Arresthausplatz, site of the former church St. Elisabeth's Church () or Lithuanian Church (''Litauische Kirche'') was a

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

in the Sackheim quarter of

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

History

St. Elisabeth's was first documented in 1420 as the chapel of Sackheim's Saint Elizabeth Hospital, administered by a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

convent. The

Duchy of Prussia The Duchy of Prussia (, , ) or Ducal Prussia (; ) was a duchy in the region of Prussia established as a result of secularization of the Monastic Prussia, the territory that remained under the control of the State of the Teutonic Order until t ...

was established in 1525 during the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and ...

, and it is unknown what the building was used for during the remainder of the 16th century. After the Reformation, Königsberg's

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

- and

Lithuanian Lithuanian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Lithuania, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe ** Lithuanian language ** Lithuanians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to Lithuania and the immediate geographical region ** L ...

-speaking communities attended St. Nicholas' Church in Steindamm. Disputes between the two groups were common, however, and once the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

began to express interest, the Lutheran Königsberg Consistory granted St. Elisabeth's to parishioners of Lithuanian native language as their own church in 1603. The first Lithuanian-speaking pastor at the church was Lazarus Sengstock (1562-1621), a native of

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

who learned the language in Memel. Sengstock was succeeded by Johannes Rhesa (1576-1629). Most attendees of the church were laborers, domestic workers, and beggars. Unlike the other churches of Königsberg, St. Elisabeth's was too poor to have its own school. St. Elisabeth's was converted into a prison (Arresthaus) in 1807 when the number of attendees dwindled. By 1896 it was used as an administrative building of the Prussian Army and during the

Weimar era The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclaimed itself, as ...

it was a library for

Wehrkreis The military districts, also known in some English-language publications by their German name as Wehrkreise (singular: ''Wehrkreis''), were administrative territorial units in Nazi Germany before and during World War II. The task of military dist ...

I. In 1933 the nearby square, Arresthausplatz, was renamed Elisabeth-Platz. The former church finally served as a pension office before the destruction of Königsberg during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

.Albinus, p. 26

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Elisabeths Church, Konigsberg 1420 establishments in Europe 1807 disestablishments in Prussia 15th-century churches in Germany Buildings and structures in Germany destroyed during World War II Destroyed churches in Germany Elisabeth Lutheran churches in Königsberg