notably in 1542 and 1593. The town finally recovered and by the end of 16th century Margrave Georg Friedrich considered moving the University of Königsberg to Wehlau, which however never materialised. In the Treaty of Wehlau signed in the town in 1657, Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, received sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia. In 1818, it became the seat of Landkreis Wehlau in East Prussia within the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1871 Wehlau joined the German Empire. By the end of the 19th century the town had roughly 4000 inhabitants, mostly German Lutherans. The town had a station of the Prussian Eastern Railway connecting Königsberg and Berlin to the Saint Petersburg–Warsaw Railway, as well as a Lutheran church, a regional courthouse and a school. Near the end of World War II, on 23 January 1945, the town was taken by troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front of the Red Army. The old town center was almost completely destroyed, and the German population fled during the evacuation of East Prussia or expelled. It became part of the Kaliningrad Oblast and was renamed Znamensk, losing its civic rights in the process. It was demoted to a rural settlement in 2006. Notable people George von Kunheim (1523–1611) married Margaretha Luther, grandchild of Martin Luther in 1555. Johann Christoph Strodtmann (1717–1756) a German author, writing on theology, philology, classical studies, history of law and history of scholarship Gustav Neumann, (1838 – 1881), chess master Ernst Vanhöffen (1858–1918), zoologist David Hilbert (1862–1943), mathematician Walter Schütz (1897–1933), politician Herbert Pilch (1927–2018), linguist Roza Shanina (1924–1945): Soviet sniper during World War II References Citations Bibliography See also Yasnaya Polyana, Kaliningrad Oblast Rural localities in Kaliningrad Oblast Gvardeysky District