Osinów Dolny (german: Niederwutzen) is Poland's westernmost settlement, in the administrative district of

Gmina Cedynia __NOTOC__ Gmina Cedynia is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Gryfino County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland, on the German border. Its seat is the town of Cedynia, which lies approximately south-west of Gryfi ...

, within

Gryfino County __NOTOC__ Gryfino County ( pl, powiat gryfiński) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in West Pomeranian Voivodeship, north-western Poland, on the German border. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result o ...

West Pomeranian Voivodeship The West Pomeranian Voivodeship, also known as the West Pomerania Province, is a voivodeship (province) in northwestern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Szczecin. Its area equals 22 892.48 km² (8,838.84 sq mi), and in 2021, it was ...

, in north-western Poland, on the border with

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It lies approximately south-west of

Cedynia Cedynia (pronounced ; german: Zehden, la, Cedene) is a small historic town in Poland, and the administrative seat of Gmina Cedynia in Gryfino County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship. It is situated close to the Oder river and the border with G ...

, south-west of

Gryfino Gryfino (german: Greifenhagen; nds, Gripenhagen; Kashubian: ''Gripiewò'') is a town in Pomerania, northwestern Poland, with 21,393 inhabitants (2017). It is also the capital of Gryfino County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship (since 1999), previ ...

, and south-west of the regional capital Szczecin. The village has a population of 180. It is the site of a border crossing with Hohenwutzen, on the road connecting the Polish town of

Chojna Chojna (german: Königsberg in der Neumark; csb, Czińsbarg; la, Regiomontanus Neomarchicus "King's Mountain in the New March") is a small town in northwestern Poland in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. It lies approximately south of Szcze ...

with

Bad Freienwalde Bad Freienwalde is a spa town in the Märkisch-Oderland district in Brandenburg, Germany. Geography The town is situated on the Alte Oder, an old branch of the Oder River at the northwestern rim of the Oderbruch basin and the steep rise of the ...

in Germany.

History

Around 967, the area became part of the emerging

Polish state Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. Following the fragmentation of Poland, it formed part of the

Duchy of Greater Poland The Duchy of Greater Poland was a district principality in Greater Poland that was a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Poland. It was formed in 1138 from the territories of the Kingdom of Poland, following its fragmentation started by the testament of ...

, and later on, it was also part of

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...

, Bohemia (Czechia),

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

and from 1871 to 1945 also Germany, within which it was administratively located in the Frankfurt Region in the

Province of Brandenburg The Province of Brandenburg (german: Provinz Brandenburg) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1945. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg ...

. There used to be a paper mill of minor regional importance in business here from 1936 to 1939. The paper mill was closed down; today its remaining structures are used as a marketplace. In the final stages of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, in March 1945, it was the site of fights between joint Polish-Soviet forces and the German ''

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

''. Afterwards, the area became again part of Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which then stayed in power until the

Fall of Communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...

in the 1980s. There is a monument to the Polish 1st Independent Mortar Brigade which fought in Osinów Dolny.

Economy

The village enjoys a great deal of business from Germans who cross the border to purchase products and services more cheaply than in Germany.http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_printcontent/0,,5019769,00.html When the border crossing was opened in 1993, thousands of Germans thronged the village in search of inexpensive goods and to fill up their automobile tanks, taking advantage of the cheaper fuel rates. In recent years, it has been jokingly called "The Village of the Hairdressers", due to over half of the village's inhabitants being hairdressers, mainly aimed at Germans wishing to get a cheap trim.

References

Villages in Gryfino County Germany–Poland border crossings {{Gryfino-geo-stub