Seelow, Brandenburg, Germany

🇩🇪 Seelow is a German town, seat of the Märkisch-Oderland, a district of Brandenburg.

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 formerly 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 Region 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"; following frontier changes agreed with the Soviet Union in 1945, the town of Lebus itself had lost to Poland much of the agricultural area that had traditionally supported it. Between 1952 and 1993, Seelow was the administrative centre for the eponymous district  within the larger Frankfurt territory.

Seelow was the location of one of the last major pitched battles in Europe during the Second World War - the Battle of the Seelow Heights. In this battle, from 16 to 19 April 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 on 17 April 1945, and which was followed by extensive burning and plunder.