Kneiphof

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Kneiphof (Polish: Knipawa; Russian: Кнайпхоф) was one of three towns in the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights that became the city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad). Kneiphof was originally Knypabe (Kneip-ape), meaning 'area flushed by water' (surrounded by a stream or river [ape]) in Old Prussian.

As other members of the Prussian Confederation, Kneiphof rebelled against the Teutonic Knights in 1454 at the beginning of the Thirteen Years' War and allied with King Casimir IV Jagiellon of Poland, who did not provide assistance. The last Prussian Confederation town to resist in a long siege to the Teutonic Knights commanded by Heinrich Reuß von Plauen, Kneiphof surrendered on June 14, 1455.

Kneiphof became part of the Duchy of Prussia after the Teutonic Order's Prussian branch was secularized in 1525. The town was united with Königsberg in 1724.

The territory was conquered by the Soviet Union, and the city was renamed to Kaliningrad in 1946.

[edit] Literature

Baldur Köster: Königsberg. Im Anhang: Der Kneiphof, zeichnerische Rekonstruktionen und Gedanken zur Wiedergewinnung eines historischen Stadtbildes – Husum 2000; ISBN 3880429235