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new book on Königsberg / Kaliningrad

I'm pasting this description from another source here; do you think this should also be posted in the Russia and Germany forums?

https://events.berkeley.edu/ies/event/237683-nicole-eaton-german-blood-slavic-soil-how-nazi-knigsb

In the wake of the Second World War, the German city Königsberg, once the easternmost territory of the Third Reich, became the Russian city Kaliningrad, the westernmost region of the Soviet Union. Königsberg/Kaliningrad is the only city to have been ruled by both Hitler and Stalin as their own—in both wartime occupation and as integral territory of the two regimes. During the war, this single city became an epicenter in the apocalyptic battle between Nazism and Stalinism.

Eaton’s book German Blood, Slavic Soil: How Nazi Königsberg Became Soviet Kaliningrad reveals how Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, twentieth-century Europe’s two most violent revolutionary regimes, transformed a single city and the people who lived there. Drawing on archival documents, diaries, letters, and memoirs from both sides, this talk presents an intimate look into the Nazi-Soviet encounter during World War II and shows how this outpost city, far from the centers of power in Moscow and Berlin, became a closed-off space where Nazis and Stalinists each staged radical experiments in societal transformation and were forced to reimagine their utopias in dialogue with the encounter between the victims and proponents of the two regimes.

Nicole Eaton received her PhD at UC Berkeley is now Associate Professor of History at Boston College. She teaches courses on the Soviet Union, Imperial Russia, modern Europe, authoritarianism, and mass violence. Her research interests include nationalism, communism, fascism, ethnic cleansing, borderlands, urban history, the Second World War, environmental history and the history of medicine in East-Central Europe and Eurasia. German Blood, Slavic Soil is her first book.

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2493 posts

Here's a related wikipedia clip; I have not checked to see how accurate it is, though:

"Prior to the Nazi era, Königsberg was home to a third of East Prussia's 13,000 Jews. Under Nazi rule, the Polish and Jewish minorities were classified as Untermenschen and persecuted by the authorities. The city's Jewish population shrank from 3,200 in 1933 to 2,100 in October 1938. The New Synagogue of Königsberg, constructed in 1896, was destroyed during Kristallnacht (9 November 1938); 500 Jews soon fled the city.

After the Wannsee Conference of 20 January 1942, Königsberg's Jews began to be deported to various Nazi concentration camps:[64] The SS sent the first and largest group of Jewish deportees, comprising 465 Jewish men, women and children, from Königsberg and East Prussia to the Maly Trostenets extermination camp near Minsk on 24 June 1942. Almost all were murdered soon after their arrival. Additional transports from Königsberg to the Theresienstadt ghetto and Auschwitz took place until 1945.[65]

In 1944–1945, the Germans operated a sub-camp of the Stutthof concentration camp in Königsberg, where they imprisoned around 500 Jews as forced labour.[66] In 1939, the Germans also established a forced labour camp for Romani people in the city.[67]"

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14580 posts

Koenigsberg was the birth place of the Prussian monarchy, the capital of East Prussia which included the "the easternmost territory of Germany , Memelland. The city and this province have been been the strategic objective of Russian and later Soviet operational planning since the 18th century.

Professor Eaton's piece of scholarly research will certainly augment older works dealing with East Prussia at war's end. I am interested in the primary sources from which she draws her information and whose memoirs she uses to buttress her conclusions.

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2498 posts

And on a side note

"Königsberger Klopse (German pronunciation: [ˌkøːnɪçsbɛʁɡɐ ˈklɔpsə]), also known as Soßklopse, are a German specialty of meatballs in a creamy white sauce with capers."

"The dish is named for the former German city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), and is one of the highlights of historical East Prussian cuisine."

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14580 posts

A very good dish indeed when prepared correctly. I prefer the Klopse to be a mixture of veal and pork, instead of either or.

The dish is available at the East Prussian restaurant situated not far from Savignyplatz at Mommsenstrasse and Bleibtreustrasse.

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2498 posts

Dicke Wirtin on Carmerstrasse, offers up a pretty decent version of it's

Königsberger Klopse mit Rote Bete und Salzkartoffeln

(Königsberg meatballs with beetroot and boiled potatoes)

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2498 posts

Always a well-stocked display of smoked eel at the KaDeWe store in Berlin. I sit across from the display while enjoying my Heringsbrötchen lunch.

Posted by
447 posts

Nick, I remember there was a lot more to KGrad foodie scene than just eel. I last visited a looong time ago and I don't remember klopsen being everywhere (I understand they are now), but there was marzipan galore and a couple different kinds of local (?) fish. One looked kind of like blue mackerel - I forgot the name.

OP, thanks for the recco - will check out the book.

ETA: started reading (started from Conclusion, of course :-) - seems very interesting! Just a thought: if you like such side-by-side comparison of Third Reich/Soviet Union ethnic policies and attitudes, especially supported by memoirs and archival data, I recommend another book: Diana Dumitru "the state, antisemitism, and the collaboration in the Holocaust". Super interesting book covering the region of Romania/Soviet Moldavia/Bessarabia/Transnistria/Odessa.