Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (German:[ˈfʁaŋkfʊʁtʔandeːɐ̯ˈʔoːdɐ];
Central Marchian: Frankfort an de Oder;
lit. Frankfurt on the
Oder) is the fourth-largest city in the German state of
Brandenburg after
Potsdam,
Cottbus and
Brandenburg an der Havel. With around 58,000 inhabitants, it is the largest German city on the
Oder River, and one of the easternmost cities in Germany. Frankfurt sits on the western bank of the Oder, opposite the Polish town of
Słubice, which was a part of Frankfurt until 1945, and called Dammvorstadt until then. The city is located about 80 kilometres (50 mi) east of
Berlin, in the south of the historical region
Lubusz Land. Within Frankfurt's city limits lies the recreational area Lake
Helenesee.
The name of the city makes reference to the
Franks, and means Ford of the Franks, and there appears a
Gallic rooster in the coats of arms of Frankfurt and Słubice. The official name Frankfurt (Oder) and the older Frankfurt an der Oder are used to distinguish it from the larger city of
Frankfurt am Main.
During the communist era, Frankfurt reached a population peak with more than 87,000 inhabitants at the end of the 1980s. Following
German reunification, the population decreased significantly, but has stabilized in recent years at about 58,000 inhabitants. As of 2020, the city plays an important role in
German–Polish relations and
European integration. Frankfurt is home to the
European University Viadrina, which has a campus in Słubice, the
Collegium Polonicum.
The town of Frankfurt received its charter in 1253 at the
Brandendamm. The early settlers lived on the western banks of the Oder; later the town was extended to the eastern bank. After a war broke out over control of the region in 1319, the town came under the control of the
Duchy of Pomerania. In 1319,
Wartislaw IV, Duke of Pomerania, granted new
privileges to the town.[4] The town fell again to Brandenburg in 1324. In the
Late Middle Ages, the town dominated the river trade between
Wrocław and
Szczecin. From 1373 to 1415, along with Brandenburg, it was part of the
Lands of the Bohemian Crown. In 1430, Frankfurt joined the
Hanseatic League. In 1432, the Czech
Hussites captured the town.[5]
In the 16th century the oldest church of the town (today's Friedenskirche) was secularized and was even used as a
granary, and from the 17th century it served as the church of the
FrenchHuguenots.[9]
With the dissolution of the
Margraviate of Brandenburg during the
Napoleonic Wars, Frankfurt became part of the
Province of Brandenburg in 1815. In the 19th century, Frankfurt played an important role in trade. Centrally positioned in the
Kingdom of Prussia between Berlin and
Posen (Poznań), on the river Oder with its heavy traffic, the town housed the second-largest annual trade fair (Messe) of the
German Reich, surpassed only by that in
Leipzig. One of the main escape routes for insurgents of the unsuccessful Polish
November Uprising from partitioned Poland to the
Great Emigration led through the city.[11] In 1842, the Berlin–Frankfurt (Oder) railway was opened.[12]
In the post-communist era, following the collapse of its main employer
VEB Halbleiterwerk, Frankfurt has suffered from high
unemployment and low
economic growth. Its population has fallen significantly from around 87,000 at the time of German reunification in 1990. The only remnant of semiconductor technology industries in Frankfurt by 2003 was the
Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics (IHPM) institute.
Today, the towns of Frankfurt and
Słubice have friendly relations and run several common projects and facilities. Poland joined the
European Union on 1 May 2004, and implemented the
Schengen Agreement on 21 December 2007 leading to the removal of permanent border controls.
In March 2008, the
Jewish community of Frankfurt celebrated its first
Torah dedication since
the Holocaust. The procession of the new Torah scroll began from the spot where the town's Frankfurter Synagogue stood prior to World War II, 500 meters from Germany's current border with Poland. Celebrants marched with the scroll into the town's
Chabad-Lubavitch centre, where they danced with the
Torah, which had been donated by members of the Chabad-Lubavitch community in Berlin.[17]
Demography
Development of population since 1875 within the current boundaries (blue line: population; dotted line: comparison to population development of Brandenburg state)
Recent population development and projections (population development before Census 2011 (blue line); recent population development according to the
Census in Germany in 2011 (blue bordered line); official projections for 2005–2030 (yellow line); for 2017–2030 (scarlet line); for 2020–2030 (green line)
Frankfurt (Oder): Population development within the current boundaries (2020)[18]
The Margraviate of Brandenburg's first university was Frankfurt's Alma Mater Viadrina, founded in 1506 by
Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg. An early chancellor, Bishop
Georg von Blumenthal (1490–1550), was a notable opponent of the
Protestant Reformation, as he remained a
Catholic. Frankfurt also trained the noted archbishop
Albert of Brandenburg around 1510, who also became a vocal opponent of the Reformation. The university was closed in 1811, and its assets divided between two new universities founded under King
Frederick William III: Frederick William University of Berlin, presently
Humboldt University; and the Silesian Frederick William University in
Breslau, presently the
University of Wrocław.
Frankfurt (Oder), being located on the border to Poland, plays a special role in connection with
German–Polish relations and
European integration. The
European University Viadrina has one of its buildings in Poland, in the neighbouring town of Słubice. The university also has a number of projects and initiatives dedicated to bringing Poland and Germany together, and offers its students pro bono Polish courses.
Another project that contributes to
German–Polish integration in Frankfurt (Oder) is the Fforst House,[19] a German-Polish student project, which has been granted support by the town's administration[20] and by the
Viadrina,[21] having been described by the former president of the university,
Gesine Schwan, as the place where "Europe begins".[22]
^Märkische Oderzeitung/Frankfurter Stadtbote, 7. Juli 2006, p. 15.
^Rymar, Edward (1979). "Rywalizacja o ziemię lubuską i kasztelanię międzyrzecką w latach 1319–1326, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem stosunków pomorsko-śląskch". Śląski Kwartalnik Historyczny Sobótka (in Polish). XXXIV (4). Wrocław:
Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, Wydawnictwo
Polskiej Akademii Nauk: 481.
^Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom II (in Polish). Warszawa. 1881. p. 402.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
The
City of Frankfurt (Oder) has a website (available in English translation as well as in
German and in
Polish) with some limited commerce and cultural information.
Slubice.pl – official site of Frankfurt's border town Słubice