See Briefwechsel des Grafen Königsmark und der Prinzessin Sophie Dorothea von Celle, edited by W. F. Palmblad (Leipzig, 1847); A. Köcher, “Die Prinzessin von Ahlden,” in the Historische Zeitschrift (Munich, 1882); and W. H. Wilkins, The Love of an Uncrowned Queen (London, 1900).
KÖNIGSSEE, or Lake of St Bartholomew, a lake of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, province of Upper Bavaria, about 2½ m. S. from Berchtesgaden, 1850 ft. above sea-level. It has a length of 5 m., and a breadth varying from 500 yards to a little over a mile, and attains a maximum depth of 600 ft. The Königssee is the most beautiful of all the lakes in the German Alps, pent in by limestone mountains rising to an altitude of 6500 ft., the flanks of which descend precipitously to the green waters below. The lake abounds in trout, and the surrounding country is rich in game. On a promontory by the side of the lake is a chapel to which pilgrimages are made on St Bartholomew’s Day. Separated by a narrow strip of land from the Königssee is the Obersee, a smaller lake.
KÖNIGSTEIN, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, situated in a deep valley on the left bank of the Elbe, at the influx of the Biela, in the centre of Saxon Switzerland, 25 m. S.E. of Dresden by the railway to Bodenbach and Testchen. It contains a Roman Catholic and a Protestant church, a monument to the composer Julius Otto, and has some small manufactures of machinery, celluloid, paper, vinegar and buttons. It is chiefly remarkable for the huge fortress, lying immediately to the north-west of the town, which crowns a sandstone rock rising abruptly from the Elbe to a height of 750 ft. Across the Elbe lies the Lilienstein, a similar formation, but unfortified. The fortress of Königstein was probably a Slav stronghold as early as the 12th century, but it is not mentioned in chronicles before the year 1241, when it was a fief of Bohemia. In 1401 it passed to the margraves of Meissen and by the treaty of Eger in 1459 it was formally ceded by Bohemia to Saxony. About 1540 the works were strengthened, and the place was used as a point d’appui against inroads from Bohemia. Hence the phrase frequently employed by historians that Königstein is “the key to Bohemia.” As a fact, the main road from Dresden into that country lies across the hills several miles to the south-west, and the fortress has exercised little, if any, influence in strategic operations, either during the middle ages or in modern times. It was further strengthened under the electors Christian I., John George I. and Frederick Augustus II. of Saxony, the last of whom completed it in its present form. During the Prussian invasion of Saxony in 1756 it served as a place of refuge for the King of Poland, Augustus III., as it did also in 1849, during the Dresden insurrection of May in that year, to the King of Saxony, Frederick Augustus II. and his ministers. It was occupied by the Prussians in 1867, who retained possession of it until the peace of 1871. It is garrisoned by detachments of several Saxon infantry regiments, and serves as a treasure house for the state and also as a place of detention for officers sentenced to fortress imprisonment. A remarkable feature of the place is a well, hewn out of the solid rock to a depth of 470 ft.
See Klemm, Der Königstein in alter und neuer Zeit (Leipzig, 1905); and Gautsch, Aelteste Geschichte der sächsischen Schweiz (Dresden, 1880).
KÖNIGSWINTER, a town and summer resort of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, on the right bank of the Rhine, 24 m. S.S.E. of Cologne by the railway to Frankfort-on-Main, at the foot of the Siebengebirge. Pop. (1905), 3944. The romantic Drachenfels (1010 ft.), crowned by the ruins of a castle built early in the 12th century by the archbishop of Cologne, rises behind the town. From the summit, to which there is a funicular railway, there is a magnificent view, celebrated by Byron in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. A cave in the hill is said to have sheltered the dragon which was slain by the hero Siegfried. The mountain is quarried, and from 1267 onward supplied stone (trachyte) for the building of Cologne cathedral. The castle of Drachenburg, built in 1883, is on the north side of the hill. Königswinter has a Roman Catholic and an Evangelical church, some small manufactures and a little shipping. It has a monument to the poet, Wolfgang Müller. Near the town are the ruins of the abbey of Heisterbach.
KONINCK, LAURENT GUILLAUME DE (1809-1887), Belgian palaeontologist and chemist, was born at Louvain on the 3rd of May 1809. He studied medicine in the university of his native town, and in 1831 he became assistant in the chemical schools. He pursued the study of chemistry in Paris, Berlin and Giessen, and was subsequently engaged in teaching the science at Ghent and Liége. In 1856 he was appointed professor of chemistry in the Liége University, and he retained this post until the close of his life. About the year 1835 he began to devote his leisure to the investigation of the Carboniferous fossils around Liége, and ultimately he became distinguished for his researches on the palaeontology of the Palaeozoic rocks, and especially for his descriptions of the mollusca, brachiopods, crustacea and crinoids of the Carboniferous limestone of Belgium. In recognition of this work the Wollaston medal was awarded to him in 1875 by the Geological Society of London, and in 1876 he was appointed professor of palaeontology at Liége. He died at Liége on the 16th of July 1887.