Seelow

Seelow
Seelow
Town
	Town Hall
	Coat of arms
	Location of Seelow within Märkisch-Oderland district
Country	Germany
State	Brandenburg
District	Märkisch-Oderland
Government
• Mayor	Jörg Schröder (Ind.)
Area
• Total	25.28 km2 (9.76 sq mi)
Elevation	52 m (171 ft)
Population (2022-12-31)
• Total	5,628
• Density	220/km2 (580/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	15306
Dialling codes	03346
Vehicle registration	MOL, FRW, SEE, SRB
Website	Official website

Seelow is a German town, seat of the Märkisch-Oderland, a district of Brandenburg. As of 2013 its population was of 5,464.

Geography

It is situated in the extreme east of Germany, 70 km (40 miles) east of Berlin, 16 km (10 miles) west of the boundary with Poland.

History

The village appears in the records held in 1252 by Archbishop Wilbrand of Magdeburg. At that time, listed as Villa Zelou, it was included in the property of the former Polish Bishopric of Lebus (Lubusz Land), contested between the Magdeburg archbishops and the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg.

Seelow suffered damaging town fires in 1630, 1788 and again in 1809.

From 1816 Seelow was included for administrative purposes in the Lebus district, a subdivision of the Frankfurt (Oder) territory within the Prussian Province of Brandenburg. In 1863 the district council office was relocated to Seelow and in 1950 "Lebus district" was renamed "Seelow district", the town of Lebus itself having lost much of the agricultural area that had traditionally supported it to Poland, following frontier changes agreed with the Soviet Union in 1945. Between 1952 and 1993 Seelow was the administrative centre for the eponymous district within the larger Frankfurt am Oder territory.

Seelow was the location of one of the last major pitched battles in Europe during World War II - the Battle of the Seelow Heights. In this battle, from April 16 to 19, 1945, Soviet troops under Marshal Zhukov opened the way to Berlin. By the time the slaughter was over the town was largely destroyed, primarily through a major air attack which took place of 17 April 1945, and which was followed by extensive burning and plunder.

Cultural references

Because of its importance in World War II, Seelow is today featured in many video games, books, and movies. Seelow is a playable map in the popular PS3 and Xbox 360 game Call of Duty: World at War. The Battle of the Seelow Heights is featured extensively in Men of War. The planet Тзаэло (Tzaelow) in the Warhammer 40,000 universe is a likely reference to the town of Seelow, particularly the way that the battle is fought.

Demographics

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 (Blue Line) and Forecasts