Fort №5 in the historical memory of Kaliningrad residents
- DOI
- 10.5922/sikbfu-2022-4-7
- Pages
- 70-82
Abstract
The Königsberg Fort № 5 “Friedrich Wilhelm III”, built in the second half of the 19th century was never used in military operations before the Second World War. But during the storm of Königsberg by the Soviet troops in April, 1945, it had been exposed to the attacks of all kinds of forces of the 3rd Belorussian front for four days and was surrendered by the German command. Later fifteen men were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the fort storming. The article is based on the unpublished documents dating from 1970—1980s from the archives of the Kaliningrad Regional Museum of History and Art which are related to the events of the East Prussian invasion. The author studies the process of including the former German fortress in the historical memory of the Soviet Kaliningrad inhabitants. The article identifies the reasons for the museumisation of the fortress among other fortification structures and its formation as a place of memory. Two concept plans of turning the fort into a memorial are described and analyzed in detail: projects by sculptors from the Moscow organization Rosmonumentyskusstvo and by workers of the Regional Museum of History and Art. The conclusion is made about the principles of reconstruction and the limits of what is admissible in the process of adjusting the German monuments to the objectives of the memory policy aimed at filling the historic landscape of the city with the Soviet attributes. The conclusion substantiates the key role of the memorial opened at Fort № 5 as a mediator (media) between the past of the region and the inhabitants of the region to promote the historical narrative about the storming of Königsberg by the Red Army as the central event of the East Prussian operation of 1945.