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Bible Encyclopedias
Kolberg
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
(or Colberg), a town of Germany, and seaport of the Prussian province of Pomerania, on the right bank of the Persante, which falls into the Baltic about a mile below the town, and at the junction of the railway lines to Belgard and Gollnow. Pop. (1905), 22,804. It has a handsome marketplace with a statue of Frederick William III.; and there are extensive suburbs, of which the most important is Miinde. The principal buildings are the huge red-brick church of St Mary, with five aisles, one of the most remarkable churches in Pomerania, dating from the 14th century; the council-house (Rathaus), erected after the plans of Ernst F. Zwirner; and the citadel. Kolberg also possesses four other churches, a theatre, a gymnasium, a school of navigation, and an exchange. Its bathing establishments are largely frequented and attract a considerable number of summer visitors. It has a harbour at the mouth of the Persante, where there is a lighthouse. Woollen cloth, machinery and spirits are manufactured; there is an extensive salt-mine in the neighbouring Zillenberg; the salmon and lamprey fisheries are important; and a fair amount of commercial activity is maintained. In 1903 a monument was erected to the memory of Gneisenau and the patriot, Joachim Christian Nettelbeck (1738-1824), through whose efforts the town was saved from the French in 1806-7.
Originally a Slavonic fort, Kolberg is one of the oldest places of Pomerania. At an early date it became the seat of a bishop, and although it soon lost this distinction it obtained municipal privileges in 1255. From about 1276 it ranked as the most important place in the episcopal principality of Kamin, and from 1284 it was a member of the Hanseatic League. During the Thirty Years' War it was captured by the Swedes in 1631, passing by the treaty of Westphalia to the elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William I., who strengthened its fortifications. The town was a centre of conflict during the Seven Years' War. In 1758 and again in 1760 the Russians besieged Kolberg in vain, but in 1762 they succeeded in capturing it. Soon restored. to Brandenburg, it was vigorously attacked by the French in 1806 and 1807, but it was saved by the long resistance of its inhabitants. In 1887 the fortifications of the town were razed, and it has since become a fashionable watering-place, receiving annually nearly 15,000 visitors.
See Riemann, Geschichte der Stadt Kolberg (Kolberg, 1873); Stoewer, Geschichte der Stadt Kolberg (Kolberg, 1897); Schonlein, Geschichte der Belagerungen Kolbergs in den Jahren 1758, 1760, 1761 and 1807 (Kolberg, 1878); and Kempin, Fi hrer durch Bad Kolberg (Kolberg, 1899).
Kolcsey, Ferencz (1790-1838), Hungarian poet, critic and orator, was born at Szodemeter, in Transylvania, on the 8th of August 1790. In his fifteenth year he made the acquaintance of Kazinczy and zealously adopted his linguistic reforms. In 1809 Kolcsey went to Pest and became a "notary to the royal board." Law proved distasteful, and at Cseke in Szatmar county he devoted his time to aesthetical study, poetry, criticism, and the defence of the theories of Kazinczy. Kolcsey's early metrical pieces contributed to the Transylvanian Museum did not attract much attention, whilst his severe criticisms of Csokonai, Kis, and especially Berzsenyi, published in 1817, rendered him very unpopular. From 1821 to 1826 he published many separate poems of great beauty in the Aurora, Hebe, Aspasia, and other magazines of polite literature. He joined Paul Szemere in a new periodical, styled Elet es literature (" Life and Literature"), which appeared from 1826 to 1829, in 4 vols., and gained for Kolcsey the highest reputation as a critical writer. From 1832 to 1835 he sat in the Hungarian Diet, where his extreme liberal views and his singular eloquence soon rendered him famous as a parliamentary leader. Elected on the 17th of November 1830 a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, he took part in its first grand meeting; in 1832, he delivered his famous oration on Kazinczy, and in 1836 that on his former opponent Daniel Berzsenyi. When in 1838 Baron Wesseleny' was unjustly thrown into prison upon a charge of treason Kolcsey eloquently though unsuccessfully conducted his defence; and he died about a week afterwards (August 24) from internal inflammation. His collected works, in 6 vols., were published at Pest, 1840-1848, and his journal of the diet of1832-1836appeared in 1848. A monument erected to the memory of Kolcsey was unveiled at Szatmar-Nemeti on the 25th of September 1864.
See G. Steinacker, Ungarische Lyriker (Leipzig, and Pest, 1874); F. Toldy, Magyar Koltok elete (2 vols., Pest, 1871); J. Ferenczy and J. Danielik, Magyar Ira (2 vols., Pest, 1856-1858).
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Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Kolberg'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/​encyclopedias/​eng/​bri/​k/kolberg.html. 1910.