Lischke (lisca, liske [1] ) was a type of Old Prussian settlement. Lischkes were spontaneously grown settlements in geographically strategic places, so that often they have grown into towns. Often they grew under the protection of castles. The population was mainly innkeepers, craftsmen and merchants. [2] [3]
The word entered German language during the invasion of Teutonic Knights into the lands of Old (Baltic) Prussians and is derived from Old Prussian liscis / liskis, which in this context means "camp". [2] The direct meaning of the word, common to Baltic languages, is "nest", [4] and in German the word "Lischke" also retained in the meaning of a basket without wooden handle worn on a cord over shoulder. [2] [5]
Elbląg is a city in northern Poland on the eastern edge of the Żuławy region with 119,317 inhabitants. It is the capital of Elbląg County and has been assigned to the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. Previously it was the capital of Elbląg Voivodeship (1975–1998) and a county seat within Gdańsk Voivodeship (1945–1975).
Kaliningrad Oblast, often referred to as the Kaliningrad Region in English, or simply Kaliningrad, is a federal subject and exclave of the Russian Federation, located on the coast of the Baltic Sea. Its constitutional status is equal to each of the other 85 federal subjects. Its administrative centre is the city of Kaliningrad, formerly known as Königsberg. The port of Baltiysk, in the oblast, is the only Baltic port in the Russian Federation that remains ice-free in winter. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 941,873.
Old Prussian was a Western Baltic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages, once spoken by the Old Prussians, the Baltic peoples of the Prussian region. The language is called Old Prussian to avoid confusion with the German dialects of Low Prussian and High Prussian and with the adjective Prussian as it relates to the later German state. Old Prussian began to be written down in the Latin alphabet in about the 13th century, and a small amount of literature in the language survives.
Sudovian is an extinct Western Baltic language of Northeastern Europe. Closely related to the Old Prussian language, it was formerly spoken southwest of the Nemunas river in what is now Lithuania, east of Galindia and north of Yotvingia, and by exiles in East Prussia.
The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the Germanic family of languages.
The Vistula Veneti were Indo-European peoples that inhabited the region of central Europe east of the Vistula River and the coastal areas around the Bay of Gdańsk. The name first appears in the 1st century AD in the writings of ancient Roman geographers to differentiate a group of peoples whose manner and language differed from those of the Germanic and Sarmatian tribes around them. Later, in the 6th century AD, Byzantine historians described the Veneti as the ancestors of the Early Slavs of the 6th to 8th centuries: Vends, Sclavens and Antes, who, during the second phase of the Migration Period, crossed the frontiers of the Byzantine Empire.
Reichsdeutsche, literally translated "Germans of the Reich", is an archaic term for those ethnic Germans who resided within the German state that was founded in 1871. In contemporary usage, it referred to German citizens, the word signifying people from the German Reich, i.e., Imperial Germany or Deutsches Reich, which was the official name of Germany between 1871 and 1949.
Old Prussians, Baltic Prussians or simply Prussians were the indigenous peoples from a cluster of Baltic tribes that inhabited the region of Prussia. This region lent its name to the later state of Prussia. It was located on the south-eastern shore of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula Lagoon to the west and the Curonian Lagoon to the east. The people spoke a language now known as Old Prussian and followed pagan Prussian mythology.
Yotvingians, or Sudovians, were a Baltic people with close cultural ties in the 13th century to the Lithuanians and Prussians. The Yotvingian language was a Western Baltic language, nearest to Old Prussian but with small variations. They were referred to in regional historical records into the 19th century.
Lithuania Minor, or Prussian Lithuania, is a historical ethnographic region of Prussia, later East Prussia in Germany, where Prussian Lithuanians lived. Lithuania Minor enclosed the northern part of this province and got its name due to the territory's substantial Lithuanian-speaking population. Prior to the invasion of the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century, the main part of the territory later known as Lithuania Minor was inhabited by the tribes of Skalvians and Nadruvians. The land became depopulated to some extent during the warfare between Lithuania and the Teutonic Order. The war ended with the Treaty of Melno and the land was resettled by Lithuanian newcomers, returning refugees, and the remaining indigenous Baltic peoples; the term Lithuania Minor appeared for the first time between 1517 and 1526.
The Prussian Navy, officially the Royal Prussian Navy, was the naval force of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1701 to 1867.
Low Prussian, sometimes known simply as Prussian (Preußisch), is a moribund dialect of East Low German that developed in East Prussia. Low Prussian was spoken in East and West Prussia and Danzig up to 1945. In Danzig it formed the particular city dialect of Danzig German It developed on a Baltic substrate through the influx of Dutch- and Low German-speaking immigrants. It supplanted Old Prussian, which became extinct in the 17th century.
The Kursenieki are a nearly extinct Baltic ethnic group living along the Curonian Spit. "Kuršininkai" refers only to inhabitants of Lithuania and former East Prussia that speak a southwestern dialect of Latvian. Some autochthonous inhabitants of Šventoji in Lithuania call themselves "kuršininkai" as well.
The Prussian Academy of Arts was a state arts academy first established in Berlin, Brandenburg, in 1694/1696 by prince-elector Frederick III, in personal union Duke Frederick I of Prussia, and later king in Prussia.
Simon Grunau was the author of Preussische Chronik, the first comprehensive history of Prussia. The only personal information available is what he wrote himself in his work: that he was a Dominican priest from Tolkemit (Tolkmicko) near Frauenburg (Frombork) just north of Elbing (Elbląg) in the Monastic State of the Teutonic Order. He preached in Danzig (Gdańsk) and claimed to have met Pope Leo X and Polish King Sigismund I the Old. The chronicle was written in the German language sometime between 1517 and 1529. Its 24 chapters deal with Prussian landscape, agriculture, inhabitants, their customs, and history from earliest times to up to 1525 when the Protestant Duchy of Prussia was created. It also contains a short vocabulary of the Prussian language, one of the very few written artifacts of this extinct language. While often biased and based on dubious sources, this work became very popular and is the principal source of information on Prussian mythology. The chronicle circulated as a frequently copied manuscript and was first published in 1876. Modern historians often dismiss the Preussische Chronik as a work of fiction.
Königsberg is the name for the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Originally a Sambian or Old Prussian settlement, it then belonged to the State of the Teutonic Order, the Duchy of Prussia, the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, and Nazi Germany. After being largely destroyed in World War II by Allied bombing and the Red Army, it was annexed by the Soviet Union and its surviving inhabitants executed or forcibly expelled. Thereafter, the city was renamed Kaliningrad. Few traces of the former Königsberg remain today.
Georg Heinrich Ferdinand Nesselmann was a German orientalist, a philologist with interests in Baltic languages, and a mathematics historian.
Friedrich Wilhelm Hermann Wagener was a Prussian jurist, chief editor of the Kreuzzeitung and was a politician and minister from the Prussian Conservative Party.
The Vistula Lagoon is a brackish water lagoon on the Baltic Sea roughly 56 miles (90 km) long, 6 to 15 miles wide, and up to 17 feet deep, separated from Gdańsk Bay by the Vistula Spit. It is now known as the Vistula Bay or Vistula Gulf. The modern German name, Frisches Haff, is derived from an earlier form, Friesisches Haff.
Hermann Frischbier was a German schoolteacher as well as an author of works about East Prussian local history and culture.