On Aug 18, 4:57=A0am, Fernidad <kingferni...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Aug 16, 6:23=A0pm, Dom <DR...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> > The international disorder created by World War I, the U.S.
> > intervention, and the Paris Peace Conference continues to exact a
> > staggering toll. About 3 years ago, I was absolutely startled when I
> > read:
>
> > "On 7 June [1918] he [the Kaiser] 'emphatically endorsed'
> > incor****ating Georgia in the Reich ..." [Michael Balfour, "The Kaiser
> > and his Times," Houghton Mifflin (1964) p.390]
>
> > I was not aware that the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk gave the Germans
> > control of Transcaucasia. How was this incor****ation going to be
> > accomplished? Was this an annexation? I would appreciate any
> > information.
>
> Should have tried to reincor****ate Konigsberg (Kaliningrad) back into
> the realm. If i'm not mistaken Konigsberg was the original capital of
> Prussia prior to Berlin.
K=F6nigsberg was the "capital" of the notional realm established by
Elector/Duke Frederick in 1701, but although he was crowned there as
King Frederick I, his normal residence was in Berlin.
The distinction between the "Kingdom of Prussia", a Germanized region
formerly part of Poland, and the Electorate of Brandenburg was
necessary because Brandenburg was technically non-sovereign and
ultimately subject to the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor.
Frederick and his successors could be Kings in Prussia, but not within
the bounds of the Empire.
With the dissolution of the Empire in 1806, the need for a distinction
in status between Brandenburg and Prussia vanished. As the royal
Prussian title was the higher-ranking, the entire area became
(erroneously) known as "Prussia"; but its heart was in fact in
Brandenburg, and the status of K=F6nigsberg as nominal Prussian capital
quietly lapsed in favor of Berlin (the actual capital all the time,
anyway).
> (Is Konigsberg (Kaliningrad) still in the Prussian Realm anyone know?)
No, because the "Prussian Realm" doesn't exist. "Prussia", swollen
far beyond its original dimensions by the addition of large swathes of
conquered territory, was incor****ated into the German Empire in 1871.
Although it maintained a legal identity for decades afterwards, on
account of its large size and disparate populations, its national
identity was largely sunk into the identity of the new Germany. In
1918, Prussia shared the fate of the other German realms and ceased to
exist as a kingdom. As a republic, Prussia continued to exist
throughout the period of the Weimar Republic, but under the Nazis its
legal existence became a mere notion. After World War II, it ceased
to exist altogether; its eastern ****tions (including the original
Prussia) were divided between Poland and the U.S.S.R., while those
parts that remained in Germany were split into several different
L=E4nder, and then found themselves on opposite sides of the Iron
Curtain. Prussia is today no more than an historical name.
K=F6nigsberg was taken over by the Soviets at the end of World War II,
and its largely German population was replaced by Russians and other
Soviet citizens. Under the name of Kaliningrad, it remains a Russian
town today, though entirely surrounded by Poland and Lithuania.
Kaliningrad is im****tant to the Russians for strategic reasons, and
there is no reason to believe that its status will change any time
soon.
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