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Eisenhüttenstadt

Coordinates: 52°08′42″N 14°40′22″E / 52.14500°N 14.67278°E / 52.14500; 14.67278
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Eisenhüttenstadt
Pśibrjog (Lower Sorbian)
Town
Coat of arms of Eisenhüttenstadt
Coat of arms
Location of Eisenhüttenstadt within Oder-Spree district
Location of Eisenhüttenstadt within Oder-Spree district
[mapframe not available on SimWiki]
Interactive map of Eisenhüttenstadt
Location within Germany
Location within Brandenburg
Coordinates: 52°08′42″N 14°40′22″E / 52.14500°N 14.67278°E / 52.14500; 14.67278
CountryGermany
StateBrandenburg
DistrictOder-Spree
Subdivisions4 districts
Government
 • Mayor (2017–25)Frank Balzer[1] (SPD)
Area
 • Total
63.48 km2 (24.51 sq mi)
Elevation
42 m (138 ft)
Population
 (2025-12-31)[2]
 • Total
24,791
 • Density390.5/km2 (1,011/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes
15890
Dialling codes03364
Vehicle registrationLOS, EH
Websitewww.eisenhuettenstadt.de

Eisenhüttenstadt (German pronunciation: [aɪzn̩ˈhʏtn̩ʃtat]; lit. 'ironworks city') is a town in the Oder-Spree district of Brandenburg, Germany. It is located at the confluence of the Oder–Spree Canal and the River Oder on the border with Poland. Eisenhüttenstadt was founded as a planned city by East Germany in 1950, as a socialist model city and a state-owned steel mill complex. It was known as Stalinstadt (Lower Sorbian: Stalinměsto) between 1953 and 1961, in honor of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, and received its current name during the de-Stalinization campaign.

Geography

The municipal area is situated on a sandy terrace in the Berlin-Warsaw glacial valley (Urstromtal). It is bounded by the Oder river and Germany–Poland border to the east. Eisenhüttenstadt is the eastern terminus of the Oder–Spree Canal. The town centre is located about 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of Frankfurt (Oder) and 110 km (68 mi) southeast of Berlin. Eisenhüttenstadt is served by the Berlin–Wrocław railway line.

The town comprises the districts of Diehlo, Fürstenberg (Oder), and Schönfließ.[3]

History

The town was built near the historic village of Fürstenberg (Oder) which was founded in 1251. In 1319, Fürstenberg (Polish: Przybrzeg)[4][5] became part of the Duchy of Jawor within fragmented Piast-ruled Poland.[6] Later on, it passed to the Kingdom of Bohemia, and Charles IV bought the town from the Cistercians of Neuzelle and allowed the construction of a bridge over the Oder to create a new trade route to Poland.[5] In 1469, it passed to King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, and, in 1490, it returned to Bohemia. After the Peace of Prague in 1635, Fürstenberg became part of the Electorate of Saxony. In 1815, it was transferred to Prussia, and, in 1871, it became part of the German Empire. In 1925, a port on the Oder was created.

During World War II, the Germans operated the Stalag III-B prisoner-of-war camp for Polish, French, Belgian, Serbian, Soviet, American, Dutch, Italian and British POWs in Fürstenberg with several forced labour subcamps in the town and region, a forced labour camp for Jewish men, and a subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.[7][8][9]

The present-day town was founded as a socialist model city in 1950 following a decision by the East German Socialist Unity Party (SED), alongside a new steel mill combine located west of the historic town of Fürstenberg (Oder).[10] A few years before the new town was established, a bridge over the Oder river had been constructed, the earlier one having been destroyed by retreating Wehrmacht forces in February 1945, near the end of World War II.

The population grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s. It was renamed Stalinstadt following the death of Joseph Stalin. In 1961, during de-Stalinization, the town was renamed Eisenhüttenstadt. After German reunification in 1990, the state-owned steel works were privatized, and most of its 12,000 employees lost their jobs. Thereafter the factory employed around 2,500 workers.[11] The town experienced a steep decline in population, from just over 50,000 to under 30,000. Consequently, many apartment blocks have now been demolished, although some in the inner city dating from the 1950s have been renovated and restored.[12]

Demography

Architecture

The first design for the new residential quarter was developed by the modernist and Bauhaus architect, Franz Ehrlich, in August 1950. His modernist plan, which laid out a dispersed town landscape along functional lines, was rejected by the Ministry for Reconstruction. The same happened to the plan presented by the architects Kurt Junghanns and Otto Geiler. The plan that was ultimately realized was developed by Kurt Walter Leucht.[14][15]

Twin towns – sister cities

Eisenhüttenstadt is twinned with:[16]

Notable people

Eisenhüttenstadt is the birthplace of:

Other personalities associated with the city

  • Bernhard Lösener (1890–1952), jurist.
  • Rudolf Bahro (1935–1997), regime critic and author of the book The alternative. A critique of real-existing socialism., spent his school days in the city.
  • Tamara Bunke (1937–1967), fellow combatant of Che Guevara in Bolivia, took her Abitur (school leaving examination) in Eisenhüttenstadt.
  • Rolf Henrich (born 1944), lawyer, first signatory of the Founding Congress of the New Forum.

References

  1. ↑ Landkreis Oder-Spree Wahl der Bürgermeisterin / des Bürgermeisters Archived 9 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 2 July 2021.
  2. ↑ "Bevölkerungsstand im Land Brandenburg Dezember 2025 (Fortgeschriebene amtliche Einwohnerzahlen, basierend auf dem Zensus 2022)" (XLS). Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg (in German).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  3. ↑ "Stadt Eisenhüttenstadt". Land Brandenburg (in Deutsch). Archived from the original on 23 October 2020. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
  4. ↑ Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny Sztabu Generalnego W.P. (1947). "Legnica" (Map). Mapa Polski. 1:500,000 (in polski).
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Pieradzka, Krystyna (1949). "Związki handlowe Łużyc ze Śląskiem w dawnych wiekach". Sobótka (in polski). IV (4). Wrocław: 91.
  6. ↑ Paulitz, Johann Gottlob. Chronik der Stadt Senftenberg und der zum ehemaligen Amte Senftenberg gehörigen Ortschaften (in Deutsch). Dresden. p. 67.
  7. ↑ Megargee, Geoffrey P.; Overmans, Rüdiger; Vogt, Wolfgang (2022). The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume IV. Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. pp. 405–406. ISBN 978-0-253-06089-1.
  8. ↑ "Zwangsarbeitslager für Juden Fürstenberg". Bundesarchiv.de (in Deutsch). Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  9. ↑ "Anlage zu § 1. Verzeichnis der Konzentrationslager und ihrer Außenkommandos gemäß § 42 Abs. 2 BEG" (in Deutsch). Archived from the original on 23 April 2009. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  10. ↑ "Eisenhüttenstadt". Eisenhuettenstadt (in Deutsch).
  11. ↑ Emily Young (28 April 2014). "Germany: The rise and fall of a model socialist city". BBC News. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  12. ↑ "Eisenhuttenstadt". DW.
  13. ↑ Detailed data sources are to be found in the Wikimedia Commons.Population Projection Brandenburg at Wikimedia Commons
  14. ↑ "BernhFalter.pmd" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 June 2007. Retrieved 4 June 2007.
  15. ↑ "Architektur & Denkmalschutz". Eisenhuettenstadt (in Deutsch). Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 6 August 2009.
  16. ↑ "Unsere Partnerstädte". eisenhuettenstadt.de (in Deutsch). Eisenhüttenstadt. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  17. ↑ "Saarlouis – deutsch-deutsche Partner und Freunde seit über 30 Jahren". eisenhuettenstadt.de (in Deutsch). Eisenhüttenstadt. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
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