Could Kaliningrad have been returned to Germany?

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Post-WWII, could Kaliningrad have been returned have been returned to Germany (albeit probably East, but still a form of Germany)?
The Soviets did expel all resident Germans from there during 1947-1948 and the area was populated with citizens of the USSR.
Is there any possibility of this or were the chances too low for this too happen? Would merging Kaliningrad with Poland be even more likely than this?
 
Perhaps DDR could make deal in 1949 to get Königsberg back. If so, then that part of East Germany would be more secure in the long run, since it has no borders with the west to flee through, and less opportunity to receive western media - a second Tal der Ahnungslosen.

Did Poland voice any thoughts about this? For the Soviet Union, it would seem to fit Beria to do something like that.
 
Returning it to the GDR - no, I can't see that happen. GDR won't want to rock the boat with the USSR by bothering about Kaliningrad, and Eastern Bloc ideology kind of clashes with the idea of pursuing nationalist irredentist goals. The GDR would be more worried about reunification with West Germany anyways. And just like Germany today doesn't pursue any claims on Kaliningrad, a hypothetical GDR that controls all Germany probably wouldn't either. As for ceding Kaliningrad to Poland - if giving Poland all the "Regained Territories" didn't serve to pacify them, giving them the last remaining bit of East Prussia wouldn't have made the difference either, though I think this would have been somewhat less unlikely. Returning it to Germany absolutely wouldn't have happened, though, because it'd essentially have been the USSR admitting (or looking like they admitted) "whoops, we made a mistake with that whole ethnic cleansing of East Prussia thing", and states don't generally like to admit mistakes. If Kaliningrad isn't slapped to Poland immediately after the war, I think the borders are pretty much fixed there - why would they give the land away? Furthermore, Kaliningrad is one more warm-water port for the USSR, and the only one on RSFSR territory, so it has significant strategic value.

Edit: Also, the initial mentality right after the war (both in the Western and Eastern blocs) is "keep Germany down". Nothing to strengthen Germany is likely to happen for a good while. Eventually, when the Cold War kicks in full swing, the new borders are already way too fixed for any real change to be plausible.
 
Eventually, when the Cold War kicks in full swing, the new borders are already way too fixed for any real change to be plausible.
But the Weimar borders were still marked on maps in the 1970s and 1980s, and the areas were said to be "temporarily under Polish control" or something similar. And I think there has been some mention of Polish worries about the border in the early nineties.
 
Perhaps DDR could make deal in 1949 to get Königsberg back. If so, then that part of East Germany would be more secure in the long run, since it has no borders with the west to flee through, and less opportunity to receive western media - a second Tal der Ahnungslosen.

Did Poland voice any thoughts about this? For the Soviet Union, it would seem to fit Beria to do something like that.
Returning it to the GDR - no, I can't see that happen. GDR won't want to rock the boat with the USSR by bothering about Kaliningrad, and Eastern Bloc ideology kind of clashes with the idea of pursuing nationalist irredentist goals. The GDR would be more worried about reunification with West Germany anyways. And just like Germany today doesn't pursue any claims on Kaliningrad, a hypothetical GDR that controls all Germany probably wouldn't either. As for ceding Kaliningrad to Poland - if giving Poland all the "Regained Territories" didn't serve to pacify them, giving them the last remaining bit of East Prussia wouldn't have made the difference either, though I think this would have been somewhat less unlikely. Returning it to Germany absolutely wouldn't have happened, though, because it'd essentially have been the USSR admitting (or looking like they admitted) "whoops, we made a mistake with that whole ethnic cleansing of East Prussia thing", and states don't generally like to admit mistakes. If Kaliningrad isn't slapped to Poland immediately after the war, I think the borders are pretty much fixed there - why would they give the land away? Furthermore, Kaliningrad is one more warm-water port for the USSR, and the only one on RSFSR territory, so it has significant strategic value.

Edit: Also, the initial mentality right after the war (both in the Western and Eastern blocs) is "keep Germany down". Nothing to strengthen Germany is likely to happen for a good while. Eventually, when the Cold War kicks in full swing, the new borders are already way too fixed for any real change to be plausible.
Interesting thoughts. Could the Soviets have had Koenigsberg incorporated into Soviet occupied Germany? So, when the DDR/GDR forms Koenigsberg is included? As part of the Warsaw Pact's formation, maybe the USSR would establish Koenigsberg as the HQ of the Baltic Fleet (somewhat like OTL).
You're right, it would give strength to Germans but the Soviets might find a way around that.

@Jurgen Wullenwever Poland, if my memory serves me right, placed no thoughts in the long run OTL.
 
Did the Russians try offering Kaliningrad to either Germany, Poland and Lithuania near the end or after the Cold War?

Wasn't there something about one of the 1990s Soviet/Russian leaders offering Kaliningrad to Germany in exchange for waiving some debt? I think it was Gorbachev, but I could be wrong.
 
But the Weimar borders were still marked on maps in the 1970s and 1980s, and the areas were said to be "temporarily under Polish control" or something similar. And I think there has been some mention of Polish worries about the border in the early nineties.

Only in western maps, because FRG still claimed the old borders, even Kohl brought it up around the reunification.
 
Did the Russians try offering Kaliningrad to either Germany, Poland and Lithuania near the end or after the Cold War?
Not after the Cold War, but Khrushchev offered the Kaliningrad autonomous oblast (which at the time was more trouble than it's worth to RSFSR) to Lithuanian SSR in the 1950s, and they even began making plans for incorporating the territory into the SSR economically. LSSR declined.
 

oberdada

Gone Fishin'
Making the Oblast German again in 1990 would have been a terrible idea.

Resettling all inhabitants into the motherland alone would be a nightmare.

I think there was the idea of settling Germans from the former Soviet union there, but Germany was able to absorb them OTL without extra territory, so why bother.

Also Poland would likely have gone completely nuts, fearing further german claims.

Even
Independence is more probable, but not very...
 
After the expulsion of the Germans in East Prussia, they could've just settled Volga Germans and other Soviet Germans there and make make a "Prussian/Volga German SSR" or something. I guess the population could be something like 60% German 40% other ethnicities, and since it's rather different than East Germany was, plus geographically separate, would not rejoin Germany but instead gain independence alongside the Baltic states.

IMO it's better for Poland to trade Lower Silesia (including Breslau) for East Prussia for the sake of better borders.
 
Wasn't there something about one of the 1990s Soviet/Russian leaders offering Kaliningrad to Germany in exchange for waiving some debt? I think it was Gorbachev, but I could be wrong.
To my knowledge, it was the opposite. Following the collapse of the USSR, the German government offered to initiate talks regarding the future of the area.

In doing so, the Germans made a general offer to make billions of dollars worth of investments in the area as well as to provide expert business assistance in return for either partial sovereignty over Kaliningrad region, or turning the area into a "Free City". The Russians, however, declined to enter into any talks whose goal would be changing the status quo.
 
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IMHO no. Maybe to Poland but not to Germany. Allies and Soviets agreed that "Prussia is core of German historical expansionism".
 

trajen777

Banned
Germany was offered kalingrad as a part of debt relief. However they declined. The cost of east germany unification was massive. Kalingrad was massive pollution, HIV, and nuc waste.
 
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