Res Humanitariae

The article examines the consequences of the colllision of two different cultures and eras. It draws on the history of Tilsit as described by the German journalist and historian Ulla Lachauer in her narrative “The Bridge of Tilsit” (“Die Brücke von Tilsit”). Published in 1995, Lachauer’s work offers historical facts and personal impressions of a journey to Sovetsk (1990) in search of the traces of the old Tilsit, which, unexpectedly, led to the author’s discovery of a city marked by an astonishing and, at times, frightening hybridity. The article analyses elements of “The Bridge of Tilsit” that constitute a narrative about the intermingling of cultures and highlight the hybridity of a city previously situated in East Prussia and, today, in the Soviet enclave of Kaliningrad.