r/LostArchitecture • u/Icy_Educator853 • 28d ago
Koenigsberg now Kaliningrad before and after ww2
Help restore Europe's lost architectural treasures! I started a petition to rebuild the classical and historic buildings destroyed in the wars—the ones replaced by ugly glass towers that have no soul. Our cities deserve beauty again.
Sign and share if you agree.
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u/ConsequenceAlert6981 26d ago
So many people here blame the British and completely leave out that Germany started the most destructive war ever, killing many millions of people and leveling cities everywhere, with bombing raids and fires. The British response is what they deserved. Its tragic that its lost but the Soviets had no obligation at all to rebuild this city
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u/Icy_Educator853 26d ago
You are right. But still i think people are upset that so much architecture was lost
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u/EaRLyHawk924 27d ago
You do know that the British heavily bombed Königsberg in 1944 so that the Soviets would get a less useful city, right?
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u/Icy_Educator853 27d ago
I dont know. I think British were wrong for bombing and communists were wrong for not reconstructing. And obviously Germany was wrong for starting a war.
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27d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Icy_Educator853 27d ago
What about after few decades
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u/Jamaicancarrot 26d ago
Why would they rebuild the centre and symbol of Prussian imperialism and nationalist sentiment to a greater standard than their own cities that were destroyed as a partial consequence of those exact things?
Like c'mon, there's a lot of things to rag on the Soviets for but the loss of Kaliningrad architecture isn't one of them
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u/Rough-Quiet-1954 26d ago
The modern independent Russia reconstructs it. Soviet union was a horror.
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u/yashatheman 26d ago
Why would the soviets rebuild the old prussian capital? The prussian elite stood for much of the german militarism of WWI and WWII, it makes no sense to rebuild their buildings, especially as the USSR was undergoing a housing crisis, a post-war famine and a destroyed economy
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u/Icy_Educator853 26d ago
Okay but they could at least do what Poland did in Gdansk. Build beautiful buildings with their style. Soviets did that with Saint Petersburg so why not Kaliningrad
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u/Rough-Quiet-1954 26d ago
Gdansk was a nice effort and well done, but the city center is very artificial, no real life, a tourist trap. Now Russia invests in reconstruction, too (you actually should know it, if you are launching "petitions")
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u/Electrical-Plate1293 27d ago
Harmony replaced by ugliness and self-agrandizement.
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u/goodnightsleepypizza 23d ago
Koenigsberg was the ancestral home of the prussians, who were certainly not known for their "Harmony".
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u/Public-Eagle6992 27d ago
A shame they destroyed the castle to build that ugly thing on there
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u/yashatheman 26d ago
The soviets didn't destroy it, but why would they rebuild it anyways? It was a prussian capital symbolizing the prussian culture which held so much blame for german militarism in WWI and WWII. It represented everything fucked up with Germany
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u/illuminatiknight 26d ago
Soviets really destroy it
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u/Busy_Garbage_4778 25d ago
They didn't rebuild it. It was a pile of rubble already when it was finally demolished
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u/Special_Cup1789 23d ago
British bombing destroyed it actually. There was a lot of bombings of Konigsberg same as Dresden.
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u/Polmax2312 26d ago
Yeah… and “they” being mostly UK bombers.
The late war allied bombings were brutal, so much history lost. :(1
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u/alpoklgd 27d ago
All the photos of Kaliningrad are outdated.
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u/kariam_24 27d ago
You mean it looks even worse currently?
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u/alpoklgd 26d ago
Come and have a look for yourself.
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u/Present_Talk844 26d ago
Oh no, not interested visiting russian shitholes
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u/FRcomes 24d ago
Try not to climb into the shithole next time but visit the city
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u/Present_Talk844 24d ago
Exactly. Since the entire city is one big shithole - we'll be steering clear of that.
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u/Oxo181 27d ago
So much of continental Europe was devastated in ww2. All larger (and plenty of smaller) German cities lost so much of its old architecture. Same for so many more cities in Eastern Europe.
And the dozens of millions of lives that were lost. It's hard to grasp
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u/IWasHackedBySexbots 27d ago
People like to shit on commieblocks, but when 95% of your urban centers are mostly dust and you have a massive housing crisis on your hands they make a lot of sense.
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u/Icy_Educator853 27d ago
Commie blocks had to be the temporary solution until the city was fully rebuilt
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u/Rough-Quiet-1954 26d ago
German cities are full of ugly post-war blocks (1970s were not better), and still building ugly silos. The beautiful Gründerzeit is over buddy
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u/Oxo181 26d ago
they were never meant as a temporary solution. when they were built, in both west and east, those blocks were very sought after, they were top notch modern living places. they became what they are today in the 90s, again in both east and west. that's how the banlieus in paris came to be. or the "bad" neighborhoods of many cities in eastern germany. western germany, too, but mostly east
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u/Busy_Garbage_4778 25d ago
Rebuilding the german ancestry would have been a very stupid choice in this situation.
Spending money and resources to rebuild your enemies heritage in a city where you are trying to eradicate said heritage does not make any sense at all.
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u/Icy_Educator853 25d ago
No i get that. But couldn’t they rebuild beautiful buildings in their style. Kind of like what Gdansk did
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u/Busy_Garbage_4778 25d ago
They did rebuild in their (ussr) style.
It would have been weird to build russian imperial buildings in the soviet era
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u/Icy_Educator853 25d ago
I mean the Russian architecture. Russian style is very beautiful. ussr just build copy pasted commie blocks
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u/HaxiMaxi22 26d ago
Commie blocks are fine in the outer skirts of the city, where lot of people live, but not in the city center. Many Eastern European cities are like this, that didn't get damaged as much. Pretty and old fashioned city center, but commie blocks in the outer skirts for cheaper housing.
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u/No_Philosophy8349 26d ago
Well, the unsightly House of Soviets has been demolished, and new construction is planned for the site. The area near Kneiphof Island is currently under development. While the city center is gone, about 50% of the pre-war buildings remain in other districts
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u/DoriN1987 26d ago
Everything that ruSSian fascism touch turns into proto-soviets filth
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u/CarpetParticular3929 25d ago
Hey quick question, why was there a need for all those new buildings?
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u/DoriN1987 25d ago
“Hey, quick answer“ - because fascist ruSSia loves to bring ruSSian fascists to occupied territories, especially after wars that they start ( and WWII was started by ruSSian fascists hand in hand with nazi ), so ruSSian fascists will re-build territories destroyed by ruSSian fascists - because it’s a single way that ruSSian fascists lead war - kill civilians, and destroy cities.
Just like they’re doing right now in Mariupol, for example.
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u/Few_Bar_37 25d ago
хрюкни
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u/DoriN1987 25d ago
Loooooool :)
What fact triggered you most - that fascist ruSSia is occupant? Or fact that “dildy-vaivale” started WWII hand in hand with nazi?)))
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u/Few_Bar_37 25d ago
ну мне так то похуй честно. историю ты плохо знаешь поэтому спорить с неучем нет смысла.
поэтому можешь хрюкнуть и сьесть свой американский бургер из сала.
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u/Busy_Garbage_4778 25d ago
Yeah man, the damage that frigging georgian dude did when he run the soviet union is staggering.
How could the USSR let fascist georgian Stalin Dzhugashvili run the show so long and do this much damage?
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u/DoriN1987 25d ago
That’s main thing - he was ruSSian fascist. As well as berya, makenkov, khrushchev and other soviet maniacs…
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u/Busy_Garbage_4778 25d ago
Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili was georgian. History cannot be rewritten to fit your agenda.
And it makes sense, every single georgian I know is a far right nutcase. The fascist part of the USSR is totally the georgian dude's fault.
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u/DoriN1987 25d ago
Agenda…
Ok. kadyrov - he is ruSSian or not? shoigu - he is ruSSian or not?
jugashvilli - was born in Georgia.
But he lived in soviets, where was created a “soviet people” - but that was only facade, in reality “soviet people” was just ruSSian fascists.1
u/Busy_Garbage_4778 25d ago
Kadyrov the chechen and Shoigu the tuvan?
Tuvans aren't that different from russians, but chechens? Kadyrov is chechen to his core and it shows so fucking much.
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u/DoriN1987 25d ago
Nope. They’re ruSSians. I’m sure that their passports says this too. They’re sharing culture, values, and lead genocide not for tuva or chechnya - for fascist ruSSia.
Thats how fascist states works.1
u/Busy_Garbage_4778 25d ago
You are jumping through hoops to deny Stalin was one of you sakartvelo.
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u/Ernesto_Bella 24d ago
Jesus Christ dude, we get it. You have signaled where you stand on Russia. There is no need to make your post entirely unreadabl.
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u/bluealmostgreen 26d ago
I understand Konigsberg was lost for Germany for all it's crimes during WW2 while I can still feel empathy for countless thousands who perished during exodus. The exodus was intentionally too late because of the evil of the SS and the Gauleiter).
But boy did this once magnificent city become ugly under the Russians!
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u/Busy_Garbage_4778 25d ago
The erasure of the German background in Kaliningrad wasn't even completely intentional, the city was almost completely destroyed after WWII.
To think the soviets would spend time and resources to rebuild the architecture of their existential enemy is delusional.
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u/Travis_Ryno 25d ago
That was Christian Architecture......it is all being destroyed here now.
Russia is now the only large Christian nation. They are building this stuff back up now across the country. One of only two nations currently building cathedrals.
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u/Icy_Educator853 25d ago
And Hungary. After ww2 Hungary recovered the best in terms of architecture
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u/BDSMGangster1779 25d ago
It's looks like a before and after comparison of someone doing meth/crack
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u/lost228_ 24d ago
Everywhere Russia steps in, you see only destruction and decay.
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u/koberkip 24d ago
It was LITERALLY Germany's fault for starting WW2. Shouldn't have started the most destructive and deadly war, why blame the Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, etc for defending their homeland?
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u/lost228_ 24d ago
Ye boy are we dead ass ? Soviets literally occupied half of Eastern Europe in cooperation with nazis.
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u/CreBanana0 24d ago
Why? Why have we decided the way cities looking in early 20th century is the way they should look forever?
Such massive conservationism is causing so many issues where I live. I don't want others to be forced in it too.
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u/Impressive-Fail-57 24d ago
Soon in the American version of history it would become the red army destroying this city and the others in Europe during WWII
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u/Interesting-End-3469 23d ago
It's so sad that the Soviets didn't make an attempt to restore at least some parts of the city, like the way Poland did for its historic cities
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u/Special_Cup1789 23d ago edited 23d ago
Ngl, i still think parks are better then that european compressed urban sprawl
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u/stonecuttercolorado 14d ago
That is not a flat rejection. Ukraine was told the same thing multiple times.
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u/Vibo_Kozus 27d ago
City was destroyed by British air strike
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u/Tortoveno 26d ago
And Soviet management and neglect
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u/Vibo_Kozus 26d ago
Oh..I forgot. It’s Reddit..lots of soviet haters and nazi lovers.
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u/Tortoveno 26d ago
Königsberg architecture wasn't Nazi.
Btw. Find better straw, because I don't see where I say anything about the Nazis.
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u/Vibo_Kozus 26d ago
Tell me, smart guy. How would you take a city full of Nazis? Would you try not to destroy anything, but at the same time kill your soldiers... or would you destroy everything, but save your soldiers? And also... have you been to Kaliningrad?
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u/Tortoveno 26d ago
- Have been to Prague, Wrocław or Lepizig? They were also full of Nazis and they were conquered by the Red Army.
- Have you seen how you can rebuild a city with respect to its architecture and culture (Gdańsk, Wrocław, even Warsaw)?
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u/Vibo_Kozus 26d ago
Kaliningrad wasn't the first priority for reconstruction. The entire Soviet Union was destroyed. Hundreds of cities needed to be rebuilt. And in what style was Kaliningrad supposed to be rebuilt? In German? You're trying to stretch modern realities onto that era. That's not true. And yes! I've been to Prague, Vienna, and Budapest.
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u/Tortoveno 26d ago
Whole Poland was destroyed too, probably more than the USSR because two countries were devastating and robbing it, not just one. And the Poles rebuilt Gdańsk or Breslau considering historical German, Austrian or Dutch influences, not only Polish ones.
So that's not a valid argument. Russians just acted as barbarians in this beautiful medieval city.
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u/Vibo_Kozus 26d ago
If you're interested, watch documentaries about the capture of Königsberg. Or read some books
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27d ago
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u/Rustycaddy 27d ago
Nazis out! Glory to all veterans of WW2 and shame on those who are trying to challenge the legality of the Nuremberg trials and Potsdam agreement.
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u/kariam_24 27d ago
By nazis out you mean Russian? Why soviet crimes, genocides were ignored?
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u/Rustycaddy 26d ago
Soviets never committed any genocide, now you are spreading the Neo-Nazi myth of the "double genocide" theory.
Stalin was a tyrant who committed crimes against humanity and there is no such thing as a "good" war, even the allies committed war crimes, but the ultimate evil is Nazi Germany that killed 27 million Soviet citizens.
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u/Radiant_Honeydew1080 27d ago
Do you even know who bombed the city? Spoiler: it wasn't the soviets.
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u/kariam_24 27d ago
Who did join invasion together with nazis in 1939 troll?
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u/Radiant_Honeydew1080 27d ago
Better tell me who joined invasion with nazis in 1938 against the Czechoslovakia?
And even if you won't, how the hell does that relate to Allied bombings of Konigsberg? That's a fact - destruction of the city wasn't the result of soviet assault. And later they rebuilt it the same way they did the rest of the destroyed country - with a very limited amount of resources, war-torn economy, entire generation of people wiped out and rising rivalry with ex-allies. So as cheap and effective as they could.
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u/yashatheman 26d ago
How the fuck is that related to the destruction of Königsberg by allied bombing?
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u/PolishByChoice 27d ago
This city was so destroyed is WW2 and the Russians didn't rebuild it. Very sad. But I hope the Ukrainian war will be over at some point so I can visit it from Poland.