked us... And my guess is that then these former kgbists would pull out a huge list and get one way ticket to gulag for half of our population. However there is like half of the people, who clearly understand that this government wants all the worst for us and there is another 40 percent - ones who do not understand what is happening and can not believe the government is working not for us and lets say there is 10% that are into this sekta and take every word from the mass media for granted and are eager to see their women, men and children being raped and killed for the sake of Ukraine... However from what we see when there is a protest and you get checked everywhere, no chance of slipping through with a stone and then you see two guys barely holding a potato sack that is one third filled with rocks and carrying it through the main street in Vilnius crowded by police and when there is no policeman who would try to catch them or stop them, the mainstream media camera man running just before the crowd and taking interview from the "drunkard" actor who is supposed to get people in a riot, then you simply understand that those exkgb rats need at least extreme state or the state of war in a country to send their riot squad police to any house, to any place to catch anyone same like in China... Row up everyone for vaccination with prescribed experimental fluids with no doctor prescription or so. They put political prisoners to jail, now they tried to put a Lithuanian language teacher to a psycho prison and make a vegetable from her, but somehow the opposition managed to pull her out, though it is told she will get there anyway... And the main problem of this ir that people will not do anything until they can crawl... Our grand grand parents and their grandparents were slaves, so that slave wisdom got from generation to generation and we still are quiet and even if there is a rope on our necks we will get used to it... So the long story short is that our government will borrow as much money as they can, they will gamble as hard as they can on Russian theme, then if there will be a war, most of the ordinary people will kneel and suck a cock of an occupant, some will be sent to get or kill the opposition leaders, some will lead a partisan war and for the politics, they would try to run away or change a flag and give orders to line up today's opposition leaders and followers next to a wall and shoot them dead and enjoy it... Maybe I am wrong, but for the things I understood from the protests and the 32years of life here, the politicians pretend to play democracy in Lithuania and milk the European cow.
Russia's initial purpose for entering Ukraine was to stop the Nazis from killing Russian Ukrainians because no one else would. Now you can insist all you want that there are no Nazis in Ukraine. Fine. But then that means the 10,000+ Russian civilians - men women and children - who have been brutally killed since 2014, were killed by the regular Ukrainian army. That equally justifies Russia's response, unless of course you feel Russia is not entitled to defend their citizens. Someone killed all those civilians... their death is a matter of historic fact so please don't try to dismiss it as a "conspiracy". Either way, Nazis or no Nazis, it had to stop.
Königsberg (Kaliningrad) was a city constructed in 1255 by the Old Prussians and Teutonic Order, later in became a German City. Prussian was a culture there too but then it died out and the Prussians living their went extinct or became German making it a 99% German city. With all the patriotic culture symbols and images in Königsberg, it made it a province of many military agriculture and they constructed factories there when the industrial era started so it was more of a stronghold with lots of German knights or troops guarding the city. The Teutonic Knights were still there too, but not a pleasant entity to see you know, a person wearing a crusader or medieval helmet and having a Teutonic symbol on their armor visible walking and all that..
I noticed that immediately. Objectively, that is a mistake. It should be marked disputed with stripes or some other thing if he wants to include it at all.
It's Russian - the people voted to be Russian and several external polls have since been taken in the region - by the UN, America - and all of them show about 80% of the population think of themselves as Russian and are happy that Crimea is Russian. The right to self determination is the most sacred right of any people - if you would take away that right to score some points against Russia? then you're worse than you claim they are.
@@smokex3652 Sure, but the problem is the authoritarian manner Putin just forcefully took it back, blatantly disregarding international agreements made in the hope that parties would remain civilized (as has become the norm on this half of the world... or so we thought). Countries don't just go and take back lands randomly, with the rest of the world cheering, you know, that's not how it works.
I have an atlas from grade 1 that had this small part of Russia, and I always wondered if there was a misprint because I never knew that Russia, so massive, can have its own little "DLC" place
It's really mad, that I'm currently less than an hour away from this border to kaliningrad in Poland. In gdansk and this video gets uploaded as I was thinking about this the other day 🤔 brilliant video as always!
@@neilmcintyre5559 did i ask. Its rightfully german. I dont care who owns it now. Its germany. I dont believe in a poland. I believe poland should be split between austria russia and germany like a few hundred years back. I dont believe in your existence at all,
@@Clickty nobody asked for your opinion 😂 last time I checked it's wrong based on the truth. Poland has its independence for a reason. Go back to crying in the corner of your room and deal with it 😎
My family (Brussat) left Königsberg, Germany in 1867 (6 generations) ago and went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Karl Samuel Brussat is the ancestor of all North American Brussat family members. Brussat is an uncommon German last name meaning Bridge gard.
You are right...6 generations ago... no Nazi...so, how Russia related to your relatives? What made them leave? DNA test can show where we are all from and some places can be very surprising
@@iri8973 DNA tests are entertaining guesses for the amusements of North Americans. In Central Europe nobody cares and they often make not much sense, since they hardly can distinguish between German, Dutch, Belgian, Luxembourgian, Northern French, Swiss and Austrian. Decedents of people migrated from Königsberg in the 1800's are also not very likely to find Russian traces, since the area was occupied in 1945 by the Soviet Union and populated with Russians starting from 1946. Did you watch the video?
@@henningbartels6245 As I know, Russia got territory because she was a winner in WW2 over European Nazi ...25 millions Russians were killed by Europeans...but Russia forgiven them and free all territories by giving them independence and paid their debts... Today these territory not satisfied and want again to try to go over Russia...well..good luck...but this time Russia has a very powerful weapon and Russia lost her trust to Europe... Maybe this time there wouldn't be Britaine or Washington...it is not a child play ..how far Europe wants to go?
This is very well done. Thank you. There are several witnesses who still insist that Genscher, the german foreign minister in 1989 proclaimed in internal briefings for the reunification that "Kohl (the chancellor of Germany) was offered Königsberg in exchange for financial help, he asked me what to do about it. I told him we should avoid this by any means, even if they'd offer it for free." That Genscher said this is undispuded. And it would make sense, because basically West Germany bought the GDR from Russia back then in 1990.
@@oO_ox_O But it was 100% inhabited by Russians. They even had a referendum back then to switch the name back to Königsberg as Kalinin (after who the city is named) was a war criminal. But they refused. So basically they would immediately try to get back to Russia. And don't forget that Poland is very greedy to get the rest of East Prussia, so as an independent state they would not survive.
@@borisbrosowski6630 They might have been economically better off than 90s Russia with a higher chance of joining the EU. But fair enough, that's just in hindsight.
The great German philosopher Immanuel Kant came from the city of Konigsberg now called Kaliningrad.Used to be ducal Prussia which owed fealty to Poland and later got annexed to Brandenburg which subsequently changed its name to Prussia.
@Assismus The margraviate of Brandenburg with capital at Berlin and ruled by the Hohenzollern family was in the Holy Roman Empire but the duchy of Prussia in the east which they ruled in personal union was not in the Holy Roman Empire -it was a fief of the Polish Crown.Frederick the First,in 1701 after being on the successful side in the War of the Spanish Succession got permission of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I to make Brandenburg a kingdom but he chose the name of his Polish fiefdom to be the name of his kingdom.The same thing happened at the same time with the duchy of Savoy which ruled in continental Italy but also got hold of the island of Sardinia and they got permission also from the emperor to upgrade to a kingdom and they chose the name "Sardinia" to be the name of their kingdom sometimes known as Savoy-Sardinia with its capital at Turin -later they became kings of Italy.
When I was a child, I knew a map of Poland and thought that the Kaliningrad region is the whole of Russia, so when someone told me Russia is the biggest country in the world, I thought they lost their mind because Poland is clearly bigger.
Yerrrr I’m just a young Mexican trying to get out the hood 💯 i smoke weed on my UA-cam channel & i did a Mukbang inside Lowes🍔🥶
This comment is an exact copy of a comment on a history matters video, not sure if this is actually a copied comment though.
I have seen this exact comment before.... Hmmmm
@@prabathhemachandra Did you ever consider that comment was from my personal UA-cam channel and this may or may not be my History channel.
copied comment from history matters lmao
The sheer loss of history and culture that occured in the second world war is simply unquantifiable. Entire cities that stood for centuries were just raised to the ground. I see it in my hometown too.
Not to be a spelling nazi, but it's "razed".
@Safwaan Just in general, Warsaw was a big pile of rubble after WW2
Your banner lol
@Safwaan look his banner
@Safwaan The sad thing is Poland refused too many capitulation offers, even didn't accept to send out children, afterwards the bombers started.
My grandpa‘s family had to flee from Eastern Prussia when he was a kid. This was the first time I got an adequate explanation and visualization of what happened back then, thank you!
Yes kaliningrad was prussian and in Germany are many slavic cities - very old cities (
@@arnyarny7991 Koenigsberg was never slavic, It was home to pagan balts
Basically - Nazis
My great-grandpa also fled from there all the way to thuringia
I'm Polish, and my great grandmother was born in Lviv (back when it was called Lwów in Polish).
My mom was born in konigsberg in 1938.during WWII my grandma took her 7 children to Bavaria through the middle of the war all alone .she was a great lady.
My opa was born there too. That's all we know, all other records were destroyed.
@@TrickShepherdyou reminded me of my Great Grandfather who served in the ROC before
Your mom told me that too
@@YeshuaAlberto This reallu isn't a joke comment.
AYOOOOO NOTSI
Kaliningrad is a very important naval port for Russia, as most of their ports, with the exception of their ports in The Black Sea, freeze over during the Winter. Without it, the Russia navy would be severely limited.
@Don't read profile photo Can't read.
Thank you for giving me 18 minutes of my life
LOL...THEY CAN ALWAYS OPERATE THEIR NAVY IN RIVERS/LAKES JUST LIKE SOME SWITZERLAND DID
HOW ABOUT CASPIAN "LAKE"?
@@italy8795 not if they want to export oil by sea
In 1998, I worked in a care home in Germany. We had a few old ladies from this area, who retained their strong East Prussian accent even more than 50 years after they were forced to leave. Many were traumatised, full of nostalgia for their homeland and never really adjusted to life as "exiled" people. In a few years there'll be no more Germans with any first-hand connection to this area....
There is none of Prussian left in Koningsberg.
Most were killed with friendly allied carpet bombing.
Prussian is heavy dialect .... The Frauen surely missed it. 😭
There is certainly nobody alive from the times before Prussia occupied these lands by slaughtering its previuos nations with sword and fire, by the holy and deceptive knights of the Teutonic Order.
Without negativity, but we Russians are not to blame for the fact that you in Europe are constantly raiding us. Even the thousands of kilometers that separate France, Britain, Germany, from Russia do not stop you from attacking us in the 19th and 20th centuries. Why we are the largest country in the world because as soon as a new dominant force appears in Europe or Asia, they always try to conquer Russia for the last 500 years and when they lose, we take away part of the territory. This is if you do not remember even more ancient history when the same Germans went to Russia with crusades (bloody) campaigns (12-13 centuries), although we were also Christians. In Prussia, before the Germans, the Baltilian peoples lived, whom the Teutonic knights slaughtered in the same northern crusades.
Hate to break it to you, but these are all ramifications of a destructive, murderous and treacherous regime. (not unlike Stalin's...) Normal humans always seem to fall victim to demagogue 'leader' turning them in to mass canon fodder on any which side.
Prusy to nie były Niemcy.
Zostali zniemczeni.
When I was a kid, around 7 perhaps, it was the time when I would obsessively look at maps. I noticed the small part near Poland and saw no label or whatsoever, I put my finger to it and told everyone that I'm going to claim it as my country.
😂😂😂
If you go there and tell them that right now, they might crown you king and secede. From the sound of it, they could use a good reason to ditch Russia.
"the republic of khust2993"
@@benderbender-ij7ldso stupid thinks😅
@@benderbender-ij7ldThat would not bode well from Russia. That is, unless you were to answer to Putin (and potentially lukashengo (or whoever belarus’s leader is)) only. That’s because it’s a very strategic location in terms of taking over 3 other nations and securing large russian influence over the Baltic Sea, and is the only year round warm water port
When I was in 1st grade and was learning about Poland's neighbours I always wondered why Russia wouldn't just give away this piece of land, since their country wasn't even connected to it by land. I was 6 and had no idea about how important this land is.
Hah. You know, l live here, in Kaliningrad, and l sometimes think, what will happen, if NATO will try to capture city. At all, if war between us and NATO will start.
@@transscant1080 mmm. Yeah, they'll probably turn it into dust by artillery strikes.
@@albertthegreat9192 NATO is not interested in Königsberg. Why should they?
@@christofabt8958 if war will start - it's base for many units of Russian army. They WILL try to capture it or destroy. Because there is Russian baltic fleet base.
@@transscant1080 why NATO with Ukraine? Almost 20 years. With Baltic states? Democracy, freedom, blah-blah-blan? Nah
My grandmother had to flee from Königsberg, but she always talked about it how beautiful it was when it belonged to germany. She lived more than 70years in Hamburg but she still call her home Königsberg and not Hamburg.
Konigberg was just another Hanseatic city... It was likely just her nostalgia talking... Nothing that special about Konigsberg, other than it being the only major city in East Prussia, which was largely an agricultural backwater. Yet it seems like most Prussian descendents fled from Konigberg itself, and that no one lived outside of the city, even though the rural population made some 90% of it...
@@Vitalis94 Noting special except that many famous German philosophers came from there. Such intellectual giants like Immanuel Kant. Then you have the fact that before the rise of the Prussian elites, it was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
@@davidford3115 Well, there are a lot of even tiny towns which birthed famous people. Konigsberg was never a part of the PLC, though. Prussian duchy was fully autonomous.
@@davidford3115 It was allways Prussian. Nothing of it was Polish or Lithuanian in any way. It was just part of a political and military alliance. Just like Vichy France and Germany...
By all my Russian ancestors' accounts, it was a beautiful place. But they did not know how to maintain that level of beauty, or repair what had been destroyed during the war. Many like my great-grandfather were merely peasants trying to get as far away from the horrors they had witnessed in Moscow.
Kaliningrad / Königsberg / Królewiec was part of Germany for 75 years (1871-1945), before that it was part of Prussia for about 200 years (1701-1871), before that it was dependent on Poland (as a fief) for 200 years (1466-1674), and before that it was owned by the Teutonic Knights for over 200 years (1255-1466), and before that, it belonged to the Baltic tribe of Prussians.
It was only part of Germany from 1871 on, because the German state was founded this year.
Russia has the dna to invade and owns every lands it captured. It took the far east in that way , the kurils , the Georgian two regions , the kaliningrad, outer manchuria , a host of other territories , now it is doing so again with Ukraine.
And before that?
@@Atomasd whatever nations ruled europe before indoeuropeans came, e.g. basque ppl in spain/france
@@Atomasd I guess no records.
My family from my mothers side is from there- my grandmother was eaten up inside by her homesickness to the area her whole life and I grew up with the stories. She was one of the civilians that had to flee. My grandfather was a professor at the University of then still wiith the German name Königsberg.
that land dosent belong to germans , like estonia , dosent belongs to germans or other area where germans immigrated dosent belong to them , like volga germans, they where settlers
@@naapsulusmurmurusmurmurus2392 Its not German anymore of course but it was once as part of the history of the area.
@@Sabine00KH Before it's conquest by Teutonic Order it was inhabited by Old Prussian who are distinct Baltic etnic group instead of Germanic
@@naapsulusmurmurusmurmurus2392 It doesn’t matter who this land “belongs” to. People being forcibly removed from their home is always awful
Family came from there too. Aus der Traum.
It’s always sad when a historic city disappears, but Germans in the comments acting like they didn’t actually plan to do the same with slavic cities like Warsaw is just silly!
Two wrongs don't make a right No slavic city was ever completely & permanently populated of it''s indigenous inhabitants , no other city centre was ever permanently physically eliminated The victims were the women children and elderly 80% died in 1945-48 before the remainder werre expellled Please temper your chauvanism
@@andrewschon1 I’m probably the furthest thing from a chauvinist, and however you made that assessments from my comment is beyond me, but sure, go off.
@@Walsinats4 SUCKER
literally half of all west slavic boroughs lost their slavic populations and became german during drang nach osten?
warsaw was obliterated by the germans in ww2? rebuilt only by the poor poles themselves?
germans and russians both are the scourge of the earth, always have been. You treat them humanly and they will consider you weak
I live in kaliningrad and I wanna tell why it was rebuilded like regular soviet city. first of all Konigsberg was totaly destroed ( I mean it was totaly burned to the ground, you can easily find photos in web ) by british airforce bombing in august of 1944, after that just use your imagination: thousands of soviet people, who just tired after war, came there and begin big construction, their goal was not to repair this beautiful german buildings, they just want to build places for living , repair infrastructure easy and fast . And still Kalingrad have 2 old districts full of german archeteture ( about 35 % of city )
Back in the day after the war they didn't value old architecture the way we do now, so a lot of it is understandable. It was way easier to take the burnt buildings down and build something fast instead of trying to preserve and restore, and in Soviet times preserving and restoring something from before was never really a thing. But it would be an interesting place to visit some day, I think.
I'm not Russian, British, american, Chinese.
Russia has the right to survive.
@@mhow4967 Russian right to live was declined by the West long ago.
Who says otherwise? Its putin the world even russians dont.
I lived in Kaliningrad in the 90s as a student of the Kaliningrad State Technical University. I spent five years in this city. I loved Kaliningrad! I loved the food here and ate lots of Baltic sprats.
I visited many places in Kaliningrad including the grave of Emmanuel Kant, (the German philosopher), the Amber Museum, the Oceanography Museum, etc.
I saw many German tourists arriving in Kaliningrad who visited ancestral homes and the graveyards of their grandparents.
I lived on one of the longest streets in Kaliningrad at the time known as Ulitsa Gorkovo.
Russian people all over the Russian Federation are very nice people. I travelled so many times from Kaliningrad to Moscow by train via Lithuania and Belarus. I travelled to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia by coach a few times.
Great video thank you. My Grandmother and her family lived in Konigsberg until it fell to Russia in 1945 and they evacuated by boat, she spoke of it fondly.
@@vitus6302 No, we won't. Part of the principle of the european peace order is that borders are not to be moved by force to avoid any further conflict in europe.
@@reeboothemad5514 convenient that this rule is being enforced after that land was taken from Germany.
It’s better to wait to honor that rule after Germany got its land back and maybe even something a little extra on top.
@@vitus6302 Convenience has nothing to do with that rule. There is practically no place in europe that has not been overtaken or overthrown in one way or another at some point in history. That is in fact the reason for this stance on borders for the EU - it is equally unconvenient for everyone. There is no status quo. Do you really think there is any point in history other than now, that all states could agree upon, that we should reset the borders to? Do you realize that there were times that the majority of Europe was under rule of the Huns or the Romans or Napoleon? Would those times be convienient for you? Who do you think should get to decide about that? Keeping borders unchanged is the only way to achieve lasting peace. And to be blunt -your second sentence is a prime example of why such a rule is needed in the first place.
@@reeboothemad5514 the Huns are not native to Europe.
I would be more inclined to let France have even more German land than they have now than have any German land in Slavic possession. France and Germany have the same ancestors and only split up in the last 1200 years.
As far as I am aware Slavs are relative newcomers to Europe arriving here sometime in the 6th century long after the ancestors of the Germans were here.
If Slavs can prove that either a) their ancestors arrived here at the same time or before ours or b) their ancestors and ours are the same (not talking about apes here but about our people arriving here at the same time and then through some weird event developing completely different languages) I am happy to let the borders be as they are.
But right now it seems to me that a newcomer to Europe has taken possession of my birthright so obviously this will lead to conflict down the way.
@@vitus6302 You are still trying to arbitrarily set a status quo. Nothing of what you wrote lets you set any borders. You do not have a birthright to the Kaliningrad enclave and neither do I. Your reasoning is just the same as Putins when he argues about Ukraine. Again: The only way to avoid conflict is to accept the borders and not change them by force. The only thing to gain by clinging to borders of the past is a new conflict, possibly including war.
Just saw on the news that Russia is accusing Lithuania of blocking passage of people/goods from Kaliningrad through to mainland Russia because of EU sanctions. I had no idea what they were talking about. This video shows up in my recommended feed and now I know. Great explanation of what's going on.
The passage of people is not blocked. Passage of only special goods, covered by the sanctions, is blocked. However, they can be transported by ship.
Lithugaynia
Question wf USA is doing all over the world can you please explain to me...?
@@juanvalero5249 I am from Lithuania and we want US here for example. they are welcome here.
@@kremzle5688 go and join Ucrania cower..
It's funny how you put a picture of Riga instead of Konigsberg at 3:38. Greetings from Latvia!
Growing up I wondered what it would be like if Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were a single country.
Greetings from India 😊
You explained the video very clearly, my respect for that. Also, the comparison photos from 8:25 onwards where shocking, and it made me real sad to see how beautiful that city once was…
Look at Iraq before and after USA gave them freedom
He only took pictures in 1941. Why? By the time Soviet started occupying East Prussia, 90% of building were already gone by strategic bombing. There was none to keep.
@@lequack6373 This made my brain hurt so bad
The Nazis did more to destroy German culture than anyone. They antagonised and saw everyone around them as inferior... and the fate of Konigsberg is just a taster of the end result.
@@frostyguy1989 oh ofc,let me guess the nazis are also to blame for the 2+ million women the soviets violated in the first couple days of occupation alone, right?
And they caused global warming and the covid.
Its totally not like the soviets would have attacked them within a few years.
that was the greatest transition into a sponsor segment i've ever seen.
agreed - and an interesting sponsor too!
Too bad I just installed sponserblock a few days ago. It just cuts lol
I was just thinking "is that the place with the bridges?" - did not expect that!
I don't like being tricked. "Pause the video and try to trace the walk in your mind." Then "This is how Euler solved the problem." And finally "Euler's problem had no solution." I don't remember who the sponsor is - I stopped the video and already blocked them from my mind.
The moment I heard euler, I knew a math problem was forthcoming. Everyone knows hearing euler, Descartes, la grange or Newton means some super complex math problems are coming.
As Lithuanian let me add one point - The 1st secretary of Lithuanian SSR A. Sniečkus although was really loyal to Soviet regime stated another reason of not willing to accept the Kaliningrad. The reason was that the land is very poor there therefore no real value would be added. In the modern days Kaliningrad is still very poor and whoever would willingly accept taking this part would have to invest too much money to build proper infrastructure. So not really worth it.
If Lithuania claim kaliningrad territory at the time by soviet it would be free border with Poland as well to reunite each other.
free land is free lanf they should have taken it
One of the real reasons is that Lithuania didn't have enough demographic potential to populate it
@@mikeherrera2688 there was already border with Poland?
That's the same reason why Finland declined to get back the Karelian part that they lost during WW2. Even small eastern Finnish towns are light years ahead of the towns on the other side of the border. Truly sad to think that Vyborg could've been the biggest city in Finland today.
I was thinking about this yesterday and this video popped straight into my recommendation today... Thank you!
funny right ?
Visited Kaliningrad in 2019; gotta say, also the city where Kant lived his whole life. And even when it is now a really Russian city, there are statues of Kant around the place
Man, I've just gotten interested in visiting Russia. Then they invaded Ukraine. I don't think I will within the next few decades. Too bad.
@@mysterioanonymous3206 don't u ever visit USA then, if you want to be completely consistent with your logic
@@codeine_tears Don't go anywhere with that logic.
@@codeine_tears honestly I wanna visit both
@@codeine_tears the difference is USA only invades terrorist countries not like Russia invading peaceful Ukraine
It is fascinating to read so many stories in the comments and I always recognize the incredible escape of my grandfather (at that time a little boy) from East Prussia. Nowadays you can't even imagine what it was like back then:
Escaped Soviet fire only by repeated luck, almost froze to death several times, found his family again, was rescued from deep snow, sat on the last train out of his town, drove across a (the Nazis had already planted bombs to destroy it) bridge on a train.
To this day he has never returned to his homeland, because he cannot bear the fact that all his memories no longer exist or now have Russian names.
So many did not survive this escape.
My grandfather immigrated to brazil from Konigsberg in 1923, most of his family that stayed there were killed by the soviets
On the other hand, the Germans do visit the Polish part of Prussia - most of my early childhood memories involve Germans visiting and giving me some German made chocolates. Previously it were the children of the Germans that used to share the house with my grandparents, nowadays it’s their grandchildren that visit, but they mostly opt to visit the church, as the house doesn’t exist anymore.
I’ve heard of people declining to visit Wrocław because it was Polish, though.
@@victorkramer2596
Are you upset that Hitler Nazis lost the war
Little price for wanting to occupy Russia.
@@victorkramer2596 I live in Evpatoria , it is in Crimea Germans shot 12560 people here in Januaru 1942 The population of the city was 50-60 thousands before the war What would you expec t ? Every fifth was shot
Always used to wonder why Kaliningrad was just sitting there between Poland/Lithuania and owned by Russia..well now I know
As a lithuanian I call it Konigsberg, Kalinin was an evil prick
You don't. Most of the history was whitewashed by the author.
In short, 1st because Poles invited Teutonic order, and then Lithuanians denied Khrushchev's offer. Two biggest security mistakes looking at it today if you ask me lol
Lithuania should attack it if ukraine fall to russia for stop russian more expansion with Nato help neddle in meat must be removed
Talking about Kaliningrad, showing picture of Riga lol
Fun fact: The place was named Königsberg in honor of King Přemysl Otakar II. Of Bohemia. 🇨🇿
His statue still stand on the one of the fabulous gates of Kaliningrad - Korolevskie Vorota (King's Gates)
Królewiec Poland,
That doesn’t make sense because his name and the city’s older name don’t seem to have any correlation. This needs further explanation.
I’ve always wondered this and have looked into it myself. Happy to watch you cover it now
follow this chanel blindly they said exactly why russia attacked ukraine for its nnew proven oil reserves and will take kherson as it holds strategic canal to crimea exactly to this day russia want to annex kherson melitpol for crimea water security
At 3:42 min you can see an image of "Riga, die Hauptt-Statt in Lifflant" which translates to "Riga, the capital of Livland". Livland is a historic territory in the norhern Balticum, but Riga is not Königsberg. Just noticed it.
@@fruityfriend damn this guy is triggered for someone telling a smol fact
same here !
Amen. Typical CIA/NATO amateurish and sloppy propaganda.
True, I thought I was the only one to notice
Yeah it literally says Riga on the image
Fascinating! Your channel is the best!
Your animation has really increased in quality over the years. Keep up the good work.
Looks sponsored by Pentagon and State department.
All it needs is a Troy McClure voiceover...
The Kaliningrad Oblast is Russian for the same reason Gibraltar is British: it was won in war.
Although Gibraltar's been British for 5-6 times as long.
Simple. Most people don’t understand the power of a strong military. It’s not about how people feel.
I don't understand why most people call territories conquered in wartime occupied? Shall we, then, remake the whole world and return it to the old days?
@@tomriley5790 ,so what is your point ?
exactly, but tell Germany and the Baltic states that. you ll argue till time has passed
I remember as a child teaching everyone that Kaliningrad (Or Königsberg, however you wanna call it) was a part of Russia, It was real fun lol
@Don't read profile photo ok
youre still a child
@Don't read profile photo Why not?
@@Zen-sx5io it’s a bot who wants attention
🟡the US Uk campaign to cripple Russian economy and isolate Russia has failed the Ukraines are falling slowly and America is growing more and more desperate. The US UK are acting like a teenager who could not get his way and is smashing all the furniture 🪑 at home 🏡
Great video! Another interesting fact is that the great ‘German’ philosopher Immanuel Kant lived in Konigsberg all his life. In fact he was a man of such pedantic regular habits it is thought he only ventured outside Konigsburg a couple of times in his life. The great irony relating to this excellent video is that Kant’s philosophy is actually the basis of modernism and the modern world, we all act and think in a Kantian way every day! I would recommend a great book on this called ‘Brexit, Kant and Othello’ by S.James.
Indeed, the one time kant actually planned to take a trip, his neighbors were so curious to see him leave, the notably averse kant cancelled rather than face all the onlookers in the street.
@@Melody_Raventress great story!
Short answer: history happened
Long answer: why history happened
But, but but, what about Crimea? reeeeeeeeeeeee!
Looking at that part of the map always confused me as a kid. I never knew how a small land mass could be owned by Russia, despite not being connected to it by over 180 miles (300 km).
Like America and the much further distant Hawaii?
@@JohnnyWednesday Alaska and Hawaii confused me too, as a kid, but then I learned that they were acquired as territories before becoming states.
Or Guam 🤭
@@khodahh - Puerto Rico too - and part of Japan and about a thousand other military bases scattered over the world like some kind of James Bond villian lol
Historical German Kingdoms/Duchies/Principalities: Amateurs!!!
I caught the train from Vilnius to Kaliningrad in 2010. To go from such a visually appealing city that was easy to explore to a city where everything looked bleak was depressing. It felt like a place that had been forgotten by Russia. I couldn't find an affordable hotel so I stayed with a lovely lady in her apartment, this was pre Airbnb popularity. Catching local buses was easy, but I couldn't find many local attractions other than the harbour and an amber museum and a WWII bunker. I almost got denied at the border because no one on the train could speak English, it wasn't until I showed my flight ticket to Moscow that I was allowed in. Definitely an all round culture shock.
I saw lots of pics \ videos of Kaliningrad that time. You goddamn right, it was sooooooo glooooooomy. But after World Cup 2018 everything changed a lot. Now it's top-5 of city for domestic travel. Come and see by your eyes one time.)
You forgot to include : in your :)
@@himalayansalt32 Russians don't include : in )
Why would anyone there speak dirty englese, dude? This colonial dialect should be banned in a decent society. Learn Russian, get out of your medieval cave
@@DrScarface74 I suggest you learn Chinese, it's only a matter of time.
My grandfather was from there, a village called Nassaven (nowadays Lesistoje) in the circle Gumbinnen next to the Rominther Heide. Went with him there on his last trip a couple of years ago.
Lots of shared tears and wonderful encounters between the old eastern Prussians and the elderly Russians that got resettled there, very friendly people.
Fun fact: Russia actually offered it back to Germany after the collapse of the soviet union but due to Polish concerns it was declined.
And nowadays it is again inhabited by a huge German population, the Wolga/ Russia Germans that got send into exile to Kasachstan and Siberia by Stalin moved there in masses ever since the collapse, so we could actually communicate with many new locals in German
Что за сказки.
It is not true
There are still a number of daily trains running from Minsk to Kaliningrad through Vilnius. There is a long standing international agreement for their transit.
But can those trains transport Russian weapons, missiles, or military vehicles?
@@than217 Don't they transport such things by sea since 2000's?
International agreements with Russia? You should be a comedian!
@@than217 At about the 1:00 mark, Sam mentioned "travel." There are containers and truck trailers shipped, but I don't think there are any open or heavy military transport.
@@petrasvilkas Yeah, but he didn't mention any long standing international agreement for train travel or what that entailed. Like can Russia send weapons trails along the lines, etc. I was just curious if you knew more about it since you mentioned it in your comment.
Its crazy how much you can learn just from lines on a map
That’s how I learned the Evil Empire republics used to be independent countries like Latvia or Lithuania and demonstrated their strategy of world domination.
Just think bout 🇬🇧 when they drew up the country lines in the Middle East n all the headaches that created for the tribes living there for generations! Still having to deal with the fallout of those decisions to this day.
@@Balthorium why are you calling every republic in the ussr evil
@@oasis1282 I’m not. Russian communists subjugated them. I believe Lithuania was the first to separate from the USSR and celebrates “Lithuania Independence Restoration Day” as they were involuntarily made part of the Soviet Union in 1940. Their independence was re-established in 1990 as the first to declare independence from the Evil Empire. They were victims of communism not evil Russian Marxist perpetrators.
what did you learned then?
Instead of people talking about Russia attacking out of Kaliningrad by land and sea. Think of this. There is one dredged channel out to the Baltic and the Vistula Lagoon is only 17 feet deep. A single ship scuttled in the channel would cut off the city.
Not to mention the idea that Russia gains any real control at sea or even in the air from a small coastline is laughable.
There are 2 (soon to be 3) canals on the lagoon, 1 is in Russian hands, but there is another by the Klaipeda harbor, and the Poles are currently building their own as well.
Even if they somehow managed to get out of the lagoon... the baltic sea can easily be cut off by Denmark, Germany and Norway (which are all part of the NATO) from the Atlantic. It'd be only a matter of time for the NATO countries to push the russians back. Of course nukes make the question for time-management rather useless for Europe but looking at the Russian offensive against Ukraine none can be sure those nukes even have the fuel to travel to Warsaw, much less Berlin.
@@ara9914 Yes, a great idea. We should provoke Russia to find out what's their nuclear arsenal made of. I bet it's very obsolete.
@@dubravkokovacevic3489 To hear these people talk, they sound like an invasive species of seaweed more than proponents of the great and ever expanding NATO...
Then again, pretty much the same thing 🤔
Thank you so much for structured and educational videos. If it wasn't for you, I would never be curious about history, I always hated it since school because I have difficulty remembering dates. But now a lot of my friends and me too are history nerds thanks to your videos.
By the way 1500 dollar per month couldn't be the average wage in Russia back in 2014. According to official sources it was 1000 dollars a month back in 2014 and now it's 850 dollars. But of course in reality most of the people earn much below average. We have a tremendous wage gap between major cities (Moscow and Saint Petersburg) and the rest of the country. 1500 dollars a month could be an average wage in Moscow though while the rest of the country's average in reality was and still is around 600 dollars a month.
Right. But the cost of maintaining a house, food and other things is much lower than in the EU
В России все регионы выравнены и зарплата примерно одинакова везде ,но если ты занят своим бизнесом ,то можешь быть миллионером ,в любой части России. Средний русский живёт лучше ,чем средний европеец !
According to the Statistisches Bundesamt, in total, out of a pre-war population of 2,490,000, about 500,000 died during the war, including 210,000 military dead and 311,000 civilians dying during the wartime flight, postwar expulsion of Germans and forced labor in the Soviet Union; 1,200,000 managed to escape to the western parts of Germany, while about 800,000 pre-war inhabitants remained in East Prussia in summer 1945.
I believe the last ethnic German's were expelled from what became the Kaliningrad Oblast in 1951 though the majority were gone by the late 40s.
That's the price you pay for being a Nazi. Remember these Nazis killed and enslaved many more people.
@@jordanseifarth1325 Yep, that is true. They got deported to east germany
Being German, this is very well researched content. Thanks! I'm pleasantly surprised that you even mentioned the Russian offer, made by general major Geli Batenin, to return Königsberg/Ostpreußen to Germany, which isn't widely known and only became puplic almost 30 years later in May 2010.
There is this very much unknown bit of recolonization efforts made by the German nationalists in the 90s, when they tried to re-settle few villages in Kaliningrad oblast...
Germany sure knew how to keep things secret even in recent times. But I don't know why I'm speaking of Germany since it's the US puppet master that decides for you.
hope you weren't more than 3 years old
@@Vitalis94 It wasn't 'recolonisation', only a few nutters who wanted to go there.
@@jaikee9477 Oh yeah, just some neo-Nazis, sure, but it's still an interesting bit.
It also illustrates how dumb "reclaiming" Kaliningrad really is, no (sane) German would ever want to move there.
I admire your transition from Königsberg to the bridge problem to graph theory to your sponsor... this was literally "Brilliant" :-D
Because they won the WWII.
...and they knew there would be another one coming. G. Zhukov said in Berlin in 1945: "They will never forgive us for this victory". Turns out he was right again. Europe and Russia have fought for ages with some peace periods in between..
U.S and uk got the bigger piece of the pie…good win from the U.S the only nation to use nukes to win a war…well played… I watched the documentary where it’s said the days after the drop of fat man n little guy..the Japanese surrendered. Not only they nuked them but they trolled them with the bombs😂…then made it so no one else can use them after they won…gotta give it to the U.S that’s just devious…then took South Korea and created nato to make Russia the next enemy after just using them to win the ground war😂. Claimed most of the territory, then invaded the Middle East right after to gain ground on the Russians…well played nato.
@@cash-only-por-favor that was cause:
1. Russia invaded Poland and was perfectly fine with Germany controlling most of Europe, as long as it got its slice of the pie
2. Between 1939-1941 they strong armed Romania into the axis and fed the German war machine with oil.
3. They freely redrew the borders of “liberated” countries, like Poland and Czechoslovakia and forced Eastern Europe under the yoke of communism.
The people’s of Europe weren’t freed, there master was just slightly better.
@@ddggfcffPoland then was a quite eastern than now. So USSR takes back Belorussian lands.
The question is: how did Belorussian lands become a part of Poland thouse times?
@@МихаилНаумов-ч3ъ это другое
Next video idea: Why does Bhutan only recognize 54 countries?
because they are chad
@@The_Brazilian_Weeb No, Chad is a completely different country in Africa
@@JimboRustles Bruh
@@James-wu6qh the chad chad & chad buthan vs The virgin PRC & ROC
@@The_Brazilian_Weeb : Bhutan doesn't recognize Chad.
Lithuania really dodged the biggest possible bullet by refusing to annex Kaliningrad… Russia would definitely attempt a “special military operation” on them if they did 😂
Nah, Latvia or Estonia. Lithuania barely has any coast
If Russia would make a move towards NATO, Kaliningrad is first to be annex by NATO.
@@pjhgerlach Maybe we need to pull a uno reverse card and start saying the territory needs to be liberated and denazified.
@@anotheranon3118 As Russia is closing in, we should 'liberate' and demilitarise Belarus in order to create a buffer state....🤣
Sounds weird when you apply that Russian 'logic'.
Considering uk and usa sign a contract guarantee defence of ukraine I would be very surprised if uk or usa would or any nato countries would get involved if russia did invade . And now with sanction in make more likely as they have little to lose once the oil gose in 5 years time
Man, it is wild to think that european leaders were actually opposed to german unification. I've only ever thought about germany as just another european country, but this happened (barely) within my lifetime.
We're more than one generation removed from the period when these debates took place. Also, the sins of the father are not the sins of the son.
I was against German reunification (they always called it that, but it was NOT a return to any version of Germany which had ever existed before). I thought that this would be terribly difficult for West Germany to achieve (and I was right about that). It seemed to me that East Germany could manage in the European Union on its own like Hungary or any of the other formerly communist countries. It had been the most prosperous one. Austria is a separate German-speaking country with a separate history, and East Germany could have been too. Also, there was a danger that the new Germany would be too big compared to France, which is probably true. As for having the same money and travelling from one city to another easily, you can do that between Munich and Vienna or Warsaw anyway.
Two world wars, tens of millions of casualties would do that.
@@mirpopolos6209 No, unification is better. We punished them in ww2 and they deserved it, but not letting them unify is like dumb, soo stupid.
@@hendreenkhaznawi9040 "like dumb, soo stupid." is not a very profound argument ! The division of Germany into different zones was not supposed to be a punishment, it was a convenient way of administering a country which would otherwise have gone on being Nazi. Before many years had elapsed, increasing unification and independence was allowed, except in the Rusian zone, so that was not "like dumb". But the former Russian zone became so completely different from the Bundesrepublik within the EU that the cost and difficulty of reunification then became enormous, hence my feelings at that time. Also, my point that it was perfectly possible to have several countries speaking German was valid.
Incredible work on this ancient history documentary! I feel like I’ve traveled back in time.
"It's hard to miss russia on the map"
americans: chellange accepted
Blindness from ignorance. Never was about Russia or China. And later I learned about the Mongolian empire. Think about that...
🤣
This is an excellent video on the history of Kaliningrad! THANK YOU!
Perhaps. Not sure why they want to promote Crimea as part of Russia though? Morons
I’ve never witnessed a more seamless segway from history lesson to advertisement in my life
This channel is all about profit, not teaching anyone. Greedy bustards.
segue
I had the same thought. It really was well done.
Must acquire brilliant… 😅
Awesome history lesson. Thank you so much for sharing your hours of research with us. Subscribed.
Lol love the segue from Kalingrad to Königsberg to Euler to the 7 bridges problem to Maths to your sponsor Brilliant 😄
That was a perfect ad placement
Whenever someone of my family puts too much food on their plate and still manage to devour all of it, my mother always says "those are the East Prussian genes". (My grandparents and great grandparents of my mothers side are East Prussian)
My great grandfather was born in Königsberg, Ostpreußen. We still have old photographs from around 1906 and even some paintings dating back to the 1860s. Königsberg was once regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in eastern Europe, home to Immanuel Kant, David Hilbert and many other great minds. The war wiped it out completely - a painful loss.
Being from just south from historical Allenstein (also East Prussia) I find it amusing how most of the Germans who fled East Prussia seem to come from Konigsberg itself. My grandparents used to live in a house with a German family back in the 1960s. There were few waves of Germans who were deported/moved to Germany - first in the 1945, then in the 1950s, and 1960s, last in the 1970s. Being of Polish-Masurian descent and being born and raised in former East Prussia, I have many family member in Germany. Ironically, even the Polish speaking, Protestant Masurians were seen as the "Krauts" and were forced to flee the region after the war. The Masurians are completely gone nowadays, and our dialect died off just because some dumb settlers from Poland proper had seen us as "German". They saw anything non-Catholic and non Polish as bad.
I fully sympathize with the Germans that fled Prussia. I consider it my own homeland, my Masurian ancestors colonized it in the 1400s-1600s together with the Germans. And maybe you as German might see me as non-native, ursuper. On one hand, had there been no war, no Hitler, East Prussia would've been German today - and me as well, I think. But things happened differently. It's very sad what happened to the region, and it's still not talked about that much. Even today former East Prussia is seen as it was during the Communist times - It is a reclaimed land and mainstream medio don't talk about how the natives were treated.
There had been a "controversial" movie made some years ago, about Polish settlers moving into Prussia after WW2, and how they treated both the Germans and Masurians, but it's very much a taboo topic, and although things are much better, German heritage of the land is very much talked about nowadays, no one wants to talk about the post-war attrocities. These seem as "justified" because the Nazis and the local Germans alike did worse things to Poles, but I personally think that violence doesn't make other violence right. Sure, some of the local Germans were the fifth column before the WW2 - I mean, they created the lists of important Poles and the area and they massacred them - leading to the infamous Bromberg Massacre (very much loved topic by the neonazis nowadays), but I've read some books and even spoke with some old witnesses about the Germans being beaten to death on the streets after the war, just because the Poles were angry....
I mean, humans can be so bad to each other...
I recently inherited - from my formerly soviet gramps - silverware allegedly once looted from there. I'm a central European bastard living a German life, could i possibly argue that it just returned home?
@@XmarkedSpot I mean, Germans talk alot about gaining lost land, and the smartest way to do that would be just... settling there? And slowly taking control, by economically dominating the locals? Yet nowadays no Germans wants to live in Stettin, Breslau, Posen. Instead it is Poles who move to Berlin, Dortmund...
I mean, I'm from Prussia, so I don't have the same nostalgia as my fellow Poles have to, say, Lviv or Vilnius, but it is there, so I get it, nostalgia and all... Belonged to you folks and all, now it's gone. Sad. But such nostalgic thinking just... means nothing. If you want it so much, just... live there?
But no, you would just prefer having it under the German government's control, all Russians removed, so that you could be happy about it being German.
And I get it, having it be inhabited by Russians just isn't the same, right? Other culture, "occupying YOUR land" isn't great, right? But if you really cared about the land, you would, I dunno... Maybe support the local German heritage?
All those German graves left behind. German palaces rotting, Teutonic castles in ruin... But yeah, just whine about your inheritance being lost.
@@Vitalis94 Don't get me wrong, i have no nostalgia for an era i never had witnessed.
I might - actually do - have a German surname (since the Habsburgs resettled Swabs to Hungary after kicking out the Ottomans) but if i'm German at all then it's by nurture and culture than mere happenstance.
Also, what whining? I just told that i inherited a thing, not lost it.
@@XmarkedSpot Don't mind me, I'm just drunk, commenting on a territory I've havent lived in for a past decade anyway, so what do I care :P
I didn't knew all that. Even through my ancestors all come from german parts that aren't german anymore. There is still a german dish that is called "Königsberger Klöpse". Now I know where this name might comes from 😂
Not very long ago the idea of Russia taking this action seemed very very unlikely. Unfortunately now it seems a distinct possibility.
Things change very quickly.
I find it ironic Hitler after WWI had the goal of reuniting the old German lands and then post WWII, Germany got even smaller than it was before.
@@Fusion_4000 They were always one of the strongest European countries. Even in WW2 after being weakened after ww1, they were hard to fight against.
same as what happened to USSR and what will happen to fascist modern Russia
Thats why being a nationalistic German and liking hitler is the dumbest thing one could be. If you are a real patriotic German, than you hate hitler with a burning passion.
He went too far and basically exceeded his mandate in declaring war on the USSR. Before that, he did not declare war on any country other than Poland.
He achieved opposite of his aims. Jews got their own state, half Europe run by bolshevics and Germany bombed to rubble. If it was not for western sector, ie west Germany being pumped full of money from USA and Britain via Marshall plan and occupation forces spending, west Germany would still be poor and ruined like East Germany was
I need to add a note to this. Once Sweden and Finland's ascension to NATO is complete, the official name of "The Baltic Sea" changes legally to "NATO Lake".
Really?
Уахахаха, что куришь дружок?)))
Bruh
@@ПонтогонПонтогонович Ye you can pack up your stuff from there, especially now when Finland joined NATO - they would annihilate you with artillery fire they posses between Helsinki and St. Petersbourg. Time to pack Baltic fleet and to move it to Murmansk, isn't it? Good luck with ice and winter, we both know why you need access to Baltic desperately.
bro 😅
The bridge thing is simple. You can't make a single path crossing each bridge once and only once when more than two nodes have an odd number of bridges connecting to them. This map shows four nodes, all of them with an odd number of bridges. It can't be done. Add one extra bridge (or close a bridge, swim, row a boat, or skate across on the ice when it freezes) so that two of the nodes will have an even number of bridges, and it becomes simple - you start and end at the two nodes that have odd numbers of bridges.
This video aged as milk
Now Czech Republic own this land
The sad thing is that Twitter’s blocked here in Kaliningrad, not everyone here knows that it’s Královec now 😔😔
You forgot to mention that the main reason why Konigsberg was fully destroyed was because whole group of armies north actually got trapped in there after the Vistula-Oder offensive operation!!!
The reason for erasing Königsberg were the original plans from WW1 to cleanse whole East Prussia from german (heritage) to make it fully russian - because of its naval importance. If you look at the proceedings of the the Russian attack on EP in Summer 1914 and you read the memoirs of Lew Kopolew who witnessed the systematic destruction/annihilation of anything remotely german in 1945 you will learn that everything else is just a disguise for genocide.
Bro Królewiec
There is a country surrounded by South Africa (with little to no contact to the outside world if not via South Africa), called Lesotho. Could you please make a video on how it came to happen that this country is inside another country…
Very much enjoyed the math history lesson at the end, even if you could tell it was a brilliant ad from a mile away lol
as a CompSci I could appreciate the 7 bridges problem at the end!
Good vid overall too :)
Russian average is way lower than $1500 - this is only applicable to Moscow. Other few major cities have significantly less and the rest of Russia lives with the same average wage of $400 as Kaliningrad.
These western puppets will say anything to discredit Russia. They even support modern-day Nazis but "Ohh Russians are poor, Russia is nothing without oil"
But you forget the cost of things is 10 times less then in usa
A taxi ride that would cost 30$ in usa. Would cost 3$ in russia
A cheap meal that would cost 10$ in usa. Would cost 1$ in russia
Rent that would cost 1000$ in a cheap usa city..would cost 100$ in a cheap russian city
You need to also include cost of things. Doesnt make sense to convert a foreign currency in us $ and assume a country is poor cause average person make 5000$ a year. When its surely cost only 4000$/year to live with dignity in the country
@@mathewvanostin7118 Actually the prices in Moscow and Saint Petersburg are the same as the prices in the USA if not more expensive, so your comment is bullshit soviet propaganda!
@@mathewvanostin7118
thats a ridiculous logic that ignores that the US also has fluctuating cost of living depending on area.
The idea that americans cant eat food for below 10 dollars is a straight up fucking lie.
there is a reason why russians move out of russia at the rapid rate that they do.
The reality of russia outside of moscow is an almost feudal poverty that has yet to be properly rectified, and there is a reason why when you hear about russian population centers it usually falls on the same three or four.
the entirety of russia has a smaller population than the US. that is not indicative of economic liberation, but rather the opposite.
@@mathewvanostin7118
That's bullshit
It be nice to do a video on connecting the islands of the Malay Archipelago.
connecting?
If it ever happend, it can only connect Malay Peninsula to Sumatra Island, the rest is impractical (either too far away between two landmass or too dangerous due to geographical feature).
One thing we all need to know every time someone attacked Russia they lost a piece of their land to it.
and germany would've gotten away with it if it weren't for those pesky us americans
@@aboomination897 🐷😆
What Königsberg means to many people around the world:
"Is that the place with the 7 bridges that nobody could decide how to cross?"
and Euler
This is the smoothest transition to a sponsored piece god damn...
I learned of it as Königsberg.
Thanks, Euler!
But I got bonus points in my Combinatorics class for knowing this, so that was cool.
Fun fact Russia and Pluto have roughly the same surface area
2:49 Putin watching this be like: Wait I could do that? Well thank you for telling me, might need it.
dont give my country ideas... we take them.
The settlement of modern-day Kaliningrad was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement Twangste by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades led by Bohemian (Czech) king Ottokar, and was named Königsberg in honor of King Ottokar II of Bohemia.
modern-day Kaliningrad has little in common with the settlement of 1255
can't believe i spent 10 minutes on that bridge problem only to be told that it was unsolvable afterwards lmao
Honestly one of the best transitions to an sponsor ever
Damn, that transition from talking about the city, to Euler's bridge problem in the city, then the sponsor Brilliant was so smooth. Excellent writing.
When I was five years old, my grandmother proposed me the Seven Königsberg Bridges problem. I spent some weeks trying to solve it but my age was low enough not to succeed. But I solved many other problems that she presented me, generally about train maneuvres at train terminals and branches. She knew how to motivate me! Now I'm about to conclude a paper on a detailed explanation of cognition, full of mathematical objects.
This has little to do with Konigsberg tho congrats
@@ghost_1153 Thank you, but I'm not yet ended, so I don't deserve. An idea born in Königsberg from its bridges, which others' ideas made them be built, inspired much of my life much later and helped me to think rationally. True, many other things have inspired me, but my memory will always have a place for Königsberg. I am grateful.
@@wafikiri_ very interesting
@@justwondering4342 is that your workplace? I suspect he is heading for the University of Leipzig or the ETH in Zürich.
Mitterand was still being shell shocked of being overrun in a matter of weeks in 1940. He is said to have stated: 'I love Germany so much that I like to have two of them'.
The quote is actually from Margarete Thatcher.
@@alsosprachzarathustra5505 Yes the uneducated crass shopkeeper turned Prime Minister.
Came here for history, and got some bonus mathematics too! Great video!
*_I LIVE IN KALINGRAD RIGHT NOW, SO THIS WAS A NEAT VIDEO TO WATCH._*
Please let me know when the Iskander Rockets start toward the west, so I can get into a Bunker in time
I would be depressed if i lived in that shithole
how does it feel to be on German soil?
@@YuraK25 it would be fine for them to live there, as long as it becomes part of Germany again, I'm fine with letting them carry on living there.
@@YuraK25 It's not his fault that he lives there
Lacking from your history was HOW East Prussia, became East Prussia.
Some discussion of how the Danzig Corridor was created after WW1, was necessary to complete the area's history.
@When Poland was recreated following WW1 some 1.5 million Germans were incorporated into it. Of course they never had any say about it.
As one who considers Lithuania their second home, this entire development has been weighing on my mind. I really don't know what's going to happen, but it is scary.
Man as a lithuanian I see our leading politics have lost their minds, thinking that they can go to war with russians and earn lots of money and destroy opposition by doing so...
Is it the wish of Lithuanian people to provoke another special operation? Or is your government deciding for you that they would much rather live under constant fire of missiles, rather than enjoy peace? Got to remind people that Russia is going easy on Ukraine, because ethnic Russians live there and it's a "younger brother" -kind of nation. I can certainly tell they don't consider Lithuanians as such nation, so if military action is taken, things would look grim...
@@1STstream It's only our government. They have bought riot equipment for our military now and they have already shown how their own special forces bring sacks with pieces of rocks into any bigger protest against the government and hire some problematic people to start any riot stuff against their own riot squad. Then they use their owned national TV and radio, as well as hire commercial media to send a message to the people and the world that a Lithuanian language teacher organised and carried out a riot against the government in order to take over the rule of the country by force... The fact is that our government borrow up billions of euros from the EU and use it for anything. Now it seems like every higher office is in their pocket and they control any key prosecutor, police department, mass media, judges, etc.. Now they are playing a Russian game for the west as we understand, must be given lots of money for that, or simply told that if they will not do what is told, the financing is gonna stop and the media, the prosecutors, judges, simply get out of their control. So I bet they are gambling and they believe the Russians won't attack and even if they will, we still have kgb files hidden and some highest position politicians who had worked for kgb, their children and grandchildren as well... I bet they believe that Russians would keep them as loyal dogs even if they had attacked us... And my guess is that then these former kgbists would pull out a huge list and get one way ticket to gulag for half of our population. However there is like half of the people, who clearly understand that this government wants all the worst for us and there is another 40 percent - ones who do not understand what is happening and can not believe the government is working not for us and lets say there is 10% that are into this sekta and take every word from the mass media for granted and are eager to see their women, men and children being raped and killed for the sake of Ukraine... However from what we see when there is a protest and you get checked everywhere, no chance of slipping through with a stone and then you see two guys barely holding a potato sack that is one third filled with rocks and carrying it through the main street in Vilnius crowded by police and when there is no policeman who would try to catch them or stop them, the mainstream media camera man running just before the crowd and taking interview from the "drunkard" actor who is supposed to get people in a riot, then you simply understand that those exkgb rats need at least extreme state or the state of war in a country to send their riot squad police to any house, to any place to catch anyone same like in China... Row up everyone for vaccination with prescribed experimental fluids with no doctor prescription or so. They put political prisoners to jail, now they tried to put a Lithuanian language teacher to a psycho prison and make a vegetable from her, but somehow the opposition managed to pull her out, though it is told she will get there anyway... And the main problem of this ir that people will not do anything until they can crawl... Our grand grand parents and their grandparents were slaves, so that slave wisdom got from generation to generation and we still are quiet and even if there is a rope on our necks we will get used to it... So the long story short is that our government will borrow as much money as they can, they will gamble as hard as they can on Russian theme, then if there will be a war, most of the ordinary people will kneel and suck a cock of an occupant, some will be sent to get or kill the opposition leaders, some will lead a partisan war and for the politics, they would try to run away or change a flag and give orders to line up today's opposition leaders and followers next to a wall and shoot them dead and enjoy it... Maybe I am wrong, but for the things I understood from the protests and the 32years of life here, the politicians pretend to play democracy in Lithuania and milk the European cow.
Russia's initial purpose for entering Ukraine was to stop the Nazis from killing Russian Ukrainians because no one else would. Now you can insist all you want that there are no Nazis in Ukraine. Fine. But then that means the 10,000+ Russian civilians - men women and children - who have been brutally killed since 2014, were killed by the regular Ukrainian army. That equally justifies Russia's response, unless of course you feel Russia is not entitled to defend their citizens. Someone killed all those civilians... their death is a matter of historic fact so please don't try to dismiss it as a "conspiracy". Either way, Nazis or no Nazis, it had to stop.
Wait and 🙈 see!🤣🤣🤣
This was the smoothest brilliant ad integration I've ever seen in internet
It's Czech now.
I don’t want our city to be named as Královec tho… maybe it’s not worse than Kaliningrad, but still-
Královec is truly amazing.
@Robert Twardowski How do you plan to deal with all those Ruzzians?
Don't you just love when a new notification comes up saying "RealLifeLore has posted a new video" it just makes me so happy.
Königsberg (Kaliningrad) was a city constructed in 1255 by the Old Prussians and Teutonic Order, later in became a German City. Prussian was a culture there too but then it died out and the Prussians living their went extinct or became German making it a 99% German city. With all the patriotic culture symbols and images in Königsberg, it made it a province of many military agriculture and they constructed factories there when the industrial era started so it was more of a stronghold with lots of German knights or troops guarding the city. The Teutonic Knights were still there too, but not a pleasant entity to see you know, a person wearing a crusader or medieval helmet and having a Teutonic symbol on their armor visible walking and all that..
I noticed what you did with Crimea. Usually, other channels on here avoid doing that because of its sensitivity.
@@smokex3652 Well, maps were drawn, Crimea is in Ukraine. The way you say, it's like the whole invasion is justified.
I noticed that immediately. Objectively, that is a mistake. It should be marked disputed with stripes or some other thing if he wants to include it at all.
It's like the whole invasion with all the terroristic acts and genocide is justified.
It's Russian - the people voted to be Russian and several external polls have since been taken in the region - by the UN, America - and all of them show about 80% of the population think of themselves as Russian and are happy that Crimea is Russian.
The right to self determination is the most sacred right of any people - if you would take away that right to score some points against Russia? then you're worse than you claim they are.
@@smokex3652 Sure, but the problem is the authoritarian manner Putin just forcefully took it back, blatantly disregarding international agreements made in the hope that parties would remain civilized (as has become the norm on this half of the world... or so we thought).
Countries don't just go and take back lands randomly, with the rest of the world cheering, you know, that's not how it works.
I have an atlas from grade 1 that had this small part of Russia, and I always wondered if there was a misprint because I never knew that Russia, so massive, can have its own little "DLC" place
It's really mad, that I'm currently less than an hour away from this border to kaliningrad in Poland. In gdansk and this video gets uploaded as I was thinking about this the other day 🤔 brilliant video as always!
Danzig and Kaliningrad is Germany.
Poland is germany.
It was German yes. Though its part of poland now. Just have a look on the map and I'm sure you'll find it within the polish border 🤡
@@neilmcintyre5559 did i ask. Its rightfully german. I dont care who owns it now. Its germany. I dont believe in a poland. I believe poland should be split between austria russia and germany like a few hundred years back. I dont believe in your existence at all,
@@Clickty nobody asked for your opinion 😂 last time I checked it's wrong based on the truth. Poland has its independence for a reason. Go back to crying in the corner of your room and deal with it 😎
My family (Brussat) left Königsberg, Germany in 1867 (6 generations) ago and went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Karl Samuel Brussat is the ancestor of all North American Brussat family members. Brussat is an uncommon German last name meaning Bridge gard.
Yes, Nazi run from Europe ...
But they had to be punished for killing 25 millions people.
@@iri8973 there were no nazis in 1867.
You are right...6 generations ago...
no Nazi...so, how Russia related to your relatives? What made them leave? DNA test can show where we are all from and some places can be very surprising
@@iri8973 DNA tests are entertaining guesses for the amusements of North Americans. In Central Europe nobody cares and they often make not much sense, since they hardly can distinguish between German, Dutch, Belgian, Luxembourgian, Northern French, Swiss and Austrian. Decedents of people migrated from Königsberg in the 1800's are also not very likely to find Russian traces, since the area was occupied in 1945 by the Soviet Union and populated with Russians starting from 1946.
Did you watch the video?
@@henningbartels6245
As I know, Russia got territory because she was a winner in WW2 over European Nazi ...25 millions Russians were killed by Europeans...but Russia forgiven them and free all territories by giving them independence and paid their debts...
Today these territory not satisfied and want again to try to go over Russia...well..good luck...but this time Russia has a very powerful weapon and Russia lost her trust to Europe...
Maybe this time there wouldn't be Britaine or Washington...it is not a child play ..how far Europe wants to go?
Rll: Further from the west in Europe
Me: He is talking about crimea
Rll: Kaliningrad
Me: Oh shi-
How did you not know about that?
@@fanteasy7399 it's a joke
Who else found this man 3-4 years ago and just stayed watching him this is better than my history class
Yea
He is advanced AI, not a real person.
I just unsubscribed recently because of Crimea. It's like the whole invasion with all the terroristic acts and genocide is justified.
@@romaroalte2645 crimea had been over
This is very well done. Thank you. There are several witnesses who still insist that Genscher, the german foreign minister in 1989 proclaimed in internal briefings for the reunification that "Kohl (the chancellor of Germany) was offered Königsberg in exchange for financial help, he asked me what to do about it. I told him we should avoid this by any means, even if they'd offer it for free." That Genscher said this is undispuded. And it would make sense, because basically West Germany bought the GDR from Russia back then in 1990.
Hm… could they have said yes and make it an independent country?
@@oO_ox_O But it was 100% inhabited by Russians. They even had a referendum back then to switch the name back to Königsberg as Kalinin (after who the city is named) was a war criminal. But they refused. So basically they would immediately try to get back to Russia. And don't forget that Poland is very greedy to get the rest of East Prussia, so as an independent state they would not survive.
@@borisbrosowski6630 They might have been economically better off than 90s Russia with a higher chance of joining the EU. But fair enough, that's just in hindsight.
You forget that nearly 100% of the Population were soviet military men and their families.
@@oO_ox_O who would join the eu in a decent mind roflmao
Thanks!
I was hoping you would mention the 7 Bridges problem. That problem was arguably the beginning of modern topology and graph theory.
7 divided by 2 will never be an even number. Not until the Soros-chimps have 8 identify as 7.
He does mention it, watch the video.
The great German philosopher Immanuel Kant came from the city of Konigsberg now called Kaliningrad.Used to be ducal Prussia which owed fealty to Poland and later got annexed to Brandenburg which subsequently changed its name to Prussia.
@Assismus The margraviate of Brandenburg with capital at Berlin and ruled by the Hohenzollern family was in the Holy Roman Empire but the duchy of Prussia in the east which they ruled in personal union was not in the Holy Roman Empire -it was a fief of the Polish Crown.Frederick the First,in 1701 after being on the successful side in the War of the Spanish Succession got permission of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I to make Brandenburg a kingdom but he chose the name of his Polish fiefdom to be the name of his kingdom.The same thing happened at the same time with the duchy of Savoy which ruled in continental Italy but also got hold of the island of Sardinia and they got permission also from the emperor to upgrade to a kingdom and they chose the name "Sardinia" to be the name of their kingdom sometimes known as Savoy-Sardinia with its capital at Turin -later they became kings of Italy.
interesting lesson! thank you :)
“Significantly beneath a Russian average - a nearly 15 hundred dollars a month” - god bless your soul, mate! 😄