Eisenhüttenstadt

Infobox German Location
Art = Stadt
Wappen = Wappen Eisenhuettenstadt.pnglat_deg = 52 |lat_min = 08 |lat_sec = 42
lon_deg = 14 |lon_min = 40 |lon_sec = 22
Lageplan = Eisenhüttenstadt in LOS.pngBundesland = Brandenburg
Landkreis = Oder-Spree
Höhe = 42
Fläche = 63.40
Einwohner = 34483
Stand = 2006-06-30
PLZ = 15890
Vorwahl = 03364
Kfz = LOS
Gemeindeschlüssel = 12 0 67 120
LOCODE = DE EHS
Gliederung = 4 districts
Straße = Zentraler Platz 1
Website = [http://www.eisenhuettenstadt.de www.eisenhuettenstadt.de]
Bürgermeister = Rainer Werner
Partei = SPD

Eisenhüttenstadt (literally "ironworks city" in German; district and has a population of 34,483 (as of June 30, 2006). The city was founded in 1950 alongside a new steel mill as a socialist model city.

Eisenhüttenstadt is colloquially referred to as Hütte or Hüttenstadt by locals.

Geography

Eisenhüttenstadt lies in the Berlin-Warsaw glacial valley and is surrounded by terminal moraine hills to the south and pine forests. The Oder-Spree canal flows into the Oder in the city. Eisenhüttenstadt is located 25 km south of Frankfurt (Oder), 25 km north of Guben and 110 km east of Berlin.

Demography

Since the foundation of Eisenhüttenstad in 1950, the population has risen from 2,400 in 1953 to 38,138 in 1965 to the historical high of 53,048 in 1988. Since the German reunification in 1990, the population of Eisenhüttenstadt has continuously fallen to 34,818 in 2005. It is expected that the population will be around 32,000 in 2015.

History

Eisenhüttenstadt

The third congress of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (July 20-24, 1950) decided to erect a steel mill, the Eisenhüttenkombinat Ost, and an adjacent residential city. Construction began on August 8, 1950. The first blast furnace was put into operation one year later. The residential city was given the name Stalinstadt in honor of Joseph Stalin in 1953.

Eisenhüttenstadt was advertised as the "first socialist city on German soil". Like other new socialist cities, such as Nowa Huta in Poland, it followed the example of Magnitogorsk in the Soviet Union and was built alongside a new state combine. In the first years, the architecture was strongly influenced by Stalinist and neoclassical architecture. Later, as in all other East German cities, Plattenbau architecture became predominant. The city plan was designed by the architect and planner Kurt Walter Leucht.

As a consequence of destalinization, the city name was changed to Eisenhüttenstadt on November 13, 1961. On the same day, the neighboring town of Fürstenberg was merged into the city. On January 1, 1969, the Eisenhüttenkombinat Ost together with other steel manufacturing enterprises was consolidated into the state-run VEB Bandstahlkombinat "Hermann Matern".

After German reunification, the VEB Bandstahlkombinat "Hermann Matern" was renamed into EKO Stahl AG and prepared for privatization by the Treuhandanstalt. Due to increased competition from West German steel makers and the collapse of markets in Eastern Europe the EKO Stahl AG had to lay off workers and close several blast furnaces. In 1995, the steel mill was privatized and sold to the Belgian steel maker Cockerill-Sambre, now part of Arcelor Mittal.

Fürstenberg

Fürstenberg was founded around 1250 by Henry III, Margrave of Meissen. In the 14th century, Charles IV initiated the construction of the city wall. From 1316 to 1817, Fürstenberg owed tithe to the abbey in Neuzelle. In 1635, Fürstenberg became part of the Electorate of Saxony and in 1815 of Prussia. In 1830, the population was 1,686. With the construction of the railway line from Frankfurt (Oder) to Breslau in 1846 and the construction of the Oder-Spree Canal in 1891, the development of Fürstenberg gained momentum. Between 1871 and 1900, the population doubled to 5,700 and reached 7,054 in 1933. In 1925, a river port at was constructed.

In the Nazi era, armament works and chemical plants were built in Fürstenberg. The workfore was recruited from a nearby subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and later from the Prisoner-of-war camp STALAG III B. On April 24, 1945, Fürstenberg was captured by the Red Army.

Architecture

The first design for the new residential city 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. [ [http://www.irs-net.de/download/eisenhuettenstadt2.pdf BernhFalter.pmd ] ] [http://www.eisenhuettenstadt.de/cgi-bin/main.php?d1cnr=517]

Economy and Infrastructure

Eisenhüttenstadt's economy is dominated by the steel maker EKO Stahl AG, a subsidiary of Arcelor Mittal. The unemployment rate has steadily risen since German reunification and was at 20.5 percent in 2004.

Eisenhüttenstadt is connected by two federal highways, Bundesstraße 112 and 246, to Frankfurt (Oder), Guben and Storkow (Mark). The next motorway is in Frankfurt (Oder). The city has a railroad station with hourly trains to Berlin, Frankfurt (Oder) and Cottbus.

Twin Towns

* ), established in 1986, this was the first East and West German town twinning
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Famous persons

* Paul van Dyk, DJ and music producer
* Udo Beyer, athlete
* Frank Schaffer, athlete
* Torsten Gutsche, flatwater canoer
* Kathrin Boron, sculler

References

External links

* [http://www.eisenhuettenstadt.de Official site of the city of Eisenhüttenstadt]
* [http://www.eko-stahl.de EKO Stahl AG]
* [http://wiki.huettenstadt.de/ The local encyclopedia Wikihüttenstadt]