Abandoned and lost in the freezing cold by Silva Wischeropp

About "Abandoned and lost in the freezing cold"

by Silva Wischeropp

About the artwork

I took this photographic winter landscape with the Nikon camera in the early evening of 4 February 2019 outside the small Polish town of Cedynia in the rural area. The remnants of ice and snow as well as the dilapidated country road support the abandoned, dreary character of the poor region in Western Pomerania. One is quickly seized by the sad feeling that time has stood still in this stretch of land for decades.

Cedynia (German: Zehden) is a small town in the Powiat Gryfiński of the Polish West Pomeranian Voivodeship and is located in the Neumark, three kilometres east of the Oder near the border with the Federal Republic of Germany and 17 kilometres northeast of the German town of Bad Freienwalde, which can be reached via an Oder bridge. It is the furthest west town in Poland nationwide.

Archaeological research has shown that the area around Cedynia was settled as early as 3500 BC.
In March 1940, the city suffered from a major flood of the Oder River, which inundated the Zehden quarry and the railway line. During the fighting between the German Wehrmacht and the Red Army, the Oder bridge was destroyed in February 1945. On 3 February 1945, Zehden fell into the hands of the Red Army and came under Polish administration.

The town, which was 45 percent destroyed, was depopulated after the inhabitants fled and were expelled, and it remained deserted for a long time until Polish expellees and settlers settled here later. In 1957, the town had 1,040 inhabitants. It was temporarily given the Polish name Cedno, which was later changed to Cedynia. The railway line was demolished all the way to the Oder. In 1972, a monument was erected on the banks of the Oder to commemorate the thousand-year battle of 972.