FRANKFURT (ODER)

'Frankfurt' is a city in Brandenburg, Germany located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the town of Słubice which was a part of Frankfurt until 1945. At the end of the 1980s it reached a population peak with more than 87,000 inhabitants. The number dropped below 70,000 in 2002 and is expected to reach 58,000 in 2010.^[2]
The official name 'Frankfurt (Oder)' and the older and now informal 'Frankfurt an der Oder' are used to distinguish it from the larger city of Frankfurt am Main.

Contents

History

European university

Films set in Frankfurt

Gallery

References

External links

History

The town of Frankfurt was chartered in 1253 at the free ford (''frank furt'' means a free crossing) known as the Brandendamm, although the settlement is probably considerably older. The early settlers lived on the western banks of the Oder: later the town was extended to the eastern bank (today's Słubice). In late medieval times the town dominated the trade on the river between Wrocław (Breslau) and Szczecin (Stettin). In 1430 Frankfurt joined the Hanseatic League, but was a member for only a short time.
In the 19th century, Frankfurt played an important role in trade. Centrally positioned in the Kingdom of Prussia between Berlin and Poznań, on the heavily-trafficked river Oder, the city housed the second-largest annual trade fair (''Messe'') of the German Reich, surpassed only by that in Leipzig.
There was intense fighting for the city in 1945 when the city was declared a fortress (''Festung'') in an attempt to block the Soviets' route to Berlin. The postwar German-Polish border ran along the Oder, separating the ''Dammvorstadt'' on the eastern bank from the rest of Frankfurt; it became the Polish town of Słubice.
Today, the towns have friendly relations and run several common projects and facilities. Poland joined the European Union on 1 May 2004, and intends to implement the Schengen Agreement in coming years, leading to the removal of permanent border controls.
In the post-communist era 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.
FC Viktoria Frankfurt is the town's local football team.

European university

Main articles: Viadrina European University

Prussia's university was founded in Frankfurt in 1506. It was founded by the Elector of Brandenburg. An early chancellor, Bishop Georg von Blumenthal (1490-1550), was a notable opponent of the 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 the new universities in Berlin (today's Humboldt University) and Breslau (University of Wrocław).
The university was refounded in 1991 under the old name, but with a European emphasis, as the Viadrina European University, with close cooperation with the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań; they jointly run the Collegium Polonicum in Słubice.

Films set in Frankfurt

In recent years, Frankfurt has been the setting for several notable German films:

★ 2002 ''Halbe Treppe'' (''Grill Point'')

★ 2003 ''Lichter'' (''Distant Lights'')

★ 2004 ''Die Kinder sind tot'' (''The Children Are Dead'', a documentary about a 1999 murder-by-neglect in Frankfurt)

★ 2004 ''No Exit'' (Documentary about Neo-Nazis)

★ 2005 ''Kombat Sechzehn'' (''Combat Sixteen'')

Gallery

References

1. Population data
2. Bevölkerungsprognose (Ergänzungsbericht)

External links

★ The City of Frankfurt (Oder) has a German language-only web site with some limited commerce and cultural information.

★ slubice.pl - official site of Frankfurt's border town Słubice

★ www.frankfurt.pl & www.slubice.de - a student project

★ Tram Frankfurt (Oder)