Kreis Labiau was a district in

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, 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 ...

that existed from 1818 to 1945. It was located on the southeastern coast of the

Curonian Lagoon The Curonian Lagoon (or Bay, Gulf; Prussian: ''Kursjanmari'', , ) is a freshwater lagoon separated from the Baltic Sea by the Curonian Spit. Its surface area is . The Neman River () supplies about 90% of its inflows; its watershed consists of ...

and had the town of Labiau as its capital.

History

Since the East Prussian district reform of 1752, the largest part of the area of the future Labiau district belonged to the Tapiau district, which included Labiau,

Tapiau Gvardeysk ( rus, Гвардейск, p=ɡvɐrˈdʲejsk, a=Ru-Гвардейск.oga; known prior to 1946 by its German name Tapiau ; ; ), is a town and the administrative center of Gvardeysky District in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on t ...

and Taplacken. As part of the Prussian administrative reforms, the “Ordinance for Improved Establishment of the Provincial Authorities” of 30 April 1815 resulted in the need for a comprehensive district reform in all of East Prussia, as the districts established in 1752 had proven to be inexpedient and too large. On 1 February 1818 the new district of ''Labiau'' was formed from the northern part of the Tapiau district in the Königsberg Region of the

Prussian Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, the House of Hohenzoll ...

province of

. Since 1871, the district belonged to the

German Reich German ''Reich'' (, from ) was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The ''Reich'' became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty entirely from a continuing unitary German ''Volk'' ("na ...

. In the spring of 1945, the district was occupied by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

and then came under Soviet administration. In October 1948, Germans were expelled. According to reports, Germans were gven 20 minutes to pack all their belongings and leave their homes. Today this territory belongs to the

Kaliningrad Oblast Kaliningrad Oblast () is the westernmost federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of the Russian Federation. It is a Enclave and exclave, semi-exclave on the Baltic Sea within the Baltic region of Prussia (region), Prussia, surrounded by Pola ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Demographics

According to the Prussian census of 1867, the Labiau district had a population of 50,467, of which 39,225 (77.7%) were

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

and 11,242 (22.3%) were

Lithuanians Lithuanians () are a Balts, Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another two million make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the Lithuanian Americans, United Sta ...

References

{{Authority control 1818 establishments in Prussia States and territories established in 1818 1945 disestablishments in Germany States and territories disestablished in 1945 Labiau History of Kaliningrad Oblast