Immanuel Kant, the most famous East Prussian, is considered the founder of modern philosophy and thus one of the most important thinkers of all. As a representative of the Enlightenment, he called upon each individual to escape from mental immaturity: "Have courage to use your own intellect!” Thus, he laid the foundations for today’s understanding of human rights and liberal democracy.
In moral philosophy and ethics his "Categorical Imperative" is also timelessly applicable – act only in such a way that it can be the basis of a general law. His systematic approach to explaining the gain in knowledge ("What can I know?") still influences our sciences today.
His reflections are therefore used in many important debates of the present day. Born and died in Königsberg, he never left East Prussia. He stands for the liberal Königsberg, influenced many of his equally famous pupils and established the fame of the Albertus University.
Illustration:
Commemorative plaque of Kant in today's Russian Kaliningrad (former Königsberg)
Kant is also greatly famous in the Russian, previously Soviet Kaliningrad. His tomb at Königsberg Cathedral prevented the ruins from being blown up. Since 2012, the current university has been called the "Baltic Federal University Immanuel Kant" (Балтийский федеральный университет имени Иммануила Канта). Based on a commemorative plaque in honour of Kant that was destroyed in 1945 at Königsberg Castle, the German-Russian plaque shown here was mounted in 1994.