Eberswalde (German pronunciation: [ˌʔeːbɐsˈvaldə] ⓘ) is a major town and the administrative seat of the district Barnim in Brandenburg in north-eastern Germany, about 50 km (31 mi) northeast of Berlin.

From the year 1317 the main trade route between Szczecin and Frankfurt (Oder) went through the town.

After the end of the war only 33 of formerly 216 houses still stood and of an original population of 1200 only 168 survived, 28 of which had full citizen status.

Werner Forssmann received his 1956 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his 1929 experiments with cardiac catheterization performed on his own heart, whilst resident in Eberswalde.

During World War II, several factories employed forced labourers and inmates of the Ravensbrück concentration camp.

At the end of the war, the town center was attacked by the German Luftwaffe, in an attempt to delay the Soviet advance.

After learning that Soviet forces had taken Eberswalde without a fight, Adolf Hitler admitted defeat in his underground bunker and stated that suicide was his only recourse.

[6] He replaced Friedhelm Boginski (FDP), who was mayor since 2006[7] and left in 2021 due to his election as Member of Parliament.

It is the starting point of the railway lines to Templin and Frankfurt (Oder) and was terminus of the Eberswalde-Finowfurter-Eisenbahn (EFE) to Finowfurt until it was discontinued.

The airfield Flugplatz Finow is a former Soviet Air Force base that was handed over to civil use on May 11, 1993.

While Eberswalde was renowned for its thriving heavy industry in the past, since the fall of the wall, it has fallen upon harder times.

As the East German government fell, state support vanished, and factories had to suddenly compete with more efficient firms in the West.

Like many former East German towns, Eberswalde has since struggled with unemployment, and many have left the region in search of work elsewhere.

Consequently, many of the huge Soviet-Bloc style apartment complexes in Eberswalde (most notably the Brandenburgisches Viertel) are becoming empty, and are slowly being razed.