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Article: Tenuous German Claim
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- December 27, 1994
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Johann Fink, in his letter "Restore Koenigsberg to Germany"
{Dec. 10}, is selective in his use of history to justify the return
of Kaliningrad to Germany. While he charges that Boris Yeltsin is
rewriting history, Mr. Fink fails to say that the original
inhabitants of East Prussia were not Germans but Balts and Slavs.
These peoples (Old Prussians) were conquered, and their language and
culture was almost exterminated by the Germans from the 12th century
onward. German settlers then, in large measure, replaced or absorbed
these peoples.
After the Prussians were conquered, the Germans (Teutonic
Knights) moved on to attack the Lithuanians and for more than 100
years tried ...