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Neumark

The Neumark (listen), also known as the New March (Polish: Nowa Marchia) or as East Brandenburg (German: Ostbrandenburg), was a region of the Margraviate of Brandenburg and its successors located east of the Oder River in territory which became part of Poland in 1945.

For other uses, see Neumark (disambiguation).

Neumark or East Brandenburg
Neumark or Ostbrandenburg (German)
Nowa Marchia (Polish)
Terra trans Oderam (Latin)

1252

1402–1463a

1535–1571

1618

1938

1 August 1945

1 January 1999

Called the Lubusz Land while part of medieval Poland, the territory later known as the Neumark gradually became part of the German Margraviate of Brandenburg from the mid-13th century. As Brandenburg-Küstrin the Neumark formed an independent state of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation from 1535 to 1571; after the death of the margrave John, a younger son of Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg, it returned to Elector John George, the margrave's nephew and Joachim I Nestor's grandson. With the rest of the Electorate of Brandenburg, it became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 and part of the German Empire in 1871 when each of those states first formed. After World War I the entirely ethnic German Neumark remained within the Free State of Prussia, itself part of the Weimar Republic (Germany).


After World War II the Potsdam Conference assigned the majority of the Neumark to Polish administration, and since 1945 has remained part of Poland. Polish settlers largely replaced the expelled German population. Most of the Polish territory became part of the Lubusz Voivodeship, while the northern towns Choszczno (Arnswalde), Myślibórz (Soldin), and Chojna (Königsberg in der Neumark) belong to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. Some territory near Cottbus, which was administratively part of the Government Region of Frankfurt (coterminous with the Neumark) after the 1815 Congress of Vienna, became part of East Germany in the 1940s, becoming part of Germany after reunification in 1990.

(1818–1945; from 1938 part of Pomeranian Region of Posen-West Prussia), based in Neuwedell (till 1908), thereafter in Arnswalde

Arnswalde

(1818–1945), based in Crossen upon Oder

Crossen (Oder)

(1816–1945; from 1938 part of Pomeranian Region of Posen-West Prussia), based in Friedeberg in the New March

Friedeberg

(1816–15 March 1946, remainder west of the Oder merged into Angermünde, Lebus and Oberbarnim districts), based in Königsberg in the New March

Königsberg (New March)

(1818–1945), based in Landsberg upon Warthe

Landsberg (Warthe)

(1818–1945), based in Soldin

Soldin

(1816–1873; partitioned into Oststernberg and Weststernberg), based in Zielenzig (till 1852), thereafter in Drossen

Sternberg

Margraviate of Brandenburg-Küstrin
Markgrafschaft Brandenburg-Küstrin (German)

Margraviate

1535

1571

History[edit]

Ancient history[edit]

In the Bronze Age the area which became the Neumark fell within the area of the Lusatian culture. In the Iron Age the Jastorf culture operated in this region, identified sometimes with Germanic and sometimes with Celtic tribes.


As its inhabitants moved westward, the region became depopulated during the Migration Period. After AD 500 West Slavic tribes gradually repopulated the area, which became a forest borderland between Pomerania and Greater Poland. According to the Bavarian Geographer's description, the Miloxi inhabited the future Neumark region: they had 47 settlements between the Oder and Poznań.

Bishopric of Lebus

List of cities and towns in the Neumark

1493 map -Marcha Nova-Neumark

Map of the Neumark in the Middle Ages

(in German)

Administrative history

(in German)

Genealogical research