East Brandenburg | German Tragedy of Destiny

598,000 people fled East Brandenburg, of whom 174,000 lost their lives on the way.

According to the figures presented here, 598,000 people fled or were expelled from East Brandenburg, of whom 174,000 died.

Before the war, about 657,000 Germans lived in the region.

Major cities:

Bomst, Fahlenwerder, Crossen, Guben, Königsberg/Nm., Landsberg a.d. Warthe, Meseritz, Reppen, Schwerin a.d. Warthe, Schwiebus, Soldin, Sommerfeld, Sorau/NL., Zielenzig and Züllichau

East Brandenburg in a nutshell

East Brandenburg covered an area almost as large as Northern Ireland.

The administrative boundaries of East Brandenburg were adjusted slightly in 1938:

The Meseritz district, formerly part of Posen-West Prussia, was transferred to Brandenburg.

At the same time, the districts of Arnswalde and Friedeberg were transferred from Brandenburg to Pomerania.

After 1945, historical East Brandenburg was divided by the new German-Polish frontier.

The Oder and Neisse rivers became the principal border between Germany and Poland after the Second World War.

Guben

History of East Brandenburg

Up to the 2nd century AD — Settlement by Germanic tribes in the area that later formed the Margraviate of Brandenburg.

1157 — Albert the Bear and the Archbishopric of Magdeburg extended German rule eastwards towards the Oder and the Neumark.

Late Middle Ages — Brandenburg developed into several regional divisions, including the Altmark, Mittelmark and Neumark.

1402 — The Teutonic Order acquired the Neumark.

1454 — Elector Frederick II of Brandenburg reacquired the Neumark from the Teutonic Order.

1626 — Brandenburg became one of the major theatres of the Thirty Years’ War.

1938 — Administrative reorganisation transferred Arnswalde and Friedeberg to Pomerania and added the districts of Schwerin and Meseritz.

1945 — More than 400,000 Germans fled or were expelled from East Brandenburg.

Flight and expulsion

According to the figures presented here, almost one third of the approximately 600,000 inhabitants of East Brandenburg died in 1945 as a result of military operations and violence during the occupation.

The account therefore describes East Brandenburg as having suffered one of the highest proportional civilian losses among the eastern German territories.

Refugee columns from farther east converged in East Brandenburg, and towns became severely overcrowded. Many people died from malnutrition, exhaustion or infectious disease; in some places, bodies were temporarily stored in churches because burials could not keep pace.

Thousands of men and women were deported eastwards and subjected to forced labour.

Those who remained were also required to perform compulsory labour in key sectors.

Land, farms and houses were expropriated and transferred to Polish settlers.

By 1947, almost the entire remaining German population had been expelled.