Born just across the water from Königsberg on the long, slender Curonian Spit, Ludwig Rhesa (1776-1840) went on to study and then work as a professor at the city's Albertina College. Although he later progressed to the powerful administrative position of Consistory within the Evangelical Church, he is probably best known now for the cultural impact of his study and documentation of traditional Lithuanian songs, poems and stories.
It is perhaps unsurprising then that the monument, officially unveiled on 1st July 2005, was commissioned (from sculptor Arunas Sakalauskas) and presented to Kaliningrad on the initiative of the Lithuanian state.