Witte did not choose to travel south from Warsaw into Germany this time, but drove west from Vilnius to Königsberg, the capital of East Prussia. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoSpeaking of Germany, speaking of Prussia, speaking of East Prussia, speaking of Königsberg, there are a large number of German fans on the Chinese Internet in later generations, whether it is the Second German Reich during the period of Wilhelm II, or the Third Reich during the Führer, there are many people who are very enthusiastic, so that many rookie German fans often post some place names that they can't find on the forum to seek help from old birds and gods, and Königsberg and East Prussia are the most asked.

Before talking about Germany, we have to mention the three major knightly orders in Europe - the Knights Hospitaller, the Knights Templar and the Teutonic Knights. The Knights Hospitaller, the first order of knights, known as the "Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem", was founded only to protect the Catholics who went to Jerusalem for pilgrimage, providing them with accommodation and medical care, and then during the crusading jihad, providing medical care for the Crusaders, and then gradually became a large order, most of the members came from Italy. With the defeat of the Crusaders and the advance of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, the Knights Hospitaller evacuated from Jerusalem to a small island in the Mediterranean, which is the island of Malta, so the Knights Hospitaller was also known as the "Knights of Malta", and the white octagonal cross on a red background that they later adopted was also called the "Maltese Cross". In 1798, the Knights of Malta were ordered to surrender by Napoleon, after which the French army occupied and sacked everything on the island, and the members of the Knights of Malta were forced to flee to the European continent, and most of the members went to Russia, where they were sheltered by Paul I, who was elected the new Grand Master of the Order, so it can also be said that Russia inherited part of the Knights of Malta.

The Knights Templar, officially known as the "Poor Knights of Christ and Solomon's Temple", was founded in France in 1118, and the original members of the Knights were all poor knights in France. However, with the prowess of martial arts, the Knights began to enjoy a series of privileges granted by the Pope, and with this privilege, the Knights Templar overhauled castles all over Europe, and these castles were not used to garrison troops, but to store the property of princes and represent some private property, and finally the Knights began to issue bonds and silver bills to some people and princes, but with a large amount of property came with it was coveted by many people. At the end of the 13th century, the Knights Templar withdrew completely to Europe due to the complete failure of the Crusades, but when they did, King Philip IV of France justified the homosexuality of the Order, the Templars' emblem, which was the Templar emblem. Philip IV and Pope Clement V persecuted the members of the Knights Templar, the Grand Master of the Order and others were burned to death, and the members of the Knights were tortured to death with varying degrees of torture, and in 1312, Pope Clement V ordered the formal dissolution of the Knights Templar.

Finally, the Teutonic Knights, whose full name is "The Knights of St. Mary's Hospitaller of Germany", abbreviated as OT, and its members are basically composed of German nobles. At the beginning of the Teutonic Order, the Pope approved them to wear the same white robes as the Templars, but with a black cross embroidered on them, as a difference between the two, and the black cross on a white background has been the symbol of the Teutonic Knights ever since. If you are a German fan, you must know that the black cross on a white background is the symbol of the German army. The Teutonic Knights, who had been defeated from Jerusalem in 1226, had been founded in Hungary but were expelled by the then Hungarian king Andrei II. When the Knights were desperate, the Duke of Conrad, the son of the King of Poland and the head of the Duchy of Mazovia, was attacked by the ancient Prussians and had to ask the Order for help.

Taking this as an opportunity, the Grand Master of the Order, Hermann von Salza, first went to the Holy Roman Emperor Fetere II and obtained a golden edict from the Emperor: the Teutonic Knights had the right to occupy the lands granted by Conrad and the lands they had acquired after their conquest of the Prussians, and that attacks on the Order's lands would be severely punished by the Holy Roman Empire. Although Duke Conrad regretted it, he had to compromise with the Teutonic Knights in 1230 and promised that if the Teutonic Knights conquered Kumerland (the old name of the ancient Prussian region), he would give the land to the Order in perpetuity. This meant that the Teutonic Knights had ownership of Kumerland, not a fief - the ownership of the fief remained with the monarch. In 1234, Pope Gregory IX issued a Golden Bull recognizing the Order's ownership of the lands they had conquered, while requiring them to Christianize the indigenous peoples of the region. In this way, the Teutonic Knights received a threefold written commitment, and all they had left to do was to conquer the land. The Teutonic Knights then began a 200-year crusade against the Kumerland region, until they finally conquered the Old Prussians, completely abandoning the Old Prussian language in favor of German, and finally completely assimilating the Old Prussians.

In 1525, the chief of the Teutonic Knights, Albert from Brandenburg, declared that the Teutonic Knights should follow the Lutheran religion, and finally completely severed the ties with the Vatican Pope in Rome, which made the Teutonic Knights secular, and established the Duchy of Prussia, with Albert becoming the Duke of Prussia and becoming a secular monarch subject to the supreme power of Poland. Albert's son, Albert. After Frederick's death, he was childless, and the Duchy of Prussia was headed by the husband of his eldest daughter, John of the Elector of Brandenburg. Sigismund (belonging to the Hohenzollern family) succeeded and established the Duchy of Brandenburg-Prussia, which laid the foundation for the future development of the Hohenzollern dynasty.

During the Swedish-Polish War of 1660, Elector Frederick Frederick of Brandenburg. Wilhelm abolished Polish suzerainty over Prussia and gradually strengthened ties with the German states, establishing a centralized political system. In 1701, Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg (Frederick. William's son) supported the Austrian Habsburgs in declaring war on the French Bourbons in exchange for the title of king. On January 18, Frederick III was crowned King Frederick I of Prussia in Königsberg, beginning more than 200 years of the illustrious history of the Kingdom of Prussia.

The Kingdom of Prussia inherited the tradition of military autocracy from the Teutonic Knights, so since the founding of the country, the Prussian army has been known for its strict military discipline, ability to fight well, and high quality of education. In 1772, Prussia, which was growing stronger, divided Poland, which had been their suzerain, for the first time with Austria and Russia, and occupied the Polish provinces of Warmia, Pomerania except Gdansk, Helmno and Malbok except Toruń, with an area of 36,000 square kilometers and a population of 580,000. In 1793, Prussia partitioned Poland for the second time with Russia, occupying the cities of Gdansk and Toruń, several provinces of Greater Poland, and part of Masovica, with an area of 58,000 square kilometers and a population of 1.1 million. In 1795, Prussia partitioned Poland for the third time with Austria and Russia, occupying the remainder of Warsaw and Masovja, with an area of 55,000 square kilometers and a population of 1 million.

However, with the defeat of the war with Napoleon, Prussia gradually lost the territory occupied by Poland in three partitions, and then Napoleon was defeated, and in 1815 Napoleon was completely defeated in Waterloo, and according to the territorial adjustment of the Congress of Vienna, Prussia's territory was extended from the Memmer River to the Rhine River, becoming the only power in the German Confederation where the German-speaking population was dominant. Prussia defeated Denmark in 1864 and Austria in 1866 to unify Germany, and then France in 1870. On January 18, 1871, the 180th anniversary of the founding of the Kingdom of Prussia, Wilhelm I officially ascended the throne in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles, France, marking the establishment of the Second German Empire. Kaiser Wilhelm I died in 1888, and his son Frederick III died of throat cancer after 99 days on the throne. William. Victor. Albert. Feng. Hohenzollern was the Emperor, now Emperor Wilhelm II.

At this time, Germany was the most positive period, in order to further expand its overseas colonies, Germany began to continue to develop and build new warships, when Witte took Vadim and Beloeva to get off the train in Königsberg, he immediately felt a different atmosphere from Russia, which was full of life, while Russia was a bit bleak.

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The second is to send, this is a transitional chapter, a detailed description of the history of the rise of the German Empire and the reason for the martial arts, please don't mind~~

I would like to thank Ditianxiao and ycw1215 book friends for their tips and evaluation votes, thank you for your support~~