Communist-era Nowa Sól
Barges in the port area on the river Oder / Odra in Nowa Sól, c.1966.
A selection of archive images of Nowa Sól (former Neusalz Oder) in Lubuskie, western Poland.
Wyzwolenia Street in Nowa Sol. Lubuskie, Poland, c.1966,
Shops and apartments on Zjednoczenia Street in Nowa Sol, Poland, c.1968.
Plac Wyzwolenia. Nowa Sol, Poland, c.1974.
Nowa Sol is located on the Odra / Oder River and has a population of around 40,000.
The Odra River
The Odra / Oder river is the second longest river in Poland and flows for a total of 742 kilometres (461 miles) through the country.
The Odra (Oder) river in Glogau / Głogów on an old picture postcard mailed in 1899.
The Odra rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland to just north of Szczecin where it divides into three branches (the Dziwna, Świna and Peene), which empty into the Gulf of Pomerania on the Baltic Sea. A total of 854 kilometres (531 miles). Almost all of which is navigable by boat.
Rowing boats on the Odra river in Krosno Odrzańskie, / Crossen an der Oder, c.1914.
The River Odra (Oder) passes through the following towns and cities in Poland:
Opole – Brzeg – Oława – Jelcz-Laskowice – Wrocław – Brzeg Dolny – Ścinawa – Szlichtyngowa – Głogów – Bytom Odrzański – Nowa Sól – Krosno Odrzańskie – Frankfurt (Oder) / Słubice – Kostrzyn – Cedynia – Gryfino – Szczecin – Police
The River Odra (Oder) in Frankfurt an der Oder, looking across to what is now the town of Słubice, c.1937
Interesting facts connected with the River Odra / Oder
- The Oder–Spree Canal connects with the river Odra / Oder near Eisenhüttenstadt, which in turn connects to the river Spree in Berlin.
- At the 1943 Tehran Conference the allies decided that the new Eastern border of Germany would run along the river Odra / Oder. However, at the end of the war, this was amended to the Oder and the Lusatian Neisse rivers, and these two rivers became the new (Oder-Neisse) border between Poland and Germany.
Related content on Polish Poland:
Information and images of the River Warta.
A 1980s photograph of the promenade along the River Odra / Oder.
Three communist-era images of the Polish border town of Slubice in the province of Lubuskie. On the opposite bank of the River Odra / Oder is the city of Frankfurt in Brandenburg, Germany.
A picture of the stadium in Slubice, c.1985. Before the war Slubice was named Frankfurt Oder and Nazi rallies were held in the stadium.
Socialist apartment blocks in Slubice, Poland, c.1985.
Related content on Polish Poland:
- Images of an information on the neighbouring city of Frankfurt Oder.
A map showing the westward movement of Poland following the Potsdam conference in 1945.
The Oder Neisse line marks the post-1945 border between Poland and Germany. It runs from the northernmost point of the Czech Republic to the Baltic Sea at the Oder estuary. The border follows primarily the River Oder/ Odra and Lusatian Neisse river.
The River Oder / Odra near Schwedt. One bank of the River is Germany, the other side Poland.
The Oder-Neisse Line was determined at the Yalta Conference in February 1944 and finalised at the Potsdam conference in August 1945. President Roosevelt signed the Yalta Agreement for the government of the United States, Prime Minister Churchill for England, the Chairman of the Ministerial Council Stalin for the USSR. Truman signed the Potsdam Agreement for the USA, Attlee for England, Stalin for the Soviet Union. The French government added its official approval later. According to the Yalta and Potsdam Declarations, the Oder-Neisse Line was drawn to make a future German attack less likely and to give the Polish people a secure western border. It was also, at 472 km long, the shortest possible border based on rivers between Poland and Germany.
A poster produced by the CDU party in Germany in 1947. “Never the Oder-Neisse line. Vote CDU”.
This new Oder-Neisse border removed vast areas from what had been Germany prior to the Second World War. Most of Silesia, more than half of Pomerania, the eastern portion of Brandenburg, part of Saxony, and most of East Prussia (Masuria and Warmia) were after 1945 no longer part of Germany but part of Poland, while the former German territory of north east of East Prussia was directly annexed by the Soviet Union.
Although, Poland gained territory in the west with the creation of the Oder-Neisse border it lost an even larger area in the east. This area known as Kresy (or Eastern borderlands), prior to the Second World War part of Poland, today lies in western Ukraine, western Belarus, and eastern Lithuania. The subject of the lost Polish lands in the east will be covered in more detail in future posts but for the moment take a look at the moving map at the top of this page to get an idea of the scale of these post-war border changes.