Frankfurt-on-Oder
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Frankfurt-on-Oder (German: Frankfurt an der Oder or Frankfurt/Oder; Latin: Francofurtum ad Oderam) is an old and important city in Brandenburg on the commercial route to Poland and beyond, and was the seat of a university from 1506 to 1811, when it was removed to Breslau. The city is connected by a bridge with the former Oderdamm suburb on the right bank of the river Oder, which is today occupied by Poland, following the Stalin's illegal award to Poland of the German provinces east of the Oder, which became a border, in 1945.
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History
An early mediaeval settlement of Franconian colonists and traders, Frankfurt was chartered in 1253 and joined the Hanseatic League in 1368. Eleven years later it received the right to free navigation on the Oder, and, later, its fairs became important. It has an inland harbour on the Oder about 6 miles north of its junction with the Oder-Spree canal, and remains an important railway link.
The Wilhelmplatz, where the theatre and post-office were situated in 1904 then contained an equestrian statue of the Emperor Wilhelm I (1900) by the sculptor Max Ungar, also responsible for the [still extant] statue of Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia (1828-1885) in front of St.Gertraud's Church Rectory. The nearby Church of St.Mary is a good example of Prussian red brick architecture of the 13th century. The gilded wood-carvings over the altar are from 1419; the font is from 1376. The Rathaus (Town Hall) on the Market-place was rebuilt between 1607 and 1610. The Thirty Years' War reached the city in 1626 when Peter Ernst II's army of Mansfeld, defeated by Wallenstein near Dessau, fled through the city to the east. After the end of the war in 1648, the university regained its importance; 250 students were enrolled that year. Over the course of the Thirty Years' War, the population fell from around 12,000 to 2,366. The city was no longer able to recover economically from the extorted war contributions.
The Prussian Regiment No. 24 “von Schwendy” was based in Frankfurt in 1720. Hans Joachim von Zieten (de) also served in this regiment as an ensign. He was passed over for promotion four times by his regimental commander because of his poor soldierly qualities, but later rose to the rank of General of the Cavalry. The first regimental commander was Major General Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin. To the south of the Halbe Stadt Promenade is a granite obelisk to the poet Major Ewald Christian von Kleist (de) who was killed in action here of wounds received at the battle of Kunersdorf in 1759[1] during the Seven Years War. In Oderdamm there was a monument erected in 1787 of Leopold, Duke of Brunswick, who was drowned in 1785.[2] This was destroyed by the Polish occupiers after May 1945.
From October 1806, during the Coalition Wars, the city was occupied by the French and served as a garrison and staging area for the Napoleonic army. At the beginning of February 1811, the Frankfurter received the final news of the relocation of the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt to Breslau. The reason was the university opened in Berlin by Wilhelm von Humboldt the previous year which was to near. The students' farewell celebration took place on 10 August 1811.
After their defeat in the Russian campaign in 1812, the remnants of the Napoleonic army streamed through Frankfurt in January 1813 and burned down the Oder bridge at the end of February out of fear of the advancing Imperial Russians and the German Freikorps. The last French garrison left the city at the beginning of March 1813. According to an ordinance dated 17 March 1813, a Landwehr made up of volunteers was formed. It was led by Captain Heinrich Karl Ludwig Bardeleben. On 31 July 1814, the 3rd Kurmärkische Landwehr, a Prussian infantry regiment, returned to the city. Bardeleben then lived as a judicial commissioner, politician and justice councilor in Frankfurt and made a great contribution to the historiography of the city. Friedrich August Wilhelm von Brause became commander of the 5th Division in Frankfurt in 1818. He died here in 1836 and was buried in the old cemetery, today's Kleistpark.
The first stone Oder bridge was inaugurated in 1895. After several years of discussions about the type of drive for the tram, Mayor Paul Adolph signed a contract with AEG in 1896. The property at Fischerstrasse 6/Bachgasse 4 was acquired for the construction of a tram depot including a power station. The power station, built as a direct current power station, began trial operation in 1897. After successful trial operation, the power station was considered open on 23 December 1897. On 22 January 1898, the depot in Bachgasse was inaugurated at the same time as electric tram operations began in Frankfurt.
WWII
In March and April 1945, the Oderfront (against the Red Army) was under the command of Infantry General Theodor Busse (1897–1986; de) – suitably as he was born in Frankfurt. During World War II, Frankfurt was besieged by the Red Army and seriously damaged, but was afterwards reconstructed.
Population
In 1625, the city of the Holy Roman Empire had 13,000 inhabitants, in 1653, due to the Thirty Years' War, famine and disease, only 2,366. In 1816, 15,600 citizens lived in the city. In 1904, the city had 61,800 inhabitants.[3] Its population in 1988, as an important industrial city of the GDR, was 87,123.[4] After the partial reunification of Germany in 1990, many inhabitants moved to the west to Berlin and beyond. The population in 2019 was counted at 57,873.
