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98-709: Born in Königsberg , East Prussia , he moved to London in 1819 and to Berlin in 1820, where he established an independent business as an agent in the British timber and grain trade , as a close associate of the London firm Isaac Solly and Sons . Between 1820 and 1821, he also facilitated one of history's largest art sales on behalf of his close associate Edward Solly . In 1822, he settled in Norway , after he had bought Blaafarveværket (The Blue-Colour Works) on behalf of

196-546: A League of Nations mandate since 1920, was occupied by the Lithuanian Armed Forces in 1923 and annexed without giving the inhabitants a choice by ballot. After Adolf Hitler's rise to power , opposition politicians were persecuted and newspapers banned. Erich Koch , who headed the East Prussian Nazi party from 1928, led the district from 1932. The Otto-Braun-House was requisitioned to become

294-662: A municipal corporation , economic freedom as well as emancipation of the serfs and Jews . In the course of the Prussian restoration by the 1815 Congress of Vienna , the East Prussian territories were re-arranged in the Regierungsbezirke of Gumbinnen and Königsberg . From 1905, the southern districts of East Prussia formed the separate Regierungsbezirk of Allenstein . East and West Prussia were first united in personal union in 1824 and then merged in

392-582: A real union in 1829 to form the Province of Prussia . The united province was again split into separate East and West Prussian provinces in 1878. From 1824 to 1878, East Prussia was combined with West Prussia to form the Province of Prussia , after which they were reestablished as separate provinces. Along with the rest of the Kingdom of Prussia, East Prussia became part of the German Empire during

490-542: A republic . Most of the former Prussian provinces of West Prussia and Posen , territories annexed by Prussia in the 18th century Partitions of Poland , were ceded to the Second Polish Republic according to the Treaty of Versailles . East Prussia became an exclave , being separated from mainland Germany. The Klaipėda Region was also separated from the province. Because most of West Prussia became part of

588-511: A brother, Friedrich Salomon Wegner (born 1793), and several half-siblings from his parents' two other marriages. Philipp Gutzeit was a younger brother of ship's captain and shipbuilder Benjamin Gutzeit, who was the father of the industrialist Wilhelm Gutzeit , the founder of one of Stora Enso 's two principal predecessor companies. Benjamin Wegner received a solid commercial education and joined

686-477: A consortium led by the Berlin banker Wilhelm Christian Benecke . From 1822 to 1849, he was Director General and one of two owners of Blaafarveværket. Under his leadership the company became Norway's largest mining company and largest and most successful industrial enterprise in the first half of the 19th century overall, and by far the world's largest producer of cobalt blue . He was also the owner of Frogner Manor ,

784-670: A leading Königsberg firm as an apprentice. Around 1820, he moved to Berlin where he established an independent business as an agent in the British timber trade and grain trade , i.e. in large-scale export of timber and grain from the Baltic region to England . He was an agent and close associate of the London firm Isaac Solly and Sons and of the Berlin firm Gebrüder Benecke and its head Wilhelm Christian Benecke , and spent much time in London . On behalf of his friend and close business associate Edward Solly , he also negotiated

882-553: A much smaller homonymous Olsztyn Voivodeship, the bulk of Elbląg Voivodeship and a significant part of the Suwałki Voivodeship . The remaining pre-war population was treated as Germanized Poles and a policy of re- Polonization was pursued throughout the country Most of these " Autochthons " chose to emigrate to West Germany from the 1950s through 1980s (between 1970 and 1988 55,227 persons from Warmia and Masuria moved to Western Germany). Local toponyms were Polonised by

980-432: A well salaried, experienced miner at Blaafarveværket earned around 70 speciedaler annually, the chief engineer earned 250 and Wegner's immediate subordinate, the director of the mines, earned around 1,100). As a consequence of the economic crisis following the revolutions of 1848 and also of the invention of the synthetic ultramarine colour, Modums Blaafarveværk went bankrupt in 1849. Together with Benecke, Wegner owned

1078-485: Is possible to reconstruct the pre-war geographical origin of the post-war population. The same area corresponding to pre-war southern parts of East Prussia (which became Polish in 1945) was inhabited in December 1950 by: Trecento The Trecento ( / t r eɪ ˈ tʃ ɛ n t oʊ / , also US : / t r ɛ ˈ -/ , Italian: [ˌtreˈtʃɛnto] ; short for milletrecento , "1300") refers to

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1176-540: The Albigensian Crusade in the early 13th century, is evident. In contrast to the artistic and literary achievements of the century, Trecento music (at least in written form) flourished in the second half of the century, and the period is often extended (especially in English-language scholarship) into the first decades of the 15th century, as a so-called "Long Trecento". Musicians and composers of

1274-759: The Curonian Spit to Memel . The French Grande Armée troops immediately took up pursuit but were delayed in the Battle of Eylau on 9 February 1807 by an East Prussian contingent under General Anton Wilhelm von L'Estocq . Napoleon had to stay at the Finckenstein Palace , but in May, after a siege of 75 days, his troops led by Marshal François Joseph Lefebvre were able to capture the city of Danzig , which had been tenaciously defended by General Count Friedrich Adolf von Kalkreuth . On 14 June, Napoleon ended

1372-781: The German People's Party politician Max von Bahrfeldt were all severely injured. Members of the Reichsbanner were assaulted while the local Reichsbanner Chairman of Lötzen , Kurt Kotzan , was murdered on 6 August 1932. In the March 1933 German federal election , the last contested pre-war German election, the local population of East Prussia voted overwhelmingly for the Adolf Hitler 's Nazi Party . Through publicly funded emergency relief programs concentrating on agricultural land-improvement projects and road construction,

1470-672: The Hassel Iron Works from 1835 to 1854, each with half of the shares. He was also a co-owner, eventually the largest co-owner, of the major estate Hafslund with large forests in eastern Norway and the country's largest sawmill, from 1835 to 1864. His co-owners included Benecke and Herman Wedel Jarlsberg , and subsequently Thorvald Meyer and Westye Egeberg . In 1856, he co-founded the timber firm Juel, Wegner & Co. with Iver Albert Juel . In 1836, he bought Frogner Manor , where he lived with his family until 1849. The family then sold Frogner Manor and moved to Christiania (now

1568-562: The Holocaust . In 1939 the Regierungsbezirk Zichenau was annexed by Germany and incorporated into East Prussia. Parts of it were transferred to other regions, e.g. Suwałki Region to Regierungsbezirk Gumbinnen and Soldau (Działdowo) to Regierungsbezirk Allenstein . Despite Nazi propaganda presenting all of the regions annexed as possessing significant German populations that wanted reunification with Germany,

1666-706: The Kingdom of Portugal . He was married to the philanthropist Henriette Seyler (1805–75), a member of the Berenberg banking dynasty of Hamburg and briefly a co-owner of Berenberg Bank ; she was the youngest daughter of Berenberg Bank's long-time head and co-owner L.E. Seyler , and a granddaughter of the Swiss-born banker and theatre principal Abel Seyler and of the Hamburg bankers Johann Hinrich Gossler and Elisabeth Berenberg . Jacob Benjamin Wegner, who went by

1764-503: The Kingdom of Prussia . The designation " Kingdom of Prussia " was gradually applied to the various lands of Brandenburg-Prussia. To differentiate it from the larger entity, the former Duchy of Prussia became known as Altpreußen ("Old Prussia"), the province of Prussia, or "East Prussia". Approximately one-third of East Prussia's population died in the Great Northern War plague outbreak and famine of 1709–1711, including

1862-673: The Lithuanian SSR ) and the People's Republic of Poland (the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship ). The capital city Königsberg was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946. The German and the Masurian population of the province was largely evacuated during the war or expelled shortly afterwards in the expulsion of Germans after World War II . An estimated 300,000 died either in wartime bombing raids, in the battles to defend

1960-658: The Nazi German government, which wanted to erase all aspects of Polish culture and Polish language in Warmia and Masuria . The Jews who remained in East Prussia in 1942 were shipped to concentration camps, including Theresienstadt in occupied Czechoslovakia , Kaiserwald in occupied Latvia , and camps in Minsk in occupied Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic . Those who remained were later deported and killed in

2058-614: The Nazis changed about one-third of the toponyms of the area , eliminating, Germanizing, or simplifying a number of Old Prussian , as well as those Polish or Lithuanian names originating from colonists and refugees to Prussia during and after the Protestant Reformation . More than 1,500 places were ordered to be renamed by 16 July 1938 following a decree issued by Gauleiter and Oberpräsident Erich Koch and initiated by Adolf Hitler . Many who would not cooperate with

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2156-649: The Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War , whereby the united armies of Poland and Lithuania , defeated the Teutonic Order at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410. In 1440 the anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation was founded, and various cities and nobles of the region joined it. In 1454 upon the Confederation's request King Casimir IV of Poland signed the act of incorporation of the entire region to Poland. The Teutonic Knights' defeat

2254-669: The Potsdam Conference , pending a final peace conference with Germany. Since a peace conference never took place, the region was effectively ceded by Germany. Southern East Prussia was placed under Polish administration, while northern East Prussia was divided between the Soviet republics of Russia (the Kaliningrad Oblast ) and Lithuania (the constituent counties of the Klaipėda Region ). The city of Königsberg

2352-465: The Ruhr Area and Berlin (see Ostflucht ). The population of the province in 1900 was 1,996,626 people, with a religious makeup of 1,698,465 Protestants , 269,196 Roman Catholics , and 13,877 Jews . The Low Prussian dialect predominated in East Prussia, although High Prussian was spoken in Warmia . The numbers of Masurians , Kursenieki and Prussian Lithuanians decreased over time due to

2450-706: The Second Polish Republic as the Polish Corridor , the formerly West Prussian Marienwerder region became part of East Prussia as the administrative district ( Regierungsbezirk ) of West Prussia. Also, the Działdowo district in the Allenstein region became part of the Second Polish Republic. The Seedienst Ostpreußen (Sea Service East Prussia) was established to provide an independent transport service to East Prussia. On 11 July 1920, amidst

2548-673: The Seven Years' War before withdrawing in 1762 and did not make Poland an offer of territorial exchange. In the 1772 First Partition of Poland , the Prussian king Frederick the Great annexed neighboring Royal Prussia , i.e., the Polish voivodeships of Pomerania ( Gdańsk Pomerania or Pomerelia ), Malbork , Chełmno and the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia , thereby connecting his Prussian and Farther Pomeranian lands and cutting

2646-552: The War of the Fourth Coalition with his victory at the Battle of Friedland . Frederick William and Queen Louise met with Napoleon for peace negotiations, and on 9 July the Prussian king signed the Treaty of Tilsit . The succeeding Prussian reforms instigated by Heinrich Friedrich Karl vom und zum Stein and Karl August von Hardenberg included the implementation of an Oberlandesgericht appellation court at Königsberg,

2744-838: The Western Front according to the Schlieffen Plan . Despite early success and the capture of the towns of Rastenburg and Gumbinnen , in the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914 and the Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes in 1915, the Russians were decisively defeated and forced to retreat. The Russians were followed by the German Army advancing into Russian territory. After the Russian army's first invasion

2842-560: The troubadours . In music, the Trecento was a time of vigorous activity in Italy, as it was in France , with which there was a frequent interchange of musicians and influences. Distinguishing the period from the preceding century was an emphasis on secular song, especially love lyrics; much of the surviving music is polyphonic , but the influence of the troubadours who came to Italy, fleeing

2940-470: The unification of Germany in 1871. From 1885 to 1890 Berlin 's population grew by 20%, Brandenburg and the Rhineland gained 8.5%, Westphalia 10%, while East Prussia lost 0.07% and West Prussia 0.86%. This stagnancy in population despite a high birth surplus in eastern Germany was because many people from the East Prussian countryside moved westward to seek work in the expanding industrial centres of

3038-604: The "Erich Koch Plan" for East Prussia allegedly made the province free of unemployment : on 16 August 1933 Koch reported to Hitler that unemployment had been banished entirely from the province, a feat that gained admiration throughout the Reich . In actuality, the Erich Koch Plan had been a staged propaganda event organized by Walther Funk and the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda to promote

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3136-400: The 13th century and created a monastic state to administer the conquered Old Prussians . Local Old-Prussian (north) and Polish (south) toponyms were gradually Germanised. The Knights' expansionist policies, including occupation of Polish Pomerania with Gdańsk/Danzig and western Lithuania, brought them into conflict with the Kingdom of Poland and embroiled them in several wars, culminating in

3234-681: The 13th century, the region of Prussia was part of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights . After the Second Peace of Thorn in 1466 it became a part of the Kingdom of Poland , either directly ( Warmia ) or as a fief (remainder). In 1525, with the Prussian Homage , the territory became the Duchy of Prussia , a vassal duchy of Poland. The Old Prussian language had become extinct by the 17th or early 18th century. Because

3332-858: The 14th century in Italian cultural history . The Trecento is considered to be the beginning of the Italian Renaissance or at least the Proto-Renaissance in art history. Painters of the Trecento included Giotto di Bondone , as well as painters of the Sienese School , which became the most important in Italy during the century, including Duccio di Buoninsegna , Simone Martini , Lippo Memmi , Ambrogio Lorenzetti and his brother Pietro . Important sculptors included two pupils of Giovanni Pisano : Arnolfo di Cambio and Tino di Camaino , and Bonino da Campione . The Trecento

3430-661: The German civilian population until the Eastern Front approached the East Prussian border in 1944. The population had been systematically misinformed by Endsieg Nazi propaganda about the real state of military affairs. As a result, many civilians fleeing westward were overtaken by retreating Wehrmacht units and the rapidly advancing Red Army . Reports of Soviet atrocities in the Nemmersdorf massacre of October 1944 and organized rape spread fear and desperation among

3528-600: The German inhabitants, which then consisted primarily of women, children and old men, did manage to escape the Red Army as part of the largest exodus of people in human history: "A population which had stood at 2.2 million in 1940 was reduced to 193,000 at the end of May 1945." Following Nazi Germany 's defeat in World War II in 1945, East Prussia was partitioned between Poland and the Soviet Union according to

3626-646: The Nazi Party's work creation policies, with East Prussia chosen because it already had relatively low unemployment due to its agrarian economy. Koch's industrialization plans provoked conflict with Richard Walther Darré , who held the office of the Reich Peasant Leader ( Reichsbauernführer ) and Minister of Agriculture. Darré, a neopaganist rural romantic, wanted to enforce his vision of an agricultural East Prussia. When his "Land" representatives challenged Koch's plans, Koch arrested them. In 1938

3724-585: The Polish Commission for the Determination of Place Names , though in most cases it was a restoration of historic Polish names. During the Polish post-war census of December 1950, data about the pre-war places of residence of the inhabitants as of August 1939 was collected. In case of children born between September 1939 and December 1950, their origin was reported based on the pre-war places of residence of their mothers. Thanks to this data it

3822-665: The Polish Kingdom, by joining forces with the Swedes and subsequent treaties of Wehlau , Labiau , and Oliva , Elector and Duke Frederick William succeeded in revoking the king of Poland's sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia in 1660. There was strong opposition to the separation of the region from Poland, especially in Königsberg (Polish: Królewiec ). A confederation was formed in the city to maintain Poland's sovereignty over

3920-517: The Province of East Prussia was joined with West Prussia to form the Province of Prussia . The Polish and Lithuanian populations were subjected to Germanisation policies, and later to outright persecution. The Kingdom of Prussia became the leading state of the German Empire after its creation in 1871. However, the Treaty of Versailles following World War I granted West Prussia to Poland and made East Prussia an exclave of Weimar Germany (the so-called Polish Corridor separated East Prussia from

4018-561: The Reich's statistics of late 1939 show that only 31,000 out of 994,092 people in this territory were ethnic Germans. In the annexed pre-war Polish territory, the Polish population was subjected to various crimes , including mass arrests, roundups , deportations to forced labour and concentration camps (including teenagers), executions, massacres (also as part of the Intelligenzaktion and Aktion T4 ) and expulsions . The Jews were confined in ghettos and afterwards deported either deported to extermination camps or massacred in

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4116-528: The Swiss-born merchant turned theatre director Abel Seyler and Sophie Elisabeth Andreae from Hanover on her father's side and of the Hamburg bankers Johann Hinrich Gossler and Elisabeth Berenberg on her mother's side. Through her paternal grandfather, she was also descended from the Calvinist theologian Friedrich Seyler and from the Burckhardt , Merian , Faesch , Socin and Meyer zum Pfeil patrician families of Basel , and through her mother from families such as Amsinck and Welser . Henriette Seyler

4214-406: The Teutonic Knights. 1466 and 1525 arrangements by kings of Poland were not verified by the Holy Roman Empire , as well as the previous gains of the Teutonic Knights , were not verified. The Teutonic Order lost eastern Prussia when Grand Master Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach converted to Lutheranism and secularized the Prussian branch of the Teutonic Order in 1525. Albert established himself as

4312-522: The agreement to sell Solly's unprecedented art collection of around 3,000 paintings—mainly Italian Trecento and Quattrocento paintings and Early Netherlandish paintings —to the Prussian king Frederick William III in 1821, of which 677 paintings formed the core of the collection of the new Gemäldegalerie . The negotiations were conducted by Wegner and Benecke on Solly's behalf, partly with Prince Hardenberg and partly with King Frederick William III personally. In 1821, Modums Blaafarveværk in Norway,

4410-453: The ancestral lands of the Baltic Old Prussians were enclosed within East Prussia. During the 13th century , the native Prussians were conquered by the crusading Teutonic Knights . After the conquest the indigenous Balts were gradually converted to Christianity . Because of Germanization and colonisation over the following centuries, Germans became the dominant ethnic group, while Poles and Lithuanians formed sizeable minorities. From

4508-419: The area, initially organised as the Masurian District , later replaced by the Olsztyn Voivodeship in 1947, with a few counties incorporated into Białystok Voivodeship and to Gdańsk Voivodeship . The latter counted in 1950 689,000 inhabitants, 22.6% of them coming from areas annexed by the Soviet Union, 10% Ukrainians, and 18.5% of them pre-war inhabitants. It was dissolved in 1975 to form three smaller units:

4606-478: The backdrop of the Polish-Soviet War in which the Second Polish Republic appeared to be on the brink of defeat, the East Prussian plebiscite in eastern West Prussia and southern East Prussia was held under Allied supervision to determine if the areas should join Poland or remain in the Weimar Germany Province of East Prussia. 96.7% of the people voted to remain within Germany (97.89% in the East Prussian plebiscite district). The Klaipėda Territory (Memelland),

4704-441: The border between Kaliningrad Oblast and Lithuania . The Klaipėda Region ( German : Memelland ) was a portion of the province to the north of the Neman river. Adjacent to the Curonian Lagoon and the lower reaches of the Neman river could be found the Elchniederung  [ de ] , a vast partially-drained bog , much of it below sea-level. Further south, the region becomes more hilly, with fewer bogs and more lakes. To

4802-430: The central portion of the province. In the southernmost regions, the rivers flow to the south, emptying into the Narew and Vistula rivers. The highest elevation of East Prussia at 312 meters above sea level was Dylewska Góra ( German : Kernsdorfer Höhe ), found in the southwest near the border with West Prussia. At the instigation of Duke Konrad I of Masovia , the Teutonic Knights took possession of Prussia in

4900-508: The cession on 30 September 1772, whereafter Frederick officially went on to call himself a King "of" Prussia. The former Ducal Prussian districts of Eylau (Iława), Marienwerder, Riesenburg (Prabuty) and Schönberg (Szymbark) passed to West Prussia. Until the Prussian reforms of 1808, the administration in East Prussia was transferred to the General War and Finance Directorate in Berlin , represented by two local chamber departments: On 31 January 1773, King Frederick II announced that

4998-589: The cities of Ciechanów , Ostrołęka , Płock and Suwałki . Hitler's top-secret Eastern front headquarters during the war, the Wolf's Lair , was located in the village of Gierłoż . The Polish resistance was active in the province, both in the annexed pre-war territory of Poland, and in the pre-war territory of East Prussia, with activities in the latter including distribution of Polish underground press , sabotage actions, executions of Nazis, theft of German weapons, ammunition and equipment, and organization of transports of POWs who escaped German POW camps via

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5096-451: The city and region. The Brandenburg Elector and his army, however, entered the city and abducted and imprisoned the leader of the city's anti-Elector opposition Hieronymus Roth . In 1663, the city burghers, forced by Elector Frederick William, swore an oath of allegiance to him, however, in the same ceremony they still also pledged allegiance to Poland. The absolutist elector also subdued the noble estates of Prussia. Although Brandenburg

5194-465: The civilians. Thousands lost their lives during the sinkings (by Soviet submarine) of the evacuation ships Wilhelm Gustloff , the Goya , and the General von Steuben . Königsberg surrendered on 9 April 1945, following the desperate four-day Battle of Königsberg . An estimated 300,000 died either in wartime bombing raids, in the battles to defend the province, or through mistreatment by the Red Army or from hunger, cold and disease. However, most of

5292-569: The company became the largest in Norway, employing as much as 2,000 people, and was the dominant cobalt blue producer worldwide, producing as much as 80% of the world's cobalt pigment for use in the porcelain , glass and paper industries around the world. The main export market was England and the company's largest customer by far was the London firm Smith, Goodhall & Reeves. In its heyday, Blaafarveværket generated an annual income of around 10,000 Norwegian speciedaler for Wegner, partially as dividend and partially as tantième (in comparison,

5390-407: The duchy was outside of the core Holy Roman Empire , the prince-electors of Brandenburg were able to proclaim themselves King beginning in 1701. After the annexation of most of western Royal Prussia in the First Partition of Poland in 1772, eastern (ducal) Prussia was connected by land with the rest of the Prussian state and was reorganized as a province the following year. Between 1829 and 1878,

5488-453: The east, near the modern Polish-Russian border, was the Romincka Forest ( German : Rominter Heide ), a famous hunting-ground for Prussian nobility. On the eastern end of the forest is Lake Vištytis ( German : Wystiter See ), and to the south are the Szeskie Hills  [ pl ] ( German : Seesker Höhen ). The Angrapa river ( German : Angerapp ), a tributary of the Pregel, flows out Lake Mamry ( German : Mauersee ) on

5586-427: The feeble-minded Albert Frederick . The Administrator of Prussia, the grandmaster of the Teutonic Order Maximilian III , son of emperor Maximilian II died in 1618. When Maximilian died, Albert's line died out, and the Duchy of Prussia passed to the Electors of Brandenburg, forming Brandenburg-Prussia . Taking advantage of the Swedish invasion of Poland in 1655 , and instead of fulfilling his vassal's duties towards

5684-403: The first duke of the Duchy of Prussia and a vassal of the Polish crown by the Prussian Homage . Walter von Cronberg , the next Grand Master, was enfeoffed with the title to Prussia after the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, but the Order never regained possession of the territory. In 1569 the Hohenzollern prince-electors of the Margraviate of Brandenburg became co-regents with Albert's son,

5782-560: The government – in 1842 and was promoted to Hamburg's Consul-General for the Kingdom of Norway in 1844. He became Consul in Christiania for the city-state of Lübeck in 1843 and was promoted to Consul-General of Lübeck in 1861. He became Consul-General for Norway of the city-state of Bremen in 1859. He held these four consular offices until his death. He died at his country home, Dronninghavn, at Ladegaardsøen ( Bygdøy ), on 9 June 1864. On 15 May 1824, Benjamin Wegner married Henriette Seyler (1805–1875) in St. Nicholas' Church, Hamburg . She

5880-467: The headquarters of the SA, which used the house to imprison and torture its opponents. Walter Schütz , a communist member of the Reichstag , was murdered here. This period was characterized by efforts to collectivize the local agriculture and ruthlessness in dealing with his critics inside and outside the Nazi Party . He also had long-term plans for mass-scale industrialization of the largely agricultural province. These actions made him unpopular among

5978-465: The inner city). Wegner however retained a part of the Frogner property, Frognerseteren with a part of the Nordmarka forests, until his death. Frogner Manor is today best known as the site of Frogner Park . Wegner was appointed as Vice-Consul in Christiania for the Kingdom of Portugal in 1836, as Portugal's most senior representative in Norway. He became Consul in Christiania for the sovereign city-state of Hamburg – where his wife's family served in

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6076-444: The largest co-owner of the Hafslund estate, a co-owner of the Hassel Iron Works and a co-owner of the timber firm Juel, Wegner & Co. Most of his business activities, both in the timber, grain and cobalt segments, focused heavily on export to England , where he spent much time throughout his life. He served as consul general to Norway of the sovereign city-republics of Hamburg , Lübeck and Bremen , and as vice consul of

6174-442: The last speakers of Old Prussian . The plague, probably brought by foreign troops during the Great Northern War , killed 250,000 East Prussians, especially in the province's eastern regions. Crown Prince Frederick William I led the rebuilding of East Prussia, founding numerous towns. In 1724, Frederick William I prohibited Poles , Samogitians and Jews from settling in Lithuania Minor, and initiated German colonization to change

6272-414: The local peasants. In 1932 the local paramilitary SA had already started to terrorise their political opponents. On the night of 31 July 1932 there was a bomb attack on the headquarters of the Social Democrats in Königsberg, the Otto-Braun-House . The Communist politician Gustav Sauf was killed; the executive editor of the Social Democratic newspaper "Königsberger Volkszeitung" , Otto Wyrgatsch ; and

6370-443: The majority of the civilian population fled westwards, while several thousand remaining civilians were deported to Russia. Treatment of civilians by both armies was mostly disciplined, although 74 civilians were killed by Russian troops in the Abschwangen massacre . The region had to be rebuilt because of damage caused by the war. With the forced abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II in the German Revolution of 1918–1919 , Germany became

6468-442: The name of Benjamin, was born in Königsberg , an important port city on the coast of the Baltic Sea . He was the son of Police Commissioner in Königsberg Johann Jacob Wegner (ca. 1757–1797) and Regina Dorothea Harder (1770–1813). His father had previously been married to Regina Dorothea's sister Anna Christina Harder (1765–1791). His father died on 12 January 1797, and his mother remarried to shipbuilder Philipp Gutzeit in 1798. He had

6566-496: The newly annexed lands were to be known as the Province of West Prussia , while the former Duchy of Prussia and the Prince-Bishopric of Warmia became the Province of East Prussia . After the disastrous defeat of the Royal Prussian Army at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt in 1806, Napoleon occupied Berlin and had the officials of the Prussian General Directorate swear an oath of allegiance to him, while King Frederick William III and his consort Louise fled via Königsberg and

6664-438: The northeast in ( Lithuania Minor ). The Old Prussian ethnic group became completely Germanized over time and the Old Prussian language died out in the 18th century. At the German entry into World War I , East Prussia became a theatre of war when the Russian Empire invaded the country. The Imperial Russian Army encountered at first little resistance because the bulk of the Imperial German Army had been directed towards

6762-434: The northeast. Most German East Prussians, Masurians, Kursieniki, and Lietuvininkai were Lutheran, while the population of Warmia was mainly Roman Catholic due to the history of its bishopric. The East Prussian Jewish Congregation declined from about 9,000 in 1933 to 3,000 in 1939, as most fled from Nazi rule. During World War II , the Polish ethnic minorities of Catholic Warmians and Lutheran Masurians were persecuted by

6860-427: The northern end of the Masurian Lake District . The largest lake in the province was Śniardwy ( German : Spirdingsee ), at 113.8 square kilometers in area. The headwaters of the Pregel's numerous tributaries were found in southern East Prussia, with the longest, the Łyna ( German : Alle ), extending almost to the southern border with Congress Poland , winding its course northward through southern Warmia and

6958-407: The northwesternmost coastal parts approached an oceanic climate . In the northwest, the province bordered the Baltic Sea , with the Vistula Spit and Curonian Spit separating the sea itself from the Vistula Lagoon and Curonian Lagoon , respectively. The Sambia Peninsula ( German : Samland ) juts into the Baltic Sea between these two lagoons. Most of the rivers of East Prussia emptied into

7056-834: The noted lawyer, President of the Norwegian Bar Association and founder of the law firm Hjort Harald Nørregaard , of the wine merchant and consul in Tarragona Ludvig Nørregaard, of the surgeon and President of the Norwegian Red Cross Nikolai Nissen Paus , of the lawyer and Director at the Norwegian Employers' Confederation George Wegner Paus and of the engineer and industrial leader Augustin Paus . East Prussia East Prussia

7154-556: The ports of Gdańsk and Gdynia to neutral Sweden . East Prussia was only slightly affected by the war until January 1945, when it was devastated during the East Prussian Offensive . Most of its inhabitants became refugees in bitterly cold weather during the Evacuation of East Prussia . In 1944 the medieval city of Königsberg , which had never been severely damaged by warfare in its 700 years of existence,

7252-483: The process of Germanization . The Polish-speaking population concentrated in the south of the province ( Masuria and Warmia) and all German geographic atlases at the start of 20th century showed the southern part of East Prussia as Polish with the number of Polish-speakers estimated at the time to be 300,000. Kursenieki inhabited the areas around the Curonian lagoon, while Lithuanian-speaking Prussians concentrated in

7350-463: The province, through mistreatment by the Red Army, or from hunger, cold and disease. The landscape of East Prussia consisted of gently rolling plains and small hills, with flatter terrain in the north and more hills in the south. The province had a humid continental climate which was most pronounced in Lithuania Minor and at higher elevations in the south in the region of Masuria , while

7448-471: The province. Pre-war Polish citizens made up the majority of forced laborers in the province, with their numbers gradually increasing, but due to the influx of forced laborers of other nationalities, their overall percentage declined from 90% in 1940 to 62% in 1944. Most Polish forced laborers in the province were deported from the pre-war Polish territories annexed into the province by Germany, with German labor offices recruiting forced laborers established in

7546-473: The region's ethnic composition. Thousands of Protestants expelled from the Archbishopric of Salzburg were allowed to settle in depleted East Prussia. In 1756 Russia decided to go to war with the Kingdom of Prussia and annex the territory, which was then to be offered to Poland as part of a territorial exchange desired by Russia, however, ultimately Russia only occupied the region for four years during

7644-665: The region. Germany operated the Soldau and Hohenbruch  [ de ] concentration camps, mostly for Poles, multiple subcamps of the Stutthof concentration camp and several prisoner-of-war camps , including Stalag I-A , Stalag I-B , Stalag I-C, Stalag I-D, Stalag I-E, Stalag I-F , Stalag Luft VI , Oflag 52, Oflag 53, Oflag 60, Oflag 63 and Oflag 68 with multiple subcamps, for Polish, Belgian, French , British, Serbian, Soviet, Italian , American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealander, South African, Czech and other Allied POWs in

7742-592: The rest of Germany), while the Memel Territory , part of the Lithuania Minor region, was detached and annexed by Lithuania in 1923. Following Nazi Germany 's defeat in World War II in 1945, war-torn East Prussia was divided at Joseph Stalin 's insistence between the Soviet Union (the Kaliningrad Oblast became part of the Russian SFSR , and the constituent counties of the Klaipėda Region in

7840-552: The rest of Poland from the Baltic coast. The territory of Warmia was incorporated into the lands of former Ducal Prussia, which, by administrative deed of 31 January 1772 were named East Prussia . The former Polish Pomerelian lands beyond the Vistula River together with Malbork and Chełmno Land formed the Province of West Prussia with its capital at Marienwerder (Kwidzyn) in 1773. The Polish Partition Sejm ratified

7938-523: The rulers of Nazi Germany were sent to concentration camps and held prisoner there until their death or liberation. After the 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania , the Klaipėda region was integrated again into East Prussia. After the 1939 invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany opening World War II, the borders of East Prussia were revised. Regierungsbezirk Westpreußen became part of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia , while Regierungsbezirk Zichenau ( Ciechanów )

8036-529: The summer of 1945. Many more were prevented from returning, and the German population of East Prussia was almost completely expelled by the communist regimes. During the war and for some time thereafter 45 camps were established for about 200,000-250,000 forced labourers, the vast majority of whom were deported to the Soviet Union, including the Gulag camp system. The largest camp with about 48,000 inmates

8134-676: The theologian Bernhard Pauss ; their youngest son George Wegner (1847–1881) was a supreme court barrister. Benjamin Wegner was the grandfather of the lawyer, county governor and chief of police Benjamin Wegner (1868–1949), of the humanitarian and women's rights leader Olga Wegner (the wife of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Karenus Kristofer Thinn ), of the internationally noted war correspondent Benjamin Wegner Nørregaard , of

8232-427: The transaction, but as he had financial problems, the plans had to be canceled. However, in 1822, Wegner was sent by his business associate Wilhelm Christian Benecke to evaluate the profitability of the enterprise and with authorization to buy the company on Benecke's behalf if he found the company to be profitable. Wegner subsequently bought the company at a public auction on behalf of an investment group of which Benecke

8330-786: The two lagoons; the Pregolya ( German : Pregel ), Pasłęka ( German : Passarge ), and Prokhladnaya ( German : Frisching ) into the Vistula Lagoon, and the Neman ( German : Memel ) and Minija ( German : Minge ) into the Curonian Lagoon. In the northeast of the province, the river Šešupė ( German : Scheschuppe ), a left-tributary of the Neman, formed the border with the Russian Empire , and today forms

8428-520: The world's leading producer of cobalt blue , was announced for sale. The former royal company had been pledged by the king as security for a loan during the Napoleonic Wars and taken over by the bankruptcy estate of the Swedish businessman Peter Wilhelm Berg when the state could not redeem the pledge. Edward Solly wanted to buy the company and send Wegner as his representative to complete

8526-493: Was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic 's Free State of Prussia , until 1945. Its capital city was Königsberg (present-day Kaliningrad ). East Prussia was the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast . The bulk of

8624-456: Was a judge and married Blanca Bretteville , a daughter of Prime Minister Christian Zetlitz Bretteville ; their second son Heinrich Benjamin Wegner (1833–1911) was a timber merchant and married Henriette Vibe, a daughter of the classical philologist Ludvig Vibe ; their oldest daughter Sophie Wegner (1838–1906) married colonel and aide-de-camp to king Charles Hans Jacob Nørregaard ; their youngest daughter Anna Henriette Wegner (1841–1918) married

8722-548: Was a member of the Berenberg banking dynasty of Hamburg, one of the city's most prominent Hanseatic families, and was the daughter of the banker L.E. Seyler (1758–1836) and Anna Henriette Gossler (1771–1836). Her father was a co-owner of Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. (Berenberg Bank), President of the Commerz-Deputation , and a member of the Hamburg Parliament , and she was a granddaughter of

8820-486: Was a niece of Hamburg senator and banker Johann Heinrich Gossler II and a first cousin of Hamburg First Mayor Hermann Gossler (1802–1877). Upon her father's death, Henriette Seyler became a co-owner of Berenberg Bank until 31 December 1836. Benjamin and Henriette Wegner had four sons and two daughters, all of whom were born in Norway, where they have many notable descendants. Their oldest son Johann Ludwig Wegner (1830–1893)

8918-806: Was a part of the Holy Roman Empire , the Prussian lands were not within the Holy Roman Empire and were with the administration by the Teutonic Order grandmasters under jurisdiction of the Emperor. In return for supporting Emperor Leopold I in the War of the Spanish Succession , Elector Frederick III was allowed to crown himself " King in Prussia " in 1701. The new kingdom ruled by the Hohenzollern dynasty became known as

9016-720: Was added to East Prussia. Originally part of the Zichenau region, the Sudauen ( Suwałki ) district in Sudovia was later transferred to the Gumbinnen region. In 1939 East Prussia had 2.49 million inhabitants, 85% of them ethnic Germans, the others Poles in the south who, according to Polish estimates numbered in the interwar period around 300,000-350,000, the Latvian speaking Kursenieki , and Lietuvininkai who spoke Lithuanian in

9114-399: Was almost completely destroyed by two RAF Bomber Command raids – the first on the night of 26/27 August 1944, with the second one three nights later, overnight on 29/30 August 1944. Winston Churchill ( The Second World War , Book XII) had erroneously believed it to be "a modernized heavily defended fortress " and ordered its destruction. Gauleiter Erich Koch delayed the evacuation of

9212-455: Was also famous as a time of heightened literary activity, with writers working in the vernacular instead of Latin. Dante , Petrarch and Boccaccio were the leading writers of the age. Dante produced his famous La divina commedia (The Divine Comedy ), now seen as a summation of the medieval worldview, and Petrarch wrote verse in a lyrical style influenced by the Provençal poetry of

9310-565: Was established at Deutsch Eylau (Iława). Orphaned children who were left behind in the zone occupied by the Soviet Union were referred to as Wolf children . Representatives of the Polish government officially took over the civilian administration of the southern part of East Prussia on 23 May 1945. Subsequently, Polish expatriates from Polish lands annexed by the Soviet Union as well as Ukrainians and Lemkos from southern Poland, expelled in Operation Vistula , were settled in

9408-490: Was formalised in the Second Peace of Toruń in 1466 ending the Thirteen Years' War . The restoration of Pomerania/ Pomerelia to Poland was confirmed, and Warmia also was confirmed part of Poland, with both co-forming the larger Polish provinces of Royal Prussia and Greater Poland . The remainder of historic Prussia also became a part of "one and indivisible" Kingdom of Poland as a fief and protectorate held by

9506-561: Was renamed Kaliningrad in 1946. Most of the German population of the province had left during the evacuation at the end of the war, but several hundreds of thousands died during the years 1944–46 and the remainder were subsequently expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement . Shortly after the end of the war in May 1945, Germans who had fled in early 1945 tried to return to their homes in East Prussia. An estimated number of 800,000 Germans were living in East Prussia during

9604-502: Was the prime investor. Wegner was appointed the new Director-General of Modums Blaafarveværk and became a co-owner, and he relocated to Norway, where he initially lived on the Fossum Manor near Modums Blaafarveværk. Upon taking up residence in Norway, he automatically became a Norwegian citizen under Norway's nationality law at the time. From 1826, Benecke and Wegner were the sole owners of Modums Blaafarveværk. Under their ownership,

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