Imeni Alexandra Kosmodemyanskogo (russian: и́мени Алекса́ндра Космодемья́нского) is a

residential area A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family residen ...

in Tsentralny Administrative District of the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

Kaliningrad Kaliningrad ( ; rus, Калининград, p=kəlʲɪnʲɪnˈɡrat, links=y), until 1946 known as Königsberg (; rus, Кёнигсберг, Kyonigsberg, ˈkʲɵnʲɪɡzbɛrk; rus, Короле́вец, Korolevets), is the largest city and ...

Kaliningrad Oblast Kaliningrad Oblast (russian: Калинингра́дская о́бласть, translit=Kaliningradskaya oblast') is the westernmost federal subject of Russia. It is a semi-exclave situated on the Baltic Sea. The largest city and administr ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. It was formerly known by its

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...

name Metgethen as first a suburb of and then a

quarter A quarter is one-fourth, , 25% or 0.25. Quarter or quarters may refer to: Places * Quarter (urban subdivision), a section or area, usually of a town Placenames * Quarter, South Lanarkshire, a settlement in Scotland * Le Quartier, a settlement ...

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

, located west of the city center.

History

Located in the Kaporner Heath north of the

Vistula Lagoon The Vistula Lagoon ( pl, Zalew Wiślany; russian: Калининградский залив, transliterated: ''Kaliningradskiy Zaliv''; german: Frisches Haff; lt, Aistmarės) is a brackish water lagoon on the Baltic Sea roughly 56 miles (90 ...

, the village of Metgethen was first mentioned in Teutonic chronicles in 1278Albinus, p. 211 as ''Myntigeite''.Weise, p. 146 At the time, Landmeister Konrad von Thierberg granted part of the farmland to an

Old Prussian Old Prussian was a Western Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European languages, which was once spoken by the Old Prussians, the Baltic peoples of the Prussian region. The language is called Old Prussian to avoid con ...

named Regune. The name "Metgethen" was carried by the estate's owners until 1482, when the last of that name married his daughter to Christoph von Röder, a commander from the Thirteen Years' War and ancestor of Erhard Ernst von Röder. Its manor was constructed ca. 1760 by an Italian architect. Metgethen developed into a villa suburb ca. 1900 and was popular for day trips, especially its Vierbrüderkrug inn and the Vierbrüdersäule memorial honoring the legend of four half-brothers of the Teutonic Knights slain by

Sudovians Yotvingians (also called: Sudovians, Jatvians, or Jatvingians; Yotvingian: ''Jotvingai''; lt, Jotvingiai, ; lv, Jātvingi; pl, Jaćwingowie, be, Яцвягі, ger, Sudauer) were a Western Baltic people who were closely tied to the Old Prus ...

in the 13th century. The suburb contained the Landfrauenschule Metgethen, a school for

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

n women, as well as the fire academyGause, p. 134 and a ''Volkssportschule'' to train physical education teachers. A church for the village was sponsored by the merchant Gustav Bruhn and built by Edmund May in 1924-1925. Metgethen was incorporated into the city of Königsberg in 1939; to the east of Metgethen was the quarter Moditten. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the architect Alfred Fiedler of

Tilsit Sovetsk (russian: Сове́тск; german: Tilsit; Old Prussian: ''Tilzi''; lt, Tilžė; pl, Tylża) is a town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the south bank of the Neman River which forms the border with Lithuania. Geography Sov ...

, an ally of

Erich Koch Erich Koch (19 June 1896 – 12 November 1986) was a ''Gauleiter'' of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in East Prussia from 1 October 1928 until 1945. Between 1941 and 1945 he was Chief of Civil Administration (''Chef der Zivilverwaltung'') of Bezirk ...

, constructed a cement factory in Metgethen which used

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

to make anti-air defense. In 1940–1943, the Germans also operated a forced labor camp for

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

men in the district. In 1945, during the

Battle of Königsberg The Battle of Königsberg, also known as the Königsberg offensive, was one of the last operations of the East Prussian offensive during World War II. In four days of urban warfare, Soviet forces of the 1st Baltic Front and the 3rd Belorussia ...

, a German counter-attack recaptured Metgethen from the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

. German military personnel reported evidence of a massacre of civilians carried out by the Red Army during the three weeks the village was under Soviet occupation. In 1946, after the district became part of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, it was renamed Lesnoye. In 1956, it was given its current name in honor of

Aleksandr Kosmodemyansky Aleksandr Anatolyevich Kosmodemyansky (russian: Алекса́ндр Анато́льевич Космодемья́нский; July 27, 1925 – April 13, 1945) was a first lieutenant and a hero of the Soviet Union, who was bestowed thi ...

, a Soviet war hero who was killed in a battle northwest of Königsberg in 1945. In later years, it lost its status of a stand-alone inhabited locality and was incorporated into Kaliningrad as one of its

residential areas A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family residen ...

Famous people

* Erhard Ernst von Röder, Prussian field marshal and minister, lord of the manor (''Gutsherr'') of Metgethen *

Sibylle von Olfers Sibylle von Olfers (8 May 1881, Königsberg – 29 January 1916) was a German art teacher and a nun who worked as an author and illustrator of children's books. In 1906 she published her best-known work, ''The Root Children'' (original title: ' ...

, children's author, born at Metgethen Manor

References

Notes

Sources

* * * *

External links

*Official website of Kaliningrad Urban Okrug.
Information about the settlement of imeni Alexandra Kosmodemyanskogo
*NewKaliningrad.ru.

{{Use mdy dates, date=December 2013 1278 establishments in Europe Populated places established in the 13th century Kaliningrad Urban-type settlements in Kaliningrad Oblast