Eisenhüttenstadt

Eisenhüttenstadt is a town in the Oder-Spree district of the state of Brandenburg, Germany, on the border with Poland.GeographyThe municipal area stretches on a sandy terrace in the Berlin-Warsaw glacial valley. It is bounded by the Oder river in the east, which since 1945 forms the German–Polish border. Eisenhüttenstadt is the eastern terminus of the Oder–Spree Canal. The town centre is located about 25km south of Frankfurt (Oder) and 110km southeast of Berlin. Eisenhüttenstadt has access to the Berlin–Wrocław railway line.The town comprises the districts of Diehlo, Fürstenberg (Oder), and Schönfließ.HistoryThe present-day township was founded as a socialist model city in 1950 (initially named Stalinstadt after Joseph Stalin) upon decision of the East German Socialist Unity Party (SED), alongside a new steel mill combine located west of the historic town of Fürstenberg (Oder). A few years before the new town arose, a bridge over the Oder river had been constructed, which was destroyed by retreating Wehrmacht forces in February 1945, near the end of World War II.