Königsberg was heavily damaged by Allied bombing in 1944 during World War II and was subsequently conquered by the Red Army after the Battle of Königsberg in 1945. The city was annexed by the Soviet Union according to the Potsdam Agreement and largely repopulated with Russians. Notice the beautiful inner city (top photo), which was not rebuild by the Soviets (bottom photo), only the church remains.
Also the Cathedral had been abandoned by the Soviet authorities, down almost 50 years. It was adjusted in the years 1994-1998 thanks to money given by Germany.
ReplyDeleteThe question of K. had been solved forever just in 1989. Gorbachev did secretly offer back the "Kaliningradskaya oblast" to Germany, but Kohl - who had in mind only to annex the German Democratic Republic at that time - didn't want to have further problems with Poland, Lithuania and a new ethnic minority of 1,000,000 Russian speaking people.
Here is a photo of the Cathedral in 1998, from Wikipedia.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/K%C3%B6nigsberg_cathedral%2C_summer_of_1988.jpg
Thank you for the photo. I didn't know the restauration was funded by the Germans.
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