Oder

“ To the west the Oder and Bober may be taken as their boundary. ♦White Chrobatia.♦ But the upper course of these rivers is the home of another kindred people, the northern branch of the Chrobatians or Croats, whose land of White Chrobatia stretched on both sides of the Carpathians. These Slaves of the central and lower Oder and Vistula would seem to be best distinguished as Lechs; Poland is the name of the land rather than of the people. ”

“ Both rivers, coming from the Giant Mountains, hasten directly north; but Oder, bulging out easterly in his sandy course, is obliged to turn fairly westward again; and at Glogau, and a good space farther, flows in that direction;—till once Bober strikes in, almost at right angles, carrying Oder with HIM, though he is but a branch, straight northward again. Northward, but ever slower, to the swollen Pommern regions, and sluggish exit into the Baltic there.
One of the worst features is the state of the weather. On Sunday, at Breslau, we noticed thunder bursting out on an important occasion ”

“ Marshal Augereau's corps remained for a fortnight in Berlin to reinforce the Guard during the long stay which the Emperor made in the town, and left about the middle of November, heading first for the Oder, which we crossed at Kostrzyn, and then on to the Vistula whose bank we reached at Bromburg (?Bydgoszcz) . We were now in Poland, the poorest and nastiest country in Europe...! After the Oder, no more made roads: we marched on loose gravel or appalling mud. Most of the land was uncultivated and the few inhabitants we came across were dirty to a degree which defies the imagination. ”

“ The way from Andreasberg to the Brocken leads along the Rehberger Graben, which carry water about six miles for the oreworks. After going through a thick pine wood, I came out on the mountain-side, where rough crags overhung the way above, and through the tops of the trees I had glimpses into the gorge below. It was scenery of the wildest character. Directly opposite rose a mountain wall, dark and stern through the gloomy sky; far below the little stream of the Oder foamed over the rocks with a continual roar, and one or two white cloud-wreaths were curling up from the forests. ”

“ The city has three suburbs, fine streets, public squares, and gardens, a theatre, many charitable institutions, a Roman Catholic church, a synagogue, and several Protestant churches. The university was removed to Breslau in 1810; a gymnasium still remains. Beyond the wooden bridge which connects the old town on the left bank of the Oder with the suburb on the right bank is a monument to Prince Leopold of Brunswick, who was drowned here in 1785, while attempting to rescue a family during an inundation. ”

“ While the northern plains are marked off into great divisions, by such rivers as the Lower Rhine, the Weser, and the Oder, running almost in parallel lines, this central region is cut up like a mosaic by the capricious lines of valleys and rivers. Here is the region in which you find those famous roofs from which the rain-water runs toward two different seas, and the mountain-tops from which you may look into eight or ten German states. The abundance of water-power and the presence of extensive coal-mines allow of a very diversified industrial development in Middle Germany. ”

“ The Houses, which are all of Brick, are uniform, and the Streets as strait as a Line. The chief of them2 terminate in a great Square in the middle of the Town, where there is a Statue of the King of Prussia. The River Oder is of great advantage to the Commerce of Crossen, which carries on a considerable Trade in Linnen-Cloth and Earthen Ware.
Going out of Crossen, we pass this River by a Bridge, as we do a second time over to Francfort, a considerable City of the Marquisate of Brandenbourg, famous for its Fairs, and its University. This City has stood the Shock of various Revolutions. ”

“ No friend he to writing, unless you have got something really special, and urgent to be written.
Friedrich crassed the Oder twice. Took Soltikof on both sides of the Oder, cut him out of this fond expectation, then of that; led him, we perceive, a bad life. Latterly the scene was on the right bank; Sophienthal, Koben, Herrnstadt and other poor places,—on that big eastern elbow, where Oder takes his final bend, or farewell of Poland. Ground, naturally, of some interest to Friedrich: ground to us unknown ”

“ Wilcox gravely, while her neighbour, a young man low down in the Education Office, began to discuss what people who lived at Stettin ought to look like. Was there such a thing as Stettininity? Margaret swept on.
“People at Stettin drop things into boats out of overhanging warehouses. At least, our cousins do, but aren’t particularly rich. The town isn’t interesting, except for a clock that rolls its eyes, and the view of the Oder, which truly is something special. Oh, Mrs. Wilcox, you would love the Oder! ”

“ Ohlau River, an insignificant drab-colored stream, rises well south of Breslau, about Strehlen; makes, at first, direct eastward towards the Oder; and then, when almost close upon it, breaks off to north, and saunters along, irregularly parallel to Oder, for twenty miles farther, before it can fall fairly in. To this circumstance both Breslau and a Town of Ohlau owe their existence ”

“ Originally it seems to have denoted the coast district between the Oder and the Vistula, a territory which was at first more or less dependent on Poland, but which, towards the end of the 12th century, was ruled by two native princes, who took the title of duke about 1170 and admitted the authority of the German king in 1181. ”

“ Every city on a trade route wanted to make itself a “staple,” i.e., have all goods passing the vicinity brought there for taxation and for sale. Frankfort on the Oder, for instance, demanded that all boats passing down the river Warthe should come up to Frankfort before they could continue their journey down the Oder to Stettin. The cities of Stettin, Frankfort, and Breslau, all situated on256 the Oder, instead of using that river for peaceable exchange, made bitter commercial war on each other with tolls and prohibitions. ”

“ In the neighbourhood are extensive coal fields.
Frankfort-on-the-Oder owes its origin and name to a settlement of Franconian merchants here, in the 13th century, on land conquered by the margrave of Brandenburg from the Wends. In 1253 it was raised to the rank of a town by the margrave John I. and borrowed from Berlin the Magdeburg civic constitution. In 1379 it received from King Sigismund, then margrave of Brandenburg, the right to free navigation of the Oder; and from 1368 to about 1450 it belonged to the Hanseatic League. ”

“ The main channel follows the left side of the valley and finally expands into the Pommersches, or Stettiner Haff, which is connected with the sea by three arms, the Peene, the Swine and the Dievenow, forming the islands of Usedom and Wollin. The Swine, in the middle, is the main channel for navigation. The chief tributaries of the Oder on the left bank are the Oppa, Glatzer Neisse, Katzbach, Bober and Lausitzer Neisse ”

“ That sounds like a most beautiful view, Miss Schlegel.”
“So I say, but Helen, who will muddle things, says no, it’s like music. The course of the Oder is to be like music. It’s obliged to remind her of a symphonic poem. The part by the landing-stage is in B minor, if I remember rightly, but lower down things get extremely mixed. There is a slodgy theme in several keys at once, meaning mud-banks, and another for the navigable canal, and the exit into the Baltic is in C sharp major, pianissimo.” ”

“ BOBER, a river of Germany, the most considerable of the left bank tributaries of the Oder; it rises at an altitude of 2440 ft., on the northern (Silesian) side of the Riesengebirge. In its upper course it traverses a higher plateau, whence, after passing the town of Landeshut, it descends through a narrow and fertile valley to Kupferberg. ”

“ EUROPE The eastern portions of the North German plain, as far as the Oder, have the same character, the same corn-yielding clay soil, as the adjoining lowlands in Russia; but farther west, round the capital city of Berlin, the plain becomes less fertile, in some parts sandy and bare. Beyond the Elbe, in Hanover, the Lüneburg heath covers a large part of the plain; next it lie the moors, marshes, and fens of Oldenburg and the borders of Holland, where cattle and horses are the wealth of the land ”

“ The grayish soil which forms the surface of the Oder valley is eminently fitted for cereal and beet cultivation and the farmers of this soil are generally Poles. They often represent 90 per cent of the rural population. [115] In the cities and generally speaking in the industrial field they are laborers. Capital and the management of factories and of mines are in German hands.
The most interesting feature of the clash between Germans and Poles in Upper Silesia is found in the failure of the Germans in their efforts to force their language upon an alien people. ”

“ The following account will make us better acquainted with these fellows, and their mode of intercourse. It carries us to the right bank of the Oder in Silesia, a corner of Germany where "Krippenreiterei" was particularly bad. There, according to an old popular jest, the devil burst the sack when he endeavoured to carry off in the air a number of "Krippenreiters," and thus emptied out the whole rubbish on this district. ”

“ GLOGAU, a fortified town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Silesia, 59 m. N.W. from Breslau, on the railway to Frankfort-on-Oder. Pop. (1905) 23,461. It is built partly on an island and partly on the left bank of the Oder; and owing to the fortified enceinte having been pushed farther afield, new quarters have been opened up. ”

“ It is of great interest to note that in the sixteenth century Polish students were registered in considerable numbers in nearly every German and Swiss university of any consequence. They were at Wittenberg, Leipzig, Königsberg, [230] Frankfort on the Oder, Heidelberg, Herborn, Altdorf, Marburg, Freiburg, Würzburg, Dillingen, Mainz, Ingolstadt, Zurich, and Basel. [231] The German universities most largely attended by Poles were Wittenberg, Leipzig, Königsberg, and Frankfort on the Oder. ”

“ Leftward, somewhat to rearward, they have bridges of their own; should anything sinister befall; three bridges which lead into that Oder Island, and the Russian Wagenburg there.
August 10th, Finck, punctual to time, arrives in the neighborhood of Reitwein (which is some ten miles down stream from Lebus, from Frankfurt perhaps fifteen) ; Friedrich, the same day, is there before him; eager to complete the Bridges, and get to business. One Bridge is of pontoons; one of "Oder-boats floated up from Custrin." Bridges are not begun till nightfall, lest eyes be abroad ”

“ The whole of Lower Silesia; the River Neisse for the boundary; the city of Neisse for us, as also Glutz; on the other side of the Oder, the ancient boundary between the Duchies of Brieg and Oppeln. Namslau for us. The affairs of religion in statu quo. No dependence upon Bohemia. Cession eternal. In exchange we will go no farther. We will besiege Neisse for form. The commandant shall surrender and depart. We will quietly go into winter quarters; and they (the Austrians) can take their army where they will. ”

“ Spree, a river of Prussia, rises in East Saxony close to the Bohemian border, follows a winding and generally N. and NW. course of 227 m. till its Junction with the Havel at Spandau; chief towns on its banks are Bautzen, Kottbus, Lübben, and Berlin; is connected with the Oder by the Frederick William Canal. ”

“ Breslau, with its suburbs, has a population of one hundred and twenty-five thousand, and has its attractions for the students, nine hundred of whom attend the University, which has a public library of three hundred thousand volumes. There is an interesting Zoological Museum, some antique churches, and other objects worth seeing. The public walks upon the former bastions, now planted with trees, with views upon the river Oder, whose branches traverse the city, are quite pretty, but fevers are the natural result there in summer. It is a bustling, active, trading city. ”

“ Oder and Upper Spree Navigation.—The old Friedrich-Wilhelm Canal, constructed over two hundred years since, was till recently the only means of water communication through this district; but the dimensions of the channel, as well as the locks, were too small for present requirements, and in preference to reconstructing the whole work, it was decided to cut another channel, joining the Oder a few miles further from Frankfurt. The country traversed is easier than in the case of the Ems, and as the Oder does not take such large vessels as the Ems, the dimensions of the canal are smaller ”

“ The principal rivers are: the Danube, the Dniester, the Vistula, the Oder, the Elbe, the Rhine and the Adige or Etsch. As the highlands of Austria form part of the great watershed of Europe, which divides the waters flowing northward into the North Sea or the Baltic from those flowing southward or eastward into the Mediterranean or the Black Sea, its rivers flow in three different directions—northward, southward and eastward. ”

“ It consists of the town proper within the strong fortifications, a suburb on the left bank of the Oder, and one on the right bank of the Warthe. There are three Evangelical churches and one Roman Catholic, and a handsome town hall. ”

“ The work was carried out in the years 1746–1753, a large tract of marshland being brought under cultivation, a considerable detour cut off, and the main stream successfully confined to the canal, 12 m. in length, which is known as the New Oder. The river at present begins to be navigable for barges at Ratibor, where it is about 100 ft. wide, and for larger vessels at Breslau, and great exertions are made by the government to deepen and keep open the channel, which still shows a strong tendency to choke itself with sand in certain places. ”