Every design for Frankfurt (Oder)

Frankfurt (Oder) is known as the German half of a city divided by a river: the largest German city on the Oder, facing the Polish town of Słubice, which was its own Dammvorstadt district until 1945. Today the two are bound together again through the European University Viadrina, whose Collegium Polonicum stands on the Polish bank.

The Kleist-Museum keeps alive the memory of Heinrich von Kleist, the city's most famous son, and since 1999 Frankfurt has called itself the "Kleiststadt". Frankfurt received its charter in 1253 and once dominated river trade between Wrocław and Szczecin; the Museum Viadrina, the Friedensglocke and the Friedenskirche, begun as the St. Nicholas Church, all belong to that long story, and the Brandenburgisches Landesmuseum für moderne Kunst adds a contemporary voice.

In summer, the pine woods around the Helenesee fill with swimmers and divers. If you call this city home, you know what it means to live on a border that has become a bridge – and this map is a way of keeping both banks with you.