The Uckermark is a historical region that represents one of the last areas of Germany to be colonized. The region was built around the trade route connecting Stettin with Magdeburg. The city of Prenzlau was the central node in the Uckermark but did not survive WWII. With the loss of Prenzlau, the region today is one of the small towns and a landscape of rolling hills and forest.
The Uckermark was formerly a slightly larger region encompassing the region between Mecklenburg and the Oder river. The name Uckermark comes from the name of the original Slavic inhabitants, the “Ukranen,” and translates roughly as the “Ukranen March.” It was colonized by Saxon settlers in the 13th century who founded the city of Prenzlau on a major trade route between the Elbe River and the North Sea. Most of the region was devastated in the Thirty Years War and remains sparsely populated.
Most of the region was again destroyed in WWII (Prenzlau was unfortunately wiped off the map), but several small towns are worth visiting. The nicest part, though, is what I refer to as the “cultural landscapes” or the combination of human development with the natural surroundings. West Germany offers very few immersive cultural landscapes, with its high development and industrialization. In contrast, the Uckermark offers a nice trip back in time to fields of rolling grain and scattered villages.
