The scent of gingerbread, mulled wine and roasted almonds is everywhere in Seenland Oder-Spree and the Christmas spirit is slowly coming to Brandenburg's largest travel region. The many players in the seven adventure areas have once again shown great commitment this year and put together fantastic Christmas markets and Advent events with great attention to detail.

The most wonderful time of the year is just around the corner and some people can hardly wait for the Advent season. The Seenland Oder-Spree Tourism Association is shortening the waiting time this year and inviting guests and locals alike to plan an eventful pre-Christmas season in advance. From December 1 to 24, unique experiences, offers and inspiration can be found behind every door of the Advent calendar on the website seenland-oderspree.de.

On Thursday, December 5, 2024, starting at 2 p.m., a commemorative event will take place to mark the "occupation" of the secret service headquarters in Frankfurt (Oder) 35 years ago. In 1989, citizens gathered in front of the Frankfurt district administration of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in what was then Otto-Grotewohl-Straße. They demanded access to the building and the detention center as well as an immediate stop to the destruction of files that had begun.

The Bad Freienwalde Tourismus GmbH team is delighted to present the new picture calendar for the year 2025! The calendar shows a collection of old postcards depicting restaurants and hotels from earlier times. Month by month, the historical views offer an interesting look at the development of Bad Freienwalde.

The Office for Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Inspection can announce further progress in the fight against African swine fever (ASF) in our region: Restricted zone II in the districts of Spree-Neiße and Oberspreewald-Lausitz is being reduced in size, while restricted zone I in the districts of Märkisch-Oderland, Oder-Spree, Dahme-Spreewald and in the independent city of Frankfurt (Oder) is largely being lifted and transferred to free territory.

"Regional art & culture" – that is the concept behind KUKURYKU! On Thursday, November 21, the spin-off from the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) was awarded the 2024 Courage Award by the Oderland-Spree Start-up Partners working group.

The anticipation of the festive time of year begins in Frankfurt (Oder) with the opening of the cityWEIHNACHT. From 25 November to 22 December 2024, the Frankfurt Christmas market offers a varied program for the whole family every day from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

200 years ago, the Frankfurt senior teacher Leopold Ranke wrote his first work entitled "Histories of the Romanic and Germanic Peoples" – a book that earned him a reputation as the founder of German historiography. This influential citizen of Frankfurt (Oder) will be commemorated by an all-day symposium on Friday, December 13, at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder). Interested parties are cordially invited to attend the conference in the Viadrina Senate Hall.

Under the title "20 Days in Mariupol", the US Embassy together with the Competence Network Interdisciplinary Ukrainian Studies (KIU) and the European University Viadrina invites you to a film screening with accompanying lecture on Wednesday, November 27, 6 p.m. in the main building of Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder).

Climate economist Prof. Dr. Reimund Schwarze from the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) has once again been following this year's World Climate Conference, which ends this weekend in Baku. On Wednesday, November 27, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., he will report on his observations in a discussion with Amelie Kutter from the Viadrina Institute for European Studies (IFES). Interested parties are cordially invited to attend the event in the Gräfin-Dönhoff building or follow it online.