Eisenhüttenstadt

Eisenhüttenstadt (literally "ironworks city" in German; [ʔaɪzn̩ˈhʏtn̩ʃtat] (listen)) is a town in the Oder-Spree district of the state of Brandenburg, Germany, on the border with Poland. It was known as Stalinstadt when East Germany founded the city in 1950.

Eisenhüttenstadt
View over Eisenhüttenstadt
Coat of arms
Location of Eisenhüttenstadt within Oder-Spree district
Eisenhüttenstadt Eisenhüttenstadt
Coordinates: 52°08′42″N 14°40′22″E
Country	Germany
State	Brandenburg
District	Oder-Spree
Subdivisions	4 districts
Government
• Mayor	Frank Balzer (SPD)
Area
• Total	63.40 km^2 (24.48 sq mi)
Elevation	42 m (138 ft)
Population  (2019-12-31)[1]
• Total	23,878
• Density	380/km^2 (980/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	15890
Dialling codes	03364
Vehicle registration	LOS
Website	www.eisenhuettenstadt.de

Geography

The municipal area stretches on a sandy terrace in the Berlin-Warsaw glacial valley (Urstromtal). It is bounded by the Oder river in the east, which since 1945 has formed the German–Polish border. 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 has access to the Berlin–Wrocław railway line.

The town comprises the districts of Diehlo, Fürstenberg (Oder), and Schönfließ.[2]

History

The town was built near the historic village of Fürstenberg (Oder) which was founded in 1251. After the Peace of Prague in 1635, Fürstenberg and Lower Lusatia became part of the Electorate of Saxony, and in 1815 it was transferred to Prussia. In 1925, a port on the Oder was created.

The present-day town was founded as a socialist model city in 1950 (initially named Stalinstadt after Joseph Stalin) 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).[3] 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. 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.[4] The town experienced a steep decline in population, from just over 50,000 to under 30,000.

Demography

• 
  Development of Population since 1875 within the Current Boundaries (Blue Line: Population; Dotted Line: Comparison to Population Development of Brandenburg state; Grey Background: Time of Nazi rule; Red Background: Time of Communist rule)
• 
  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 2014-2030 (red line); for 2017-2030 (scarlet line)

Eisenhüttenstadt: Population development
within the current boundaries (2017)[5]

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1875 3,850 —     1890 5,253 +2.09% 1910 7,971 +2.11% 1925 8,997 +0.81% 1933 8,944 −0.07% 1939 8,736 −0.39% 1946 7,697 −1.79% 1950 10,579 +8.28% 1964 36,937 +9.34% 1971 45,762 +3.11% 1981 48,131 +0.51% 1985 49,086 +0.49% 1989 52,674 +1.78% 1990 51,151 −2.89% 1991 49,330 −3.56%

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1992 46,646 −5.44% 1993 47,545 +1.93% 1994 47,770 +0.47% 1995 47,376 −0.82% 1996 46,771 −1.28% 1997 45,697 −2.30% 1998 44,773 −2.02% 1999 42,884 −4.22% 2000 41,493 −3.24% 2001 40,180 −3.16% 2002 38,628 −3.86% 2003 37,009 −4.19% 2004 35,884 −3.04% 2005 34,818 −2.97% 2006 33,914 −2.60%

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 2007 33,091 −2.43% 2008 32,214 −2.65% 2009 31,689 −1.63% 2010 31,132 −1.76% 2011 27,795 −10.72% 2012 27,410 −1.39% 2013 27,205 −0.75% 2014 27,444 +0.88% 2015 30,416 +10.83% 2016 26,325 −13.45% 2017 25,057 −4.82% 2018 24,633 −1.69% 2019 23,878 −3.06%

1953 celebration: Walter Ulbricht with Soviet ambassador Ivan Ilyichev

The Friedrich-Wolf-Theater, opened in 1955

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.[6][7]

Twin towns – sister cities

Eisenhüttenstadt is twinned with:[8]

• Dimitrovgrad, Bulgaria (1958)
• Drancy, France (1963)
• Głogów, Poland (1972)
• Saarlouis, Germany (1986), first East and West German town twinning[9]

Notable people

Eisenhüttenstadt was the birthplace of:

• Bernhard Lösener (1890–1952), jurist
• Udo Beyer (born 1955), shot put, Olympian champion 1976 and holder of world record
• Hans-Georg Beyer (born 1956), handball player, olympic winner 1980
• Detlef Gerstenberg (1957–1993), hammer thrower, competitor in 1980 Summer Olympics
• Frank Schaffer (born 1958), athlete, medal winner in 1980 Summer Olympics
• Katharina Bullin (born 1959), volleyball player
• Gisela Beyer (born 1960), athlete
• Hendrik Reiher (born 1962), rowing cox, medal winner in multiple Olympic Games
• Torsten René Gutsche (born 1968), sprint canoer, competitor in two Summer Olympic Games; 1992 winner of the Bambi Award
• Sven Helbig (born 1968), producer, musician
• Kathrin Boron (born 1969), sculler, competitor in multiple Olympic Games, gold medalist in several World Rowing Championships
• Sören Lausberg (born 1969), retired track cyclist, competitor in two Summer Olympic Games
• Paul van Dyk (born 1971), DJ, composer and music producer
• Amadeus Wallschläger (born 1985), footballer
• Roger Kluge (born 1986), racing cyclist, silver medal winner in 2008 Summer Olympics
• Florian Müller (born 1986), footballer

Other personalities associated with the city

Rudolf Bahro, Berlin 1989, SED Party convention

• 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
• Tom Hanks visited the city in 2011, creating much free publicity for the city.[10][11]

References

1. "Bevölkerung im Land Brandenburg nach amtsfreien Gemeinden, Ämtern und Gemeinden 31. Dezember 2019". Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg (in German). July 2020.
2. "Stadt Eisenhüttenstadt". Land Brandenburg (in German).
3. "Eisenhüttenstadt". Eisenhuettenstadt (in German).
4. Emily Young (28 April 2014). "Germany: The rise and fall of a model socialist city". BBC News. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
5. Detailed data sources are to be found in the Wikimedia Commons.Population Projection Brandenburg at Wikimedia Commons
6. "BernhFalter.pmd" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-06-30. Retrieved 2007-06-04.
7. "Architektur & Denkmalschutz". Eisenhuettenstadt (in German). Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2009-08-06.
8. "Unsere Partnerstädte". eisenhuettenstadt.de (in German). Eisenhüttenstadt. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
9. "Saarlouis – deutsch-deutsche Partner und Freunde seit über 30 Jahren". eisenhuettenstadt.de (in German). Eisenhüttenstadt. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
10. "Eisenhüttenstadt: Tom Hanks' kind of place". Deutsche Welle. 31 July 2012.
11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3h2Rw1mHew

External links

• Official municipal website (in German)
• EKO Stahl AG
• The local encyclopedia Wikihüttenstadt