History of the city of Frankfurt (Oder)
This article deals with the history of the city of Frankfurt (Oder) .
13th Century
As a result of the medieval warm period , the water levels of the Baltic Sea and Oder rose after 1200 , so that the 6 km wide Lebuser Bruch , which is crossed by watercourses and swamps, became more difficult to pass. In the future city of Frankfurt, however, the Oder valley narrowed to 2 km. This crossing was easier to pass and shortened the way to the Spree and thus via the Havel and Elbe to Magdeburg . Therefore, a merchant settlement developed here.
The origin of the name Vrankenforde (elsewhere also: Frankenforde, Francfurd, Franckfurde etc.) is not certain. German merchants were commonly called "Franks" at this time. That could be the explanation for the first part of the market settlement's name. A ford is a shallow spot in the river where you can cross the river. However, there is no flat spot in the Oder near Frankfurt.
Heinrich I, from the Silesian Piast family, who was married to St. Hedwig von Andechs , promoted the market settlement. In 1225 the Duke of Silesia granted her market and settlement rights . He also had two mills built on the Klingeflie, a tributary of the Oder . The first church was built around 1226. Dedicated to St. Nicholas , it was a predecessor of today's Friedenskirche .
In 1249/1250, the Archbishop of Magdeburg, Wilbrand von Käfernburg, and the Ascanian margraves, Johann I and Otto III, ruled together . the pious , great-grandson of Albrecht the Bear , took possession of the land of Lebus . The influx of wealthy long-distance traders from northwest Germany and Flanders increased. Probably in 1252 the state of Lebus was divided between Magdeburg and Brandenburg. The elevation of Frankfurt to the city of 1253 by the Ascanians is said to have been strategically directed against their Magdeburg arch-rivals, among other things, who were based in the city of Lebus . In 1253, or at the latest in 1258, Johann I and Otto III ruled. the whole country of Lebus.
Awarded city charter in 1253
Gottfried von Herzberg , City Schulze von Frankfurt, conducted the negotiations at Spandau Castle with Johann I. The Margrave of Brandenburg issued the town's charter on Saturday, July 12, 1253. The Berlin city law, which was derived from Magdeburg city law , should apply . Marsilius de Berlin testified to the document.
On July 14, 1253, the following Monday, a supplementary certificate was issued. This document secured the future city "Vrankenvorde" the sole settlement rights in their radius and more land and right of Or.
The oldest surviving city seal dates from 1294 . The city coat of arms , which is still valid today, is derived from this city seal . The original seal has been lost since 1945.
Power games 1326–1354
The Bishop of Lebus , Stephan II. Negotiated on behalf of the Pope with King Władysław I. Ellenlang . Władysław allied with the Lithuanians and invaded the Mark Brandenburg with them . The Polish-Lithuanian army also besieged Frankfurt, but was unsuccessful. In 1328 the Polish-Lithuanian army was still moving through the march. The Frankfurters dared to venture out of the city and attacked the carefree enemies near Tzschetzschnow (today Güldendorf ). They inflicted a serious defeat on the Polish-Lithuanian army. 200 villages had already been destroyed when Emperor Ludwig finally appeared and drove out Poles and Lithuanians. The hatred of the Frankfurters turned in 1334 against the Lubusz bishop Stephan II. He had brought Poles and Lithuanians into the country. In addition, he had quarreled with Frankfurt before because he unjustly demanded tithing from him . Under the leadership of Captain Erich von Wulkow , the people of Frankfurt attacked the Göritz bishop's residence and burned down the cathedral and the episcopal palace. After this defeat, the bishop was friendly towards Frankfurt. He even wanted to raise the St. Mary's Church in Frankfurt to the Domkirche (cathedral). However, Emperor Ludwig opposed this. Nevertheless, a contract was reached between the city and the bishop in which Frankfurt was again allowed to hold church services. At the same time the ban was lifted. In 1338 new rifts arose between Bishop Stephan II and Frankfurt. Stephan complained to Pope Benedict XII. , and Frankfurt was banned again. The bull of excommunication dated December 24th from Avignon .
In 1342 the Wittelsbach Emperor Ludwig annulled the marriage of Margravine Margarete von Tirol for personal reasons . He then gave her to his son Margrave Ludwig the Brandenburger as his wife, which made Tyrol into Bavarian property. The future Emperor Charles IV felt challenged by these events . He was the brother of Margarete's divorced husband. Pope John XXII. felt his rights were violated by the separation. He took sides against Kaiser Ludwig and banned him and his son . The subjects were thus released from the oath of loyalty to their margrave. Frankfurt was also affected by the ban, but stuck to Margrave Ludwig.
In 1348 a man appeared in the march who incorrectly pretended to be the late Ascanian Woldemar . The later Emperor Charles IV made use of this man to control the Mark that had fallen to the Wittelsbachers .
In this seemingly hopeless situation, Frankfurt stood by the Wittelsbach Margrave Ludwig the Elder because it feared for his privileges. Emperor Charles IV had the city besieged at the beginning of October, but was unable to take it. Frankfurt was well rewarded for his assistance from Margrave Ludwig and was given the right to build mills, he was given the escort that had previously only been pledged to him, and the city was waived the Urbede , a sovereign tax. In 1354 the papal ban was lifted through the mediation of the new Lebuser bishop Heinrich von Banz , whereupon trade and wealth increased.
Hanseatic League, Hussite, university
Frankfurt was named as a participant in the files of the Lübeck day trip in 1430 . Only members of the Hanseatic League were allowed to take part in the day trips - as a result, Frankfurt had been a member of the Hanse by this year at the latest.
The Hussites burned down the Guben suburb in 1432. The Carthusian monastery was also reduced to rubble. The attack on the city itself on April 13, 1432 failed.
The fish above the southern decorative gable of the town hall, which probably symbolizes the right to "elevate" the herring barrels, is dated to the year 1454. In 1496, as part of the strengthening of central power in the form of the elector who had established his residence in Berlin , Frankfurt lost the freedom of council elections and the supreme court and had to pay the Urbede again.
At the end of the 15th century, the 36 hectare city area was enclosed by a 2.5 km long city wall with three gates and 50 guard houses and towers.
The university building was completed in 1506 and the city had built 1,100 shock groschen into the magnificent main building. Thanks to the electoral council Eitelwolf vom Stein and Dietrich von Bülow , Bishop of Lebus and then first Chancellor of the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt , teaching at the university began at the end of January with the humanistic lecture given by the first “appointed” teacher, Axungia . The opening ceremony took place on April 26th in the presence of Elector Joachim I and his brother Albrecht . 950 academics, among them the young Ulrich von Hutten , came in the first year, more than at any other German university up to then. The first rector is the Leipzig theologian Konrad Wimpina (Konrad Koch from Wimpfen ). Also in the year the university opened, residents were forbidden from allowing their cattle to roam freely in the city. The reason, however, was not a concern about hygiene, but the fear that the students might mess around with the animals.
In 1506 Johannes Aesticampianus (also Rhagius) accepted the call to the newly founded Brandenburg University of Frankfurt, where he became professor of poetics and rhetoric. One of his students was Ulrich von Hutten , whom he had already met in Mainz in 1505 and who followed him to Frankfurt in 1506. Furthermore, other students gathered around Rhagius, such as the nephews of the Bishop of Lebus, since he was the first scholar to teach Greek. As a polemic humanist, he got into an argument with the leading theologian Konrad Wimpina and, as a result, left Frankfurt with some of his students in 1508 to turn to Leipzig.
Martin Luther posted his theses in Wittenberg in 1517, which were also directed against Albrecht, now Archbishop of Magdeburg and Mainz. The Brandenburg University responded with a disputation on January 20, 1518 in front of 300 monks. The answer theses submitted by the Dominican monk and later indulgence preacher Johannes Tetzel , however, were written by the rector of the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt Konrad Wimpina. They were approved by the congregation, and Luther was considered refuted. In the following, many students turned away from Frankfurt and moved to Wittenberg .
In the same year, at the request of Elector Joachim I. Frankfurt formally left the Hanseatic League . 1535 the first Civil Musiziergemeinschaft Germany was in Frankfurt convivium musicum by Jodocus Willich founded. In it twelve people dealt with secular music and discussed musical questions.
Michael Abel , born in Frankfurt in 1542, was rector of the city's high school from 1587 to 1594.
In 1599 the fishermen's guild was founded in Frankfurt.
In 1548 the oldest surviving cityscape of Frankfurt appeared in Sebastian Munster's “Cosmographey”.
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War reached the city in 1626, when the army of Peter Ernst II von Mansfeld, defeated by Wallenstein near Dessau , fled eastwards through the city.
Elector Georg Wilhelm asked the Brandenburg estates to set up a standing army . Colonel Hillebrand von Kracht was commissioned with the formation of 3,000 infantry . On May 1st, nine companies were called up on foot for this "at the bird bars near the Carthaus" (today's Anger). This event was considered to be the foundation of the 4th Grenadiers and is viewed as the foundation of the Prussian Army in general. Two companies on foot remained in Frankfurt, and one company on horseback was transferred here.
In 1627 the elector allied himself with the emperor, and Frankfurt received an imperial occupation. The 4th Grenadiers, which had only been set up here last year, left the city. At times Wallenstein stayed in town. In 1631 the imperial general Tilly came to Frankfurt, but with the main force of the imperial army he evaded the Swedes to the west.
As commander of the remaining 5000 men, Rudolph von Teuffenbach had the suburbs burned down so that the troops advancing from Lebus could not establish themselves there. However, the smoke had the opposite effect: under his protection, Gustav II Adolf of Sweden made preparations for the conquest of the strategically important fortress city. On April 3, the battle for Frankfurt began , during which the imperial family fled across the Oder bridge . Many fell into the river and drowned. After the storming of the city, a night of horror followed, in which the victorious troops sacked the city. Soon afterwards, the plague broke out, killing nearly 4,000 people in Frankfurt.
Before the attack by the Swedes, Lieutenant Colonel Walter Butler had led troops from Poland to reinforce the imperial army in Frankfurt (Oder). During the storming of the city by the Swedes, he defended the northern city gate with his Irish regiment. The resistance must have impressed militarily: only a few of his soldiers survived; he himself was hit in the arm by a musket ball and wounded in the hip by a halberd before giving up. His bravery impressed even the Swedish King Gustav Adolf. He had the captured butler brought to Stettin for medical treatment - an unusually high recognition according to the code of honor of the time. After eight months of imprisonment, Butler received alarming news from his relative, Jakob Butler. His superior, Colonel Boheim, had accused Walter Butler through a courier to the Kaiser of being responsible for the loss of the city of Frankfurt. Butler immediately bought himself free for 1000 thalers and had Gustav Adolf certify his bravery in the face of the enemy. Butler also helped with propaganda: a leaflet appeared in Frankfurt full of praise for Butler's deeds. Field Marshal Rudolph von Teuffenbach had commanded the defense of Frankfurt in 1631. Butler went to see him in Silesia, where he forced his accuser Boheim to publicly revoke the allegations made.
Peace and war
After the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, the university regained importance, 250 students were enrolled that year. In the course of the Thirty Years' War the population had decreased from around 12,000 to 2,366. Economically, the city could no longer recover from the extorted war contributions .
Johann Christoph Bekmann studied in Frankfurt from 1659 and passed his master's examination in 1661 under the Reformed theologian Elias Grebnitz . In the same year he started teaching here. In 1663 Beckmann became the first librarian at the Viadrina and held this position until his death in 1717. In 1667 he became professor of Greek in Frankfurt; In 1678 Beckmann also received an extraordinary professorship for history. Beckmann received his doctorate in theology in 1672, was elected rector of the university for the first time and began to campaign for the restoration and maintenance of the library with increased interest. The highlights of his work for the library were the publication of the first printed, alphabetical library catalog ("Catalogus bibliothecae univ. Francofurtanae") and the acquisition of the extensive collection of Gottlieb Pelargus .
Matthäus Gottfried Purmann carried out the first successful blood transfusion from lamb to human on German soil in Frankfurt in 1668 . A gentleman Welslein was blood exchange of leprosy ( leprosy cured) - 200 years before the Vienna pathologist Dr. Karl Landsteiner was born, the AB0 - blood group system discovered. The city's first post office opened on April 1, 1661 in the Bishop's House due to the establishment of a mail route from Berlin to Breslau by Elector Friedrich Wilhelm. Before that, city messengers had been responsible for the post office since at least 1516. Ten years later the post office had to be relocated because the knight academy was taking up the space. The house at Oderstrasse 29 , where it was to remain for the next 150 years, became the new post office building .
In 1680, the young scientist Bernhard Friedrich Albinus planned to establish himself as a doctor in Dessau, but followed an appointment to professor of medicine at the Brandenburg University in Frankfurt. Soon afterwards he was appointed personal physician to the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm . He stayed most of the time at his court in Berlin, but kept his professorship in Frankfurt. Albinus was appointed rector of Frankfurt University in 1687. With the death of the Great Elector Friedrich Wilhelm I in 1688, Albinus was able to devote more time to his work at the university. So he developed a new method of cataract surgery . In 1696 Bernhard Albinus married Susanna Catharina Rings , the eldest daughter of the Frankfurt law professor Thomas Siegfried Rings. In 1697 their son Bernhard Siegfried Albinus was born in Frankfurt , who was to follow in his father's footsteps. Elector Friedrich III. appointed Bernhard Friedrich Albinus in 1697 as his personal physician. After long resistance by King Friedrich I (the former Elector Friedrich III, who was crowned last year), Albinus left Frankfurt in 1702 and was appointed to the University of Leiden.
The first school in Brandenburg was inaugurated in Frankfurt on July 1, 1694, around 23 years before compulsory schooling was introduced. It was named Friedrichsgymnasium - attributed to Friedrich III, Elector of Brandenburg and later Friedrich I , King of Prussia ("the crooked Fritz").
In 1702 Samuel von Cocceji , son of Heinrich von Cocceji , was a professor at Frankfurt University. He would later become Grand Chancellor under Frederick II and reform the Prussian judiciary.
The Prussian regiment No. 24 “von Schwendy” received its headquarters in Frankfurt in 1720. In this regiment, Hans Joachim von Zieten also served as an ensign, who was passed over four times during promotion by his regimental commander because of poor soldier qualities, but later made it up to general. The first regimental commander was Major General Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin .
On January 20, 1723, there was a major fire in the Lubusz suburb, in which 84 houses were destroyed and eight people were killed. Five people were put to death as arsonists.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach enrolled at the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt in 1734, where he became a member of the Collegium musicum there. In addition to his own early compositions, he performed works by his father Johann Sebastian Bach there. In 1738 he completed his studies, but gave up his plans for an academic career in order to devote himself to music, and became a harpsichordist in Ruppin in the chapel of the Prussian Crown Prince Friedrich .
In 1740 the eminent German philosopher Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten became "Professor of World Wisdom and Fine Sciences" at Frankfurt University. In 1743 and 1752 he was elected their rector. Immanuel Kant , who held Baumgarten in high esteem, used his “ Metaphysica” and “ Initia philosophiae practicae primae” as the basis for his own lectures on metaphysics and practical philosophy. Baumgarten's wife Luisa Wilhelmina Alemann died in Frankfurt in 1745 after a childless marriage. On October 22, 1748 Baumgarten married Justina Elisabeth Albinus in St. Mary's Church , with whom he had four children between 1751 and 1762. Baumgarten died "after midnight between May 26 and 27 (1762) [...] after 3 o'clock in the night" () of consumption. His wife drowned in the Oder two years later.
On May 20, 1757, the funeral procession of Field Marshal Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin, who had fallen on May 6 near Prague via Dresden , arrived on the onward journey to Schwerinsburg (Pomerania). From 1723 von Schwerin lived for many years as regimental commander and owner of the infantry regiment "von Schwendy" in Frankfurt. On May 22nd, the celebration of the victory in the Battle of Prague became the memorial service for von Schwerin. The funeral procession left Frankfurt on May 23.
At the end of July 1759, a Russian vanguard under General Alexander Guillemot de Villebois occupied the dam suburb. The small garrison under Major von Arnim withdrew after a short bombardment. General de Villebois demanded 600,000 thalers contributions from the city. The Austrians who arrived later made the same request. Thanks to the negotiating skills of Mayor Ungnad, the total claim was reduced to 100,000 thalers.
On August 12, 1759, Frederick II suffered his worst defeat in the battle of Kunersdorf : the Prussian army was defeated by the united Russians and Austrians. He was saved by a tobacco can, which held an eleven millimeter ball away. 19,000 men were killed; among them Ewald Christian von Kleist . Kunersdorf is on the eastern side of the Odra, not far from Frankfurt.
On October 10, 1777, the poet and writer (including The Broken Jug) Bernd Heinrich Wilhelm von Kleist was born.
On April 28, 1785, the dam broke during the spring flood and the entire dam suburb was flooded. The only casualty was garrison commander Leopold von Braunschweig , whose boat turned over on the way to the rescue work. The legend that the Duke tried to save citizens trapped by the flood from danger and died in the process was born in Frankfurt right after the accident and spread in no time at all. Its originator was the pastor of the French Reformed Congregation in Frankfurt, Jacques Papin, who hastily published it in the Berlin journals and also reported it to his father-in-law, the engraver Daniel Chodowiecki , in Berlin. Out of pity for the flood victims and in honor of the heroically lost Duke, Chodowiecki created a copperplate in good faith. Chodowiecki placed a related "statement" by the Duke under the picture. This sentence also came from the pen of the son-in-law, who did not reproduce a statement by the duke, but hit a nerve of the time: “I am a person like you, and here it depends on saving people.” Report, sentence and engraving caused a stir. On the initiative of the Freemasons' lodge in Frankfurt “Zum Aufrichtigen Herzen” and based on a design by Bernhard Rhode, a seven-meter-high monument made of sandstone was created in 1787 . It was set up on August 11, 1787 on the Prinzenufer in the Dammvorstadt , where the Duke's body is said to have been pulled out of the water.
Carl August Wilhelm Berends , who had studied medicine and philosophy in Frankfurt and Vienna, became a full professor at the University of Frankfurt in 1788. During this time Berends criticized the Thielschen Hospital in Frankfurt , which he complained about as being too small because of its only eight beds. A larger one was not built until much later, around 1835. In 1789 he published his book On the teaching of young doctors before the bedside , based on his experiences in the hospital mentioned. After the Frankfurt University was closed in 1811, he went to the new Silesian Friedrich Wilhelms University in Breslau as rector . In 1815 the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III appointed him . as head of the Berlin Charité.
In 1791 Georg Michael Rehfeldt, a former Prussian officer, became a postmaster. Six years later he was post-director and with 1,200 thalers a year, he was the city's best-paid civil servant. The mayor, Paul Heinrich Trummer , received 200 thalers less.
The later composer and piano teacher Ludwig Berger attended grammar school in Frankfurt and from 1795 the university.
Napoleonic Wars and leaving the university
From October 1806 the city was a garrison and staging post of the Napoleonic army.
At the beginning of February 1811, the Frankfurters received the final news of the relocation of the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt to Breslau . The reason was the university that Wilhelm von Humboldt opened in Berlin last year . The farewell party for the students took place on August 10th.
After their defeat, the remnants of the Napoleonic Army streamed through Frankfurt in January 1813 and burned down the Oder Bridge at the end of February for fear of the advancing Russians. The last French occupation left the city in early March. According to an ordinance of March 17, a Landwehr was formed from volunteers. It was led by Captain Heinrich Karl Ludwig Bardeleben . On July 31, 1814, the 3rd Kurmärkische Landwehr , an infantry regiment, returned to the city. Afterwards, Bardeleben lived as a judicial commissioner and judicial advisor in Frankfurt and did a great deal of service to the history 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.
Regional administrative center in the 19th century
As a replacement for the relocation of the university to Breslau , Frankfurt became the seat of the government of the new Frankfurt administrative district and a higher regional court on January 1, 1816 .
The Frankfurt district, formed in 1816, consisted of the city of Frankfurt and areas that had previously belonged to the Brandenburg districts Lebus and Sternberg , including the suburbs Carthaus, Kliestow , Boossen , Buschmühle, Lossow , Rosengarten , Schiffersruh, Tschetschnow and Ziegelei. The district office for the Lebus district was also located in Frankfurt .
On January 1, 1827, the Frankfurt district was dissolved again. The district of the district, the area outside the city of Frankfurt an der Oder, initially fell entirely to the Lebus district. On January 1, 1836, the places originally from the Sternberg district changed from the Lebus district back to the Sternberg district, which restored the historical district boundaries. The city of Frankfurt was independent again in 1827, but remained the capital of the Lebus district.
The Jewish hospital with 15 beds, financed by members of the Jewish community, was inaugurated at Rosenstrasse 36 on May 13, 1838 at 11 a.m. Due to inefficiency, it served as a trade fair hotel from 1844 and as a retirement home from 1866.
In 1842 the Berlin – Frankfurt (Oder) railway line was inaugurated. In 1850 the Oberpostdirektion was established in the commandant's house at Oderstrasse 27.
The future writer Gertraut Chales de Beaulieu was born in Frankfurt in 1846 and grew up here. In her works she mostly dealt with the Berlin petty bourgeoisie in a humorous and satirical way, but also included social aspects of the workers critically in her work. Ottilie Baader , who became one of the leading women's rights activists in Germany, attended secondary school in Frankfurt for three years from 1857.
The later ethnologist Georg Buschan was born in Frankfurt in 1863. Hans-Henning von Burgsdorff was born on Gut Markendorf in 1866 . He later followed his father as entertainer at Gut Markendorf and Carzig . With a doctorate in law, he was a member of the Prussian mansion from 1900 until his death in 1917.
In 1886 the city's telegraph operator tested the telephone as a new invention for its suitability, but the city's telephone network was not operational until 1891, although the police and fire brigade were not connected because they had shown no interest. In 1899, after the general construction plan had been drawn up by the chief post office building officer Ernst Hake and the execution by Baron von Rechenberg, the new building of the chief post office, with the main post office, parcel post, telegraph office and the top post office on Wilhelmsplatz, began, which was completed in 1902.
In 1895 the first stone bridge over the Oder was inaugurated.
From September 1897 to September 1903, the later doctor and poet Gottfried Benn attended the Friedrichs-Gymnasium in Frankfurt, where he also obtained his school-leaving certificate. He lived for four years in a boarding house with Count Heinrich Finck von Finckenstein , who was the same age and whom he had known since his father's private tutoring with the family. Benn's grades were generally mediocre.
Theodor Busse was born in Frankfurt in 1897. In 1915 he joined the grenadier regiment "Prince Carl of Prussia" (2nd Brandenburg) No. 12 in Frankfurt as an officer candidate . At the end of the Second World War he commanded the 200,000 German soldiers in the Halbe pocket. After two years as a prisoner of war, he held leading positions in civil defense and civil protection in the Federal Republic of Germany and wrote works on military history.
The future prehistorian Gerhard Bersu , born in 1889, spent his childhood in Frankfurt as the son of a manufacturer. From a young age he participated in many excavations.
The later landscape painter Richard Blankenburg, born in Frankfurt in 1891, learned the profession of porcelain painter after attending the Frankfurt middle school and worked for several years in the Paetsch porcelain painting company in Frankfurt before moving to Berlin in 1914 and later to Rostock.
After several years of discussions about the type of tram drive, the mayor Paul Adolph signed a contract with the AEG in 1896 . The property at Fischerstraße 6 / Bachgasse 4 was acquired for the construction of a tram depot and power station. The power station, built as a direct current plant, started trial operation in 1897. After a successful trial run, the power station was deemed to have opened on December 23, 1897. On January 22, 1898, the depot in Bachgasse was inaugurated at the same time as the electric tram began operating in Frankfurt.
The period from 1900 to 1933
The first aircraft landed in Frankfurt on August 19, 1911 on the Kunersdorf parade ground, which had not been used since the beginning of the century. On June 25, 1913, a Frankfurt Air Fleet Association was founded . On July 1, 1913, the city council approved 20,000 Reichsmarks for the construction of an air base, and a further 6,000 came from donations. Construction began on September 25 of the same year and a year later, on June 28, 1914, the base was inaugurated. The airfield consisted of at the end of the First World War from an aircraft maintenance facility, ten hangars, vehicle sheds and a war depot, along a value of 4.8 million Reichsmarks. There were also 180 military aircraft, 100 vehicles and other material with a total value of 5.5 million Reichsmarks. On February 3, 1920, an Entente Commission visited the airfield and ordered the dismantling of the buildings and the delivery of the aircraft and vehicles. The demolition began a year later. Then it took until July 22, 1929 for another plane to land there.
Between 1919 and 1926, 8,254 refugees came to Frankfurt from areas of Germany that fell to Poland. The loss of the eastern territories through the formation of Poland meant an enormous loss for the Frankfurt economy due to the loss of sales markets. For example, the potato flour factories had sales losses of 57.5%, the grain and cattle trade by over 60%. The reference markets also collapsed; Before the war, for example, between 60% and 70% of the potatoes for industry had come from what was now Polish territory. Traffic was also affected. Compared to 1913 and 1928, 40% fewer people were transported and more than a third fewer goods were transported on the Frankfurt - Poznan railway .
In 1921 Hermann Aronheim (later Zvi Aharoni ) was born in Frankfurt into the middle-class family of a lawyer. He attended the Friedrichsgymnasium in Frankfurt. Aaronheim emigrated to Palestine in 1938, became a Mossad agent and played a key role in the capture of Adolf Eichmann .
From June 16 to 24, 1924, the Ogela (Ostmarkschau for trade and agriculture) took place in Frankfurt , which was attended by almost 100,000 people. The city hoped that this would stimulate the settlement of industry and therefore founded a GmbH for the project. This prepared 250,000 m² area in the Dammvorstadt, on which the four main areas of the trade show , agricultural machinery show , small animal show and animal show were to take place. The organizers were satisfied with the event despite a loss of 100,000 Reichsmarks . However, industrial companies were not attracted by this.
In 1920 the city of Frankfurt had 1,500 telephone connections, all of which were connected to the main post office building by overhead lines. In the spring of 1924, the construction of a building for the Deutsche Reichsbahn as the headquarters of the East Direction began at what was then Logenstrasse 12 (corner of Logenstrasse and Große Scharrnstrasse) and the official inauguration took place on July 18, 1925. The building only existed until World War II : it was destroyed and not rebuilt afterwards. On April 10, 1927, a telephone exchange was set up, the number of telephone connections rose to 3,000 and the lines began to be laid underground. On April 1, 1930, a building trade school was inaugurated.
1933-1939
Leading National Socialists came from Frankfurt: Herbert Böhme , son of a business school director, was born in Frankfurt in 1907, grew up here and graduated from high school here. He became one of the leading cultural functionaries of the National Socialists and one of the most important right-wing extremist cultural functionaries in the young Federal Republic. Heinrich Himmler's later personal advisor, Rudolf Brandt , was born in Frankfurt in 1909. He was convicted of human experiments and the killing of prisoners in concentration camps at the Nuremberg Doctors ' Trial and hanged in 1948.
In the Nazi Gau Ostmark , Frankfurt was the Gau capital from 1927 to 1933 before it was merged with Brandenburg to form Gau Kurmark . The formative Gauleiter was Wilhelm Kube , whom Martin Bormann deposed in 1936 for corruption, his successor Emil Stürtz . In 1933 the NSDAP member of the Reichstag, Martin Albrecht, became mayor of Frankfurt. He was removed from office in 1943 for corruption and sentenced to one and a half years in prison.
In 1936 the Reichswehr revitalized the air base and began extensive work such as the construction of depots, halls and concrete roads and the repair of the siding. An air training regiment was stationed . At the beginning of the Second World War, the area was not used by combat units and during the Russian campaign it was used as a landing site for transporting the wounded.
Since October 15, 1935, after the reintroduction of conscription, the headquarters of the 3rd Infantry Division was in the city. Other division units, such as the 8th Infantry Regiment, 3 Artillery Regiment and the 3 anti-tank department were also stationed here.
In 1937 the motorway to Berlin was inaugurated. In 1939 the city had around 7,500 telephone lines.
Second World War
The city was largely spared from the Second World War until 1945, as there were hardly any important industrial or military facilities. On the night of August 25th to 26th, 1940, a British plane dropped four bombs, but only hit the northern tip of the Ziegenwerders and accordingly caused only minor damage; a few panes of surrounding buildings were damaged.
On February 15, 1944, a planned attack by the British Air Force took place . At 8:35 p.m., the city's air raid warning center gave a pre-alarm. Twenty-four Avro Lancaster bombers flew to the city, but only five dropped their bombs over the city. The goals were a presumed Daimler-Benz factory and the now disused marshalling yard . The aircraft carried 24 air mines , each weighing 1,815 kg, 84 explosive bombs , each 114 kg and 9.4 tons of incendiary bombs . However, a large part of the bombs were dropped on other locations in the Frankfurt or Guben area . 58 people between the ages of two months and 79 years died in the attack. 13 false installations with 75 high-explosive bombs and numerous incendiary bombs were also attacked. Railway systems were not damaged, and there was only insignificant damage to armaments factories. In this attack, the Friedrichsgymnasium Humanist School near the train station was hit and badly damaged. Only because it was a night attack did not result in any deaths among the students. Since the city was hardly a target for bombers, many bombed out were evacuated into the city. On October 5, 1944, there were 5,936 of them in the city, on December 1, 6,468 and on December 30, 6,625, of which 4,404 were from Berlin. In autumn 1944 men between 16 and 60 were recorded as part of the Volkssturm and on November 12, 1944 they were sworn in on the market square. In the weeks that followed, these men were introduced to warfare in theory and in practice.
In March 1944, Messerschmitt Bf 109 aircraft of a squadron of Jagdgeschwader 51 "Mölders" were relocated to the air base.
In the weekend edition from 6./7. January 1945 the Frankfurter Oder-Zeitung called the residents to a "people's sacrifice" in the form of clothing. A call made by Gauleiter Emil Stürtz on the following Monday demanded that every household had to give up 5 kg of “textile fibers”. The air strikes on Berlin often triggered air alarms in Frankfurt without the city being attacked. With the beginning of the Vistula-Oder operation by the Russians, a large wave of German refugees began, which also moved to Frankfurt. Therefore, on January 21, 1945, the National Socialist People's Welfare ( NSV ), the German Red Cross , the Hitler Youth and others began to prepare for the flow of refugees. For this purpose, sick and refreshment centers as well as accommodation were set up. Emergency shelters were mostly schools, which were evacuated for this purpose. School lessons had already taken place irregularly before, as the schools lacked coal for heating, among other things. On this day the first wave of refugees reached the city. One of the first refugees, Gauleiter Arthur Greiser , who had ordered the evacuation of the Germans from Posen at noon that day , arrived in the city on the evening of January 20th. He celebrated his arrival with a large meal, which was provided with supplies he had brought with him. The other refugees came by trains or various other vehicles. For example, buses from Łódź (then Litzmannstadt) had come to the city.
The total number of refugees passing through was between 264,000 and 300,000 people. The city was declared a fortress on January 26, 1945 . Already in the reconnaissance order for the Nibelungen position of the High Command of the Army ( OKH ) of November 28, 1944 it was planned to prepare the city for all-round defense and to use it as cover for Berlin. The Dammvorstadt (today Słubice ) should serve as a bridgehead . The corresponding expansion began in mid-January. On January 29, 1945 Lieutenant General Herrmann Meyer-Rabingen was appointed fortress commander, assisted by Colonel Biehler , who was experienced in the front .
The Dammvorstadt had to be evacuated on February 4th, and further parts of the city were evacuated a day later. The many dead, as a result of direct warfare, suicide and other things, were buried in mass graves without coffins. The daily burials took place alternately by the Catholic and Protestant churches.
On February 15, Joseph Goebbels came to the city to find out about the situation and to raise the fighting spirit of the soldiers.
From February 22nd, trips to Frankfurt were banned. On the same day, the first edition of the newspaper Oderfestung Frankfurt of the propaganda company Eichkater appeared . In order to avoid the forced evacuation, remaining civilians had to show a work card from March 1st.
There was looting in the evacuated city. According to a report by Colonel Biehler on March 9th, four Wehrmacht soldiers and eight civilians were sentenced to death and the sentence carried out. Furthermore, two Czechs and a Pole were caught looting and shot immediately.
On April 6, the Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Vistula asked Colonel-General Gotthard Heinrici Hitler to remove the fortress character of Frankfurt in order to gain mobility for the troops. Hitler summoned the fortress commander, Colonel Biehler, to see him on the same day. Biehler returned to the fortress city early on April 7th. Instead of abolishing the fortress, he was relieved of his office; at Heinrici's request, this decision was reversed on the same day.
On the morning of April 16, the Red Army's barrage on Frankfurt began the major offensive against Berlin. Two days later, the Dammvorstadt was evacuated around 9:00 p.m. On April 19 at 5:29 in the morning, the Oder Bridge was blown up by the Wehrmacht. Soviet air raids took place April 20-23. The fortress status was lifted on the afternoon of April 21, and the fortress troops began to withdraw one day later. On April 22nd and 23rd, the 3rd Bombing Corps of the Soviet Air Force flew 343 missions on Frankfurt and Beeskow , dropping a total of 260 tons of FAB 500 and FAB 250 bombs . This resulted in numerous fires, especially in the center of Frankfurt. The first Soviet soldiers of the 370th Rifle Division of the 69th Army and the 89th Rifle Division of the 33rd Army of the 1st Belarusian Front reached Frankfurt on the morning of April 23. Colonel Alexeyev became city commandant. 93% of the inner city was destroyed by bombs and arson, which started in the following days. On the evening of April 24th, the tower of St. Mary's Church burned down , but did not collapse until months later. There are contradicting information about the triggering of the fires: In the GDR era, they were blamed on retreating SS units, but this does not match the daily data. Polish forced laborers who were on their way home are also said to have been arsonists, but the dates do not match either. It could also have been Soviet soldiers recently, which is also unsafe.
SBZ and GDR
As early as May 1945, the connection to Dammvorstadt was re-established by a temporary bridge . According to the Potsdam Agreement , Frankfurt (Oder) became a border town. The Dammvorstadt was separated, completely cleared within two days and placed under Polish administration. This resulted in today's Polish neighboring city of Frankfurt, Słubice . In the same year the Gronenfelde returnees camp was set up, through which over a million prisoners of war were brought back to Germany from the eastern war zones in the course of the following years.
In 1952, the treaty to mark the state border between the GDR and Poland was signed in Frankfurt (after the Görlitz Agreement in 1950). The Federal Republic did not recognize this border until 1970 ( Warsaw Treaty ), and finally only in 1990. With the dissolution of the states, including Brandenburg , by the GDR in 1952, Frankfurt (Oder) became a district town, that is, the administrative center of one of the fifteen districts of the GDR , which after their district cities, here district Frankfurt (Oder) , were named. The SED district leadership (today housed in the former College of Teacher Education Gauss-Gymnasium Frankfurt (Oder) ) .The District Party School Friedrich Engels received in 1979 a new building at the Great or road, as the main auditorium of the new today University Viadrina is used. The district administration (BV) of the Ministry for State Security (MfS), most recently under Heinz Engelhardt , had been in a building complex at Otto-Grotewohl-Strasse 53 (today Robert-Havemann-Strasse 11) since 1969. Before that she sat in the building of the former prison on Collegienstr. 10 , which is now an exhibition space, memorial and documentation center “Victims of Political Tyranny” . In 1980 there were 465 covert dwellings owned by the Ministry of State Security in the city .
In 1957 the motorway bridge over the Oder was completed. The city center was rebuilt in the 1950s and 1960s, largely abandoning the old town plan. Few historical buildings, such as the town hall , have been restored. In the 1970s and 1980s, several large-scale new building areas were built using prefabricated panels. The cinema for young people at Wilhelm-Pieck-Straße 328 was inaugurated on May 1, 1955. On August 4, 1956, the foundation stone for the construction of new houses in the old town, which was destroyed at the end of the Second World War, began on Karl-Marx-Strasse .
On September 1, 1976, the first part of the later Hotel Stadt Frankfurt was opened as a dormitory for the semiconductor plant . Later that year, up to 73,000 guests from 72 countries lived in this hotel.
Peaceful revolution and German unity
In the Frankfurt (Oder) district, Christa Zellmer was the SED's first secretary, the only woman of this rank. On November 1, 1989, 35,000 people responded to the New Forum's call to protest against the SED: The main rally was on Brunnenplatz. On November 15, 1989, Bernd Meier (politician) took power in the district for the SED, which was only an interlude. The long-time SED mayor Fritz Krause resigned in February 1990. From 1990 to 1992 Wolfgang Denda (SPD) was the first mayor after the fall of the Berlin Wall . Having come to Frankfurt in 1960, he worked in the semiconductor plant and in the Institute for Semiconductor Technology.
With the reconstitution of the states on the territory of the GDR in 1990, the city came back to the state of Brandenburg . On July 15, 1991 the official (re) establishment of the European University Viadrina was completed by legal act. In September 1994 the last occupation soldier of the Soviet army left the city. 2001 began with a large-scale demolition of houses, mainly prefabricated buildings from the GDR. Up to and including 2005, the city lost 3,500 apartments.
Religions
Judaism
From 1294 at the latest, Jews lived in Frankfurt (Oder). Their number remained relatively low due to recurring pogroms and expulsions. From the 1590s onwards, the Hebrew letterpress was important. Some of the Frankfurt rabbis were known beyond the national borders. The Jewish cemetery has been located in the neighboring Polish town of Słubice since 1945. The last remaining synagogue was demolished around 1950. In 1975 the cemetery was largely leveled. Since 1998 there has been a Jewish community in Frankfurt again; with prayer house and a new cemetery.
Historical research
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Between 1659 and 1685, the Berlin judicial judge and Brandenburg historian Martin Friedrich Seidel presented his rich private collection of mostly Bronze Age finds from the wider Frankfurt area in his treatise “Thesaurus Orcivus Marchius”. They come from Müllrose and Lichtenberg, among others, and were in part by Seidel himself been excavated. The log of his excavations near Lichtenberg has also been preserved. The Frankfurt clergyman Gotthilf Treuer published in 1688 a "short description of the Heidniſchen Todten pots / In which the heathen of their burned dead bones and axles left over / beyge beetzet under the earth / And Bey the current times in the Chur- and Marck Brandenburg Hauffen- white to be excavated ”. The Frankfurt history professor Johann Christoph Bekmann dealt with artefacts in and around Frankfurt in "Different historical accessions that concern the Stat Frankfurt and surrounding areas". The article appeared as an appendix to the third edition (1706) of the city history first published by the Frankfurt professor Wolfgang Jobst in 1651, "Kurtze description of the old praiseworthy town of Franckfurt an der Oder", which was provided by Bekmann. At the end of the 19th century, prehistoric and early historical archeology established itself as an independent branch of historical science. In 1853 Christian Wilhelm Spieker published the book History of the City of Frankfurt an der Oder From the middle of the 19th century, more and more publications on archaeological finds from the Frankfurt area appeared in the "Frankfurter Patriotisches Wochenblatt", in the "Frankfurter Oderzeitung", in the "Mitteilungen des Historischen" Association for local history ”and in the journal of the natural science association of the Frankfurt administrative district“ Helios ”. Several publications came from the grammar school director Reinhold Agahd (* 1864, † 1925; brother Konrad Agahd ). Agahd carried out the first excavations on the Lossow castle wall. Agahd's pupil Gerhard Bersu , who graduated from high school in Frankfurt in 1909 and then became a prehistoric , also published some reports on finds.
See also
- Population development of Frankfurt (Oder)
- History of buildings in Frankfurt (Oder)
- List of architectural monuments in Frankfurt (Oder)
Web links
- Information about Frankfurt (Oder) after the end of the Second World War, including the returnees' camp Gronenfelde (PDF; 816 kB)
Footnotes
- ↑ Winfried Schich : On the genesis of the city layout of the old town and new town of Brandenburg . In: Winfried Schich (Ed.): Contributions to the origin and development of the city of Brandenburg in the Middle Ages (= publications of the Historical Commission in Berlin. Volume 84). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1993, ISBN 3-11-013983-9 , pp. 51-96, Frankfurt: pp. 76-77.
- ^ Christian Wilhelm Spieker: History of the City of Frankfurt on the Oder . First part: From the founding of the city to the kingdom of the Hohenzollern . Frankfurt / Oder 1853, pp. 3–5 ( online ).
- ↑ stadtarchiv-ffo.de. City Archives Frankfurt (Oder), accessed on August 30, 2014 .
- ↑ Märkische Oderzeitung / Frankfurter Stadtbote, July 7, 2006, p. 15.
- ↑ Hasse / Winkler, 1983, p. 221 write 1 7 63, this is obviously an error
- ^ Märkische Oderzeitung / Frankfurter Stadtbote, 13./14. August 2005, p. 17.
- ↑ May 26th is recorded in the death register of the Evangelical Church of St. Marien Frankfurt (Oder). After Georg Friedrich Meier: Alexander Gottlieb Baumgartens Leben, p. 31, Baumgarten died "After midnight between May 26 and 27 [...] after 3 o'clock in the night"
- ^ Baltic Historical Commission (ed.): Entry to Villebois, Alexander Guillemot de. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital
- ↑ On the identification of this pastor, his position in Frankfurt and his relationship to his father-in-law Chodowiecki cf. Pump: heroic sacrificial death. 2008. pp. 80 - 86, especially 81 and 84ff .; the evidence of the locations for the documents on p. 212f.
- ↑ Various newspapers played a key role in the creation of the legend in 1785. In Berlin: Royal privileged Berlinische Zeitung of state and scholar things ; Berlinische Nachrichten von Staats- und Schehrten things ; further newspapers in Hamburg, Frankfurt / Main and Braunschweig: Staats- und Gelehre Zeitung of the Hamburg impartial correspondent ; Emperorly privileged Hamburgische neue Zeitung ; Frankfurter Kaiserliche Reichsoberpostamtszeitung ; New Brunswick news from state and scholarly incidents . The decisive reports and their respective changes are printed today at Pump: Heroic Sacrificial Death. 2008. pp. 243 - 257 easily accessible.
- ↑ Information on the engraving in connection with the Leopold accident and the flood near Geismeier, Willi: Daniel Chodowiecki. Leipzig undated (1993). P. 188; near Oettingen, Wolfgang by: Daniel Chodowiecki. An artist's life in Berlin in the 18th century. Berlin 1895. p. 214; Compiled at Pump: Heroic Sacrificial Death. 2008. pp. 27 and 29; Pp. 82 - 84.
- ↑ Rector's speeches (HKM)
- ^ Official Journal of the Royal Prussian Government in Frankfurt ad Oder . 1826, p. 334 ( digitized version [accessed on May 5, 2016]).
- ^ Official Journal of the Royal Prussian Government in Frankfurt ad Oder . 1835, p. 363 ( digitized version [accessed on May 5, 2016]).
- ^ Eduard Ludwig Wedekind: History of the Neumark Brandenburg . Enslinsche Buchhandlung, Berlin and Küstrin 1848, chap. 6, The Lubusz Circle ( digitized version ).
- ↑ Topographical-statistical overview of the administrative district of Frankfurt ad O., Harnecker, 1844, p. XIX
- ^ Ralf-Rüdiger Targiel : Frankfurt's way to independence. Märkische Onlinezeitung, August 26, 2015, accessed on May 5, 2016 .
- ↑ Joachim Schneider: From the parade ground to the airfield. In: Mitteilungen Historischer Verein zu Frankfurt (Oder) eV 1 (1995), p. 17
- ↑ a b Joachim Schneider: From the parade ground to the airfield. In: Mitteilungen Historischer Verein zu Frankfurt (Oder) eV 1 (1995), p. 18.
- ↑ Martin Schieck: Ogela. In: Mitteilungen Historischer Verein zu Frankfurt (Oder) eV 2 (1994), p. 18.
- ↑ Martin Schieck: Ogela. In: Mitteilungen Historischer Verein zu Frankfurt (Oder) eV 2 (1994), pp. 20–23.
- ↑ a b Joachim Schneider: From the parade ground to the airfield. In: Mitteilungen Historischer Verein zu Frankfurt (Oder) eV 1 (1995), p. 20.
- ↑ Werner Haupt : The German infantry divisions. Dörfler Zeitgeschichte, ISBN 3-89555-274-7 , p. 15.
- ↑ Joachim Schneider: A taste of the inferno. In: Mitteilungen Historischer Verein zu Frankfurt (Oder) eV 1 (1994), pp. 8–15.
- ↑ RBB-online How Frankfurt (Oder) was destroyed
- ↑ Thomas Gutke: When the city of Frankfurt (Oder) lost its old face. In: MOZ . May 5, 2020, accessed May 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Ralf-Rüdiger Targiel: Ruin blown up and party school built. In: MOZ . September 12, 2016, accessed June 12, 2019 .
- ^ Märkische Oderzeitung / Frankfurter Stadtbote, 29./30. April / 1. May 2006, p. 15.
- ↑ Reinhard Kusch: Collapse without agony. The end of the SED regime in the Frankfurt an der Oder district . Frankfurter Jahrbuch 1996/97. Frankfurt Oder.
- ↑ Märkische Oderzeitung / Frankfurter Stadtbote. Sept. 12, 2005, p. 11.
- ↑ Thomas Gutke: Troop withdrawal 20 years ago. In: moz.de. September 24, 2014, accessed September 20, 2015 .
- ↑ Märkische Oderzeitung / Frankfurter Stadtbote. March 22, 2006, p. 11.
- ↑ (1st part 1853, online )