Franckfurt an der Oder anno 1548

Title

Franckfurt an der Oder anno 1548

Map shows Frankfurt an der Oder from a bird's eye view. With magnificent title banner.

ca. 1550

Artist

Münster (1489-1552)

Sebastian Münster (1489–1552) was a leading Renaissance cosmographer. His most famous work, the Cosmographia (1544), was a comprehensive description of the world with 24 maps, based on research dating back to 1528. Continuously revised, the 1550 edition already included many new maps. It was the first scientific yet accessible world description published in German, illustrated with numerous woodcuts by artists such as Hans Holbein the Younger. Between 1544 and 1650, the Cosmographia appeared in 46 editions (27 in German) and was translated into several languages. Münster’s work combined the knowledge of scholars, artists, and travelers and remained influential long after his death.

Historical Description

After 1200, a merchant settlement developed on a valley sand island on a narrow part of the Oder River, today's Frankfurt. The Schultheiss Gottfried von Herzberg negotiated with Margrave Johann I at Spandau Castle about the granting of the town charter. Margrave Johann I issued the document for the foundation of the town on Saturday, 1253. Frankfurt was mentioned as a participant in the records of the Lübeck Day Journey of 1430. Only members of the Hanseatic League were allowed to participate in the Tagfahrten - consequently, Frankfurt was a member of the Hanseatic League from that year at the latest. At the end of January 1506, teaching at the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt began with the humanistic lecture of the first "appointed" teacher Axungia. The Thirty Years' War first reached the city in April 1626, and after the Thirty Years' War ended in 1648, the university regained its importance, with 250 students enrolled that year. In 1811, the final news of the relocation of the University to Breslau reached the Frankfurt people. The reason was the University of Berlin, opened the previous year by Wilhelm von Humboldt. The Frankfurt district, formed in 1816, consisted of the city of Frankfurt as well as areas that had previously belonged to the Lebus district and the Sternberg district, including the suburbs of Carthaus, Kliestow, Booßen, Buschmühle, Lossow, Rosengarten, Schiffersruh, Tschetschnow and Ziegelei. The district administration office for the Lebus district was also located in Frankfurt.