Terra Transoderana: new project looks at the Oder as a shared region

The taz reported on 10 November 2026 on "Terra Transoderana", a three-year Interreg project run by the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) and the University of Zielona Góra. It was formally opened on 4 November in the university's Rektoratssaal, the rector's hall. Participants travelled by bus from Frankfurt to Zielona Góra, because the regional train 91 was cancelled in September owing to technical problems. Replacement buses are due to run until mid-December.

The project is meant to collect and tell stories of the region on both sides of the Oder, such as that of entrepreneur Max Bahr, who had a large jute factory built in Landsberg an der Warthe (now Gorzów Wielkopolski). It also plans a handbook, a history game, an educational trip for school pupils and an international summer academy for students.

Cultural scholar Magda Abraham-Diefenbach says the area between Gorzów and Zielona Góra, unlike Lower Silesia and West Pomerania, has no name. She describes the project as a kind of "laboratory" open to anyone interested in the region's future. Marceli Tureczek of the Zielona Góra history institute says young people in particular have lost interest in the region.

Brandenburg's culture state secretary Tobias Dünow called the project "obvious and overdue". Maciej Siwicki, first deputy voivode of Lubuskie, said it could create a new form of dialogue. Open questions include population decline and cross-border transport amid cancelled trains and reintroduced border controls.