East Prussia

choi

Andrew Stuttaford, Eastern Reproaches; The central tragedy of this book is the arrival of the Red Army, raping and butchering its way through a civilization half a millennium old. Wall Street Journal, Nov 11, 2011
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 12272558721982.html
(book revirew on Max Egremont, Forgotten Land; Journeys among the ghosts Of East Prussia. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011)

Note:
(1) East Prussia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussia
(was the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945;  capital city was Königsberg)
(a) The German noun könig is king ("kaiser"--derived from Caesar the Roman--in German is emperor)
(b) There is no need to read further in this Wiki page. Instead, read (7) to (9) below.
(2) Teutonic Knights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teutonic_Knights
(The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly the Teutonic Order; Active  c. 1190–Present; Type  Catholic religious order (1192–1929 as military order); Headquarters  vary through ages, including Acre [in Galilee] (1192–1291), Königsberg (1466–1525) and Vienna (1809–Present); Attire  White mantle with a black cross)

Quote: "It was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals. Its members have commonly been known as the Teutonic Knights, since they also served as a crusading military order in the Middle Ages. The military membership was always small  

(3) Immanuel Kant
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant
(1724-1804; from Königsberg (today Kaliningrad of Russia))
(4) Mikhail Kalinin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Kalinin
(1875-1946; nominal head of state of the Soviet Union from 1919 to 1946 [though the formal title changed twice in his watch]; born to a peasant family; During his lifetime, three large cities — Tver, Korolyov and Königsberg — were named or renamed in his honor; the last has retained the name Kaliningrad after the fall of the USSR)
(5) elegiac (adj): "of, relating to, or comprising elegy or an elegy; especially : expressing sorrow often for something now past <an elegiac lament for departed youth>"
www.m-w.com

(a) elegy (n; Greek elegos  song of mourning):
"a song or poem expressing sorrow or lamentation especially for one who is dead"  

(6) Northern Crusades
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Crusades
(The official starting point for the Northern Crusades was Pope Celestine III's call in 1193)

Called "Northern" when compared with
Crusades ("The main series of Crusades occurred between 1095 and 1291"). Wikipedia

(7) Dutchy of Prussia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Prussia
(1525–1701; was the first Protestant (Lutheran) duchy with a dominant German-speaking population, as well as Polish and Lithuanian minorities)

Quote: "In 1525 during the Protestant Reformation, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Albert, secularized the order's Prussian territory, becoming Albert, Duke of Prussia. His duchy, which had its capital in Königsberg, was established as fief of the Crown of Poland. It was inherited by the Hohenzollern prince-electors of Brandenburg in 1618; this personal union is referred to as Brandenburg-Prussia. Frederick William, the 'Great Elector' of Brandenburg, achieved full sovereignty over the territory in the 1657 Treaty of Wehlau, which was confirmed in the 1660 Treaty of Oliva. The Duchy of Prussia was elevated to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701.

(a) personal union
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_union
(section 4 Brandenburg: "Personal union with the Duchy of Prussia from 1618, when Albert Frederick, Duke of Prussia, died without male heirs and his son-in-law John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, became ruler of both countries. Brandenburg and Prussia maintained separate governments and seats of power in Berlin and Königsberg respectively until 1701, when Frederick I consolidated them into one government")

My comment: Section 15 Great Britain provides two familar examples: Queen Elizabeth I of England died childless and a virgin, succeeded by James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns in 1603; and Queen Anne of Great Britain died childless despite 17 pregnancies, succeeded by George I of Hanover)

(8) Kingdom of Prussia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Prussia
(1701-1918; comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire; It took its name from the territory of Prussia, although its power base was Brandenburg)

(a) Prussia (region)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussia_(region)
(a historical region; The former German state of Prussia derived its name from the region; section 3 Old Prussians)

(9) German Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Empire
(Second Reich; from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918; consisted of 27 constituent territories (most of them ruled by royal families); While the Kingdom of Prussia contained most of the population and most of the territory of the Reich, the Prussian leadership became supplanted by German leaders and Prussia itself played a lesser role)
(10) Treaty of Versailles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles
(one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I; see the first map)
(11) Junker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junker
(a member of the landed nobility of Prussia and eastern Germany; "Junker" in German means "young lord")

Because it is German, the "j" is pronounced as "y." (Middle High German "junc" means "young." That is meaning and pronunciation of the last name of Swiss Psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875-1961).)
(12) molder (vi; frequentative of mold): "to crumble into particles : DISINTEGRATE, DECAY"
(13) For Carol Lehndorff, see Lehndorff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehndorff
(a German noble family)
(14) For Masurian lakes, see
(a) Massuria (n): "region NE Poland SE of Gulf of Gdańsk; formerly in E. Prussia, Germany"
(b) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masuria
(famous for its 2,000 lakes)

(15)
(a) marzipan (n; German, from Italian marzapane):
"a confection of crushed almonds or almond paste, sugar, and egg whites that is often shaped into various forms"
(b) marzipan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marzipan
(16) For Palmnicken, see Yantarny
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yantarny
(section 1.2 Massacre of Palmnicken)

See also
Michael Wines, Yantarny Journal; Russians Awaken to a Forgotten SS Atrocity. New York Times, Jan 31, 2000.
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/3 ... nted=all&src=pm
("That Kaliningrad awakened at all may be credited to Christians -- a German and an American [two locals who emigrated] -- who grew up near Palmnicken and would not suppress their own memories of the slaughter. The German, Martin Bergau, witnessed the executions of some women and gave harrowing testimony to them in a German-language book and in a submission to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Remembrance Authority in Jerusalem
(17) For Herman Goering, see Hermann Göring
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_G%C3%B6ring
(1893-1946; a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot)
(18) Joseph Brodsky
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Brodsky
(1940-1996; Russian; Ethnicity  Jewish)