Kaliningrad Central Park

Last updated April 13, 2019

Kaliningrad Central Park (Russian : Центральный парк Калининграда) is a park in Kaliningrad, Russia. It was known as Luisenwahl while part of Königsberg, Germany, until 1945.

Russian is an East Slavic language, which is official in the Russian Federation, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as being widely used throughout Eastern Europe, the Baltic states, the Caucasus and Central Asia. It was the de facto language of the Soviet Union until its dissolution on 25 December 1991. Although nearly three decades have passed since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Russian is used in official capacity or in public life in all the post-Soviet nation-states, as well as in Israel and Mongolia.

A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. National parks and Country parks are green spaces used for recreation in the countryside. State parks and Provincial parks are administered by sub-national government states and agencies. Parks may consist of grassy areas, rocks, soil and trees, but may also contain buildings and other artifacts such as monuments, fountains or playground structures. Many parks have fields for playing sports such as soccer, baseball and football, and paved areas for games such as basketball. Many parks have trails for walking, biking and other activities. Some parks are built adjacent to bodies of water or watercourses and may comprise a beach or boat dock area. Urban parks often have benches for sitting and may contain picnic tables and barbecue grills.

Kaliningrad is a city in the administrative centre of Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.

History

Luisenwahl was located in the Mittelhufen and Amalienau quarters of northwestern Königsberg. The estate Pojenter was located north of the Alter Pillauer Landstraße at the end of the 18th century. Aside from the manor house and an avenue of linden trees, the estate also contained forges and homes for day laborers. Schmand and Berliner Weisse were produced at the Milchhäuschen building, which was dismantled in 1914.^[1]

Mittelhufen was a suburban quarter of northwestern Königsberg, Germany. Its territory is now part of the Tsentralny District of Kaliningrad, Russia.

Amalienau was a suburban quarter of western Königsberg, Germany. Its territory is now part of the Tsentralny District of Kaliningrad, Russia.

Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees, or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. In the British Isles they are commonly called lime trees, or lime bushes, although they are not closely related to the tree that produces the lime fruit. Other names include linden for the European species, and basswood for North American species. The genus occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but the greatest species diversity is found in Asia. Under the Cronquist classification system, this genus was placed in the family Tiliaceae, but genetic research summarised by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group has resulted in the incorporation of this genus, and of most of the previous family, into the Malvaceae.

In 1786 Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel the Elder acquired Pojenter, as well as land extending from the Chausseehaus on the Landstraße to a footpath which later became Hufen-Allee. A decade later the land was purchased by the school official Gotthilf Christoph Wilhelm Busolt, who renamed the park Louisenwahl to honor his wife, Louise (née Gramatzki).^[1]

Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel was a German satirical and humorous writer.

Gotthilf Christoph Wilhelm Busolt was a German scholar. He is known for his transcripts of Immanuel Kant's lectures at the University of Königsberg and his influence on the Prussian educational reforms.

King Frederick William III of Prussia and his wife Louise chose the manor as their summer residence while staying in Königsberg in 1808-09. In 1829 the manor, since renamed the Luisenhaus, was separated from the rest of the park by construction of a road through Hufen to Lawsken.

Frederick William III was king of Prussia from 1797 to 1840. He ruled Prussia during the difficult times of the Napoleonic Wars and the end of the Holy Roman Empire. Steering a careful course between France and her enemies, after a major military defeat in 1806, he eventually and reluctantly joined the coalition against Napoleon in the Befreiungskriege. Following Napoleon's defeat he was King of Prussia during the Congress of Vienna, which assembled to settle the political questions arising from the new, post-Napoleonic order in Europe. He was determined to unify the Protestant churches, to homogenize their liturgy, their organization and even their architecture. The long-term goal was to have fully centralized royal control of all the Protestant churches in the Prussian Union of Churches.

Duchess Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was Queen of Prussia as the wife of King Frederick William III. The couple's happy, though short-lived, marriage produced nine children, including the future monarchs Frederick William IV of Prussia and German Emperor Wilhelm I.

Hufen was a broad region along northwestern Königsberg, Germany, which developed into the quarters of Ratshof, Amalienau, Mittelhufen, and Vorderhufen. The territory is now part of the Tsentralny District of Kaliningrad, Russia.

William I, who had visited the park as a child and again in 1861 during his coronation as King of Prussia, purchased the land in 1872. The Luisendenkmal, a memorial to Queen Louise, was dedicated in 1874 at the highest point of the park; the scenic spot had been favorited by the queen. The Königin-Luise-Gedächtniskirche, now the Kaliningrad Puppet Theatre, was dedicated in the northwestern corner of the park in 1901, the 200th anniversary of the Kingdom of Prussia.

William I, or in German Wilhelm I, of the House of Hohenzollern, was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and the first German Emperor from 18 January 1871 to his death, the first head of state of a united Germany. Under the leadership of William and his Minister President Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the establishment of the German Empire. Despite his long support of Bismarck as Minister President, William held strong reservations about some of Bismarck's more reactionary policies, including his anti-Catholicism and tough handling of subordinates. In contrast to the domineering Bismarck, William was described as polite, gentlemanly and, while staunchly conservative, he was more open to certain classical liberal ideas than his grandson Wilhelm II.

The Kaliningrad Puppet Theatre is a puppet theatre in Kaliningrad, Russia. The building was originally the Königin-Luise-Gedächtniskirche, popularly known as the Luisenkirche, a Protestant church in Königsberg, Germany.

The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, where its capital was Berlin.

Emperor William II granted the park to the city of Königsberg in 1914. A stele by Walter Rosenberg honoring Franz Schubert was unveiled at a small amphitheatre in the park in 1928. The harsh winter of 1929/30 froze the fruit orchard on the hills of Luisenwahl; children subsequently used it for tobogganing.

Wilhelm II was the last German Emperor (Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918 shortly before Germany's defeat in World War I. He was the eldest grandchild of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe, most notably his first cousin King George V of the United Kingdom and Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, whose wife, Alexandra, was Wilhelm and George's first cousin.

A stele, or occasionally stela, when derived from Latin, is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument. Grave stelae were often used for funerary or commemorative purposes. Stelae as slabs of stone would also be used as ancient Greek and Roman government notices or as boundary markers to mark borders or property lines.

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works, seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of piano and chamber music. His major works include the Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 , the Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759 , the three last piano sonatas, the opera Fierrabras, the incidental music to the play Rosamunde, and the song cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise.

The park was transferred from Germany to the Soviet Union following World War II in 1945. The Soviet administration expanded it with land from nearby cemeteries and renamed it after Mikhail Kalinin. Now known as Kaliningrad Central Park, it contains monuments of Baron Munchausen and Vladimir Vysotsky, as well some pre-war German architecture.

The park administration is located in the building of the former Rominten Hunting Lodge, which was moved from the Rominter Heath to the park.^[2]

Gallery

Luisenhaus
Luisendenkmal
Sights in Luisenwahl

Notes

1 2 Albinus, p. 207
↑ Neumärker, Uwe; Knopf, Volker (2007). Görings Revier – Jagd und Politik in der Rominter Heide (in German). Ch. Links. p. 181. ISBN 978-3-86153-457-0.

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References

Albinus, Robert (1985). Lexikon der Stadt Königsberg Pr. und Umgebung (in German). Leer: Verlag Gerhard Rautenberg. p. 371. ISBN 3-7921-0320-6.
Mühlpfordt, Herbert Meinhard (1972). Königsberg von A bis Z (in German). München: Aufstieg-Verlag. p. 168. ISBN 3-7612-0092-7.

Coordinates: 54°43′03″N20°28′40″E / 54.71750°N 20.47778°E / 54.71750; 20.47778

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[A207-1] 1 2 Albinus, p. 207

[Neum-2] Neumärker, Uwe; Knopf, Volker (2007). Görings Revier – Jagd und Politik in der Rominter Heide (in German). Ch. Links. p. 181. ISBN 978-3-86153-457-0.