Dirk Röder
Hardly any other event has had such a lasting impact on and fundamentally changed the Oder-Warthe region as the end of the Second World War. War crimes, heavy fighting, destruction, flight, expulsion, forced migration, Soviet occupation forces and new borders due to the westward shift of Poland - the consequences for the Oder-Warthe region are still very present today, 80 years after the end of the war.
It is a priority for the town of Seelow to open up the historical heritage of the region surrounding the end of the Second World War, make it accessible and communicate it across borders. German-Polish funding projects such as „Stätten der Erinnerung Oder-Warthe“ (2018-2023), „Erinnerung Verbindet“ (2025-2027) and „Lebendige Erinnerungsorte“ (2026-2028) revitalise places of remembrance, make it possible to experience history across borders, create new information bases and form international networks.
The driving force behind this is the powerful team led by Seelow business promoter Thomas Drewing: „Tourism development is an effective instrument of economic development. Investing in sustainable remembrance and educational tourism offers also makes it possible to experience important history. There is a need and great potential to preserve these cultural resources for future generations and utilise them for the development of the shared border region.“
Together with Polish and German partners, they collect ideas and develop project outlines that often include the revitalisation of monuments, memorials and historical buildings as well as investments in tourism infrastructure, in addition to the reappraisal of shared history.
They follow the Strategy of the multi-perspective remembrance landscape Oder-Warthe, developed on behalf of the town of Seelow as part of the „Sites of Remembrance Oder-Warthe“ project (2018-2023). The idea: around 200 places of remembrance tell the shared history of today's border region from different perspectives of remembrance culture. The new tourist umbrella brand „Remembrance connects“ unites themed routes and sites in three eras:
- Common historical cultural area: Living, cross-border cultural heritage of common importance from the period before 1933,
- Destiny: The period of National Socialism from 1933 to 1945, including the post-war period and reorganisation,
- Meeting and discovery space: Reconstruction and growing together in a peaceful neighbourhood, including the Cold War, Peaceful Revolution and European Union.
80 years of the Second World War in the Oder-Warthe region
History trail war events 1945
This is how the project „Remembering together - 80 years after the end of the Second World War 2025“ came about, funded with EUR 31,746.62 by the Small Projects Fund (KPF) of the PRO EUROPA VIADRINA Euroregion as part of the European Union's Interreg 6A Brandenburg-Poland funding programme.
Together with the municipality of Słońsk, the town of Seelow developed a cross-border history trail as lead partner, which commemorates the events of the war 80 years ago and depicts the path of the Soviet army through our region to Berlin based on key events of the war. The history trail connects 7 important memorial sites for the shared history and events from January to May 1945.
Martyrdom Museum Słońsk
From 1933 to 1934, Słońsk, formerly known as Sonnenburg, was home to the first German concentration camp and later a prison. On the night of 30 to 31 January 1945, a detachment of SS men from Frankfurt (Oder) executed 819 prisoners, including many French, Belgians, Germans, Dutch, Norwegians and Luxembourgers. Since 1974, a memorial and the Museum of Martyrdom have commemorated the tragic events. Commemorative ceremonies with international participation are held in Słońsk every year.
Kienitz bridgehead memorial and tank memorial
In the early hours of 31 January 1945, lightly armed advance units of the Soviet forces reached the Oder near Kienitz and formed a bridgehead to the west bank of the Oder at the ferry station and the harbour mill. The subsequent battles for the village of Kienitz raged for 76 days before the Soviet army was finally able to take the village. Kienitz was destroyed 80%. On the Oder embankment near Kienitz, on the path to the former ferry landing stage, a metal stele symbolises the Soviet army's transition to the west bank. There are two further monuments in the centre of the village of Kienitz. A T-34 Soviet tank commemorates the fallen Soviet soldiers, while a second memorial honours all victims of the 1939-1945 war.
Klessin Castle 1945 theatre of war, Podelzig
The village of Klessin and the manor were completely destroyed in the spring of 1945. Many soldiers on both sides were killed or wounded in the seven weeks of fighting. After around 62,000 shell hits in the Klessin area, the village and Klessin manor were razed to the ground. On the initiative of the Wuhdener Heimatverein e. V. and with a great deal of personal effort over 15 years, a natural memorial and remembrance site has been created. A replica of the castle portal as it was destroyed in 1945, made of Corten steel, is the landmark of the memorial site. A circular path with information boards, acoustic columns and metal sculptures as well as original shell funnels and trenches are reminders of the events of the war.
Küstrin Fortress Museum, Kostrzyn nad Odrą
The Prussian fortress of Küstrin was built in the middle of the 16th century and, with six bastions, was one of the largest European city fortresses of its time. On 31 January 1945, the Soviet army reached the strategically important city with bridges over the Oder and Warta rivers. After 56 days of fighting, 95% of the old and new town were destroyed. Many people lost their lives. The old town and fortress were never rebuilt. Today, the Küstrin Fortress Museum in Kostrzyn nad Odrą is a unique monument, also known as the „Pompeii on the Oder“. It is an impressive reminder of war and its consequences. Exhibitions tell the story of the fortress and information boards help visitors to tour the former old town centre of Küstrin.
Seelow Heights Memorial and Museum
The Battle of the Seelow Heights, one of the last and largest battles of the Second World War on German soil, took place from 16 to 19 April 1945 and marked the beginning of the final Soviet attack on Berlin. Tens of thousands of people lost their lives on the edge of the Oderbruch. Explosive ordnance and human remains are still being recovered from the site today. The Seelow Heights Museum offers visitors a permanent exhibition with exhibits, maps and recorded conversations with contemporary witnesses that illustrate the dramatic course of the fighting. The open-air site, which is always accessible, includes tank and gun emplacements as well as a Soviet war cemetery with a representative memorial.
Museum History Station Seelow (Mark)
The new museum is located in the former railway station building in Seelow (Mark), 300 metres from the Seelow Heights Memorial. Under the motto „The region. The events. The people“ authentic exhibits and biographical details document the transformation of the region over the course of a generation, providing a vivid insight into its eventful history.
Museum Berlin-Karlshorst
The Berlin-Karlshorst Museum is located on the site where the Second World War in Europe ended on 8 May 1945. In today's museum building, the commanders-in-chief of the German Wehrmacht signed the unconditional surrender in front of representatives of the Soviet Union, the USA, Great Britain and France. The historic rooms have been preserved in their original state. The exhibition „Germany and the Soviet Union in the Second World War“ shows the war from the perspective of both, the German and the Soviet, actors. In addition to original artefacts, historical photos and written documents, people and their individual stories are presented.
As part of the „Remembering together - 80 years since the end of the Second World War in 2025“ project, multilingual print and audio information was placed on weatherproof acrylic signs at the respective sites to provide interested parties with barrier-free access to background information and stories in several languages. Informative flyers with a collection box also tell the story of the participating memorial sites.
In 2025, commemorative events were held at all locations in chronological order to remember the victims 80 years ago and to publicise the new „1945 War Events“ history trail. In each case, a „Vector of Memory“ of the European Cultural Route of Liberation 1944-45 (Liberation Route Europe - LRE) was also ceremoniously inaugurated.
International cooperation for remembrance tourism
The Liberation Route Europe (LRE) is a certified cultural route of the Council of Europe that connects people, places and events to commemorate the liberation of Europe from Hitler fascism during the Second World War. With hundreds of stations and stories in more than ten European countries, the route connects the most important regions along the Allied advance in 1943-1945. www.liberationroute.com
In cooperation with hiking associations throughout Europe, hiking trails are being developed that recreate the advance of the Allied forces through Europe and extend over almost 10,000 kilometres. Along the routes, numerous memorial sites tell the story of the final phase of the Second World War from different perspectives. The renowned architect Daniel Libeskind has designed a set of symbolic path markers called „Vectors of Remembrance“ that honour people, places and stories in the European landscape.
After the Liberation Route primarily focussed on the liberation of Western Europe by the Allied forces, the cultural route has for some time now been focusing on the path taken by the Soviet forces and their allies towards Berlin. Important memorial sites in Poland such as the Treblinka and Auschwitz extermination camps or memorials and museums in Warsaw and Gdansk are already part of the route.
The results of the „Sites of Remembrance Oder-Warthe“ project (2018-2023) and the active participation of the town of Seelow in Liberation Route Europe network events in Brussels (2019), Aachen (2024) and Krakow (2025) also helped. Thomas Drewing and Dirk Röder are also founding members of Liberation Route Germany (2019 in Torgau), a national offshoot of Liberation Route Europe based at the Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.
With its individualised vectors, the „1945 War Events“ history trail has now also become part of the Liberation Route Europe. The multilingual historical content and educational tourism offers reach a broad international audience on the cultural route websites. The ARYP project of the Liberation Route Europe also took young Europeans along the German-Polish history trail for a week in October 2025 to reflect their vivid experiences in video blogs and podcasts.
The district of Märkisch-Oderland is also increasingly beginning to emphasise the special potential of the places of remembrance in the Oder-Warthe region for extracurricular teaching, drawing on the results of the Seelow projects, among other things.
Finally, it should be mentioned that the „1945 War Events“ history trail is based on an open structure and that further places of remembrance can be added at any time. The point of contact for this is the Seelow Economic Development Department with the „Remembrance connects“ network.
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