Mecklenburg Vorpommern Google Map, Germany

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is a north-east German federal state bordering Poland, Baltic Sea and occupies an area between Lower Saxony, Schleswig- Holstein and Brandenburg. It was converted into one state in 1990 by merging Mecklenburg and Pomerania with Schwerin as its capital. It has more than 2,000 lakes, the largest one being Lake M-zritz, the largest lake of Germany, three national parks, seven nature parks, and three biosphere reserves, so it is the most nature-protected region of Germany. Its cultural richness is testified by the Schwerin Castle, Hanseatic old towns, such as the Stralsund and Wismar, and the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival. Its economy is driven by tourism and maritime industries and the universities in Rostock and Greinfors add academic worth.

History

The region that this northeastern German state covers has been inhabited since the Stone Age, although its documented history goes back to the Slavic tribes inhabiting that region, including Obotrites and Veleti that settled there in the 6th and 7th centuries. In 1160, Henry the Lion conquered the area leaders of Slavs, and Pribislav, heir of the Obotrite prince Niklot, was placed under Saxon overlordship, beginning a dynasty that would rule for centuries: the Mecklenburg dynasty.

Its western half grew into the Duchy of Mecklenburg, whilst the eastern half, which historically was called Pomerania, remained in local Slavic control until the 17th century. Sweden subsequently acquired Pomerania after the Thirty Years War and it was finally incorporated into Prussia during the 19th century. During the Middle Ages both regions prospered, forming the Hanseatic League whose most important trading towns included Rostock and Wismar and Stralsund.

Mecklenburg was further subdivided throughout the centuries to smaller duchies e.g. Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Later on, these were absorbed into the German Empire (1871). Social and economic inequality was eminent in the 19th century and progress on serfdom during the beginning of the 19th century proceeded only after the year 1820. Much social immobility and poor living creates widespread poverty, and a massive emigration (especially to North America).

The end of World War I saw the abolition of the monarchies making both Mecklenburg and Pomerania part of the Free States of the Weimar Republic. Mecklenburg duchies were united in a unitary administrative entity by the Nazi regime in the year 1934. The region became occupied by the Soviet prior to the conclusion of World War II. The two historic territories merged into a single province in 1945 and then a single state in East Germany, which however were disbanded in 1952 in three districts.

War's end was accompanied by a major upheaval. Refugees flooded in the region with hundreds of thousands of former eastern German territory residents and ruined cities. Land reforms disintegrated major farms, subdividing it to new settlers and small scale farmers. Further development of the region during the Soviet occupation in East Germany transformed the region into a major jurisdiction in agriculture, construction of ships, and domestic tourism.

With the reunification of Germany in 1990 the modern state was reused, and the districts of Rostock, Schwerin and Neubrandenburg were joined together. In 1991, a new coat of arms and a new flag was introduced representing not only Mecklenburg history but also Pomeranian history. After this period, the region has been considering tourism, environmental conservation, and economic revival as the major areas of interest besides solution to demographic issues like decline and aging population which remained persistent.

Culture

Towns with historic centres, such as Rostock, Wismar, Stralsund, some of which are also listed by UNESCO, still boast of impressive red-brick Gothic town halls and merchant halls of the Hanseatic period. Throughout the countryside, castles, palaces, and manor parks- examples of Gothic structures which include Schloss Bothmer and Güstrow Palace are used as exhibition, concert and places where people can hold events. Castle Schwerin, newly appointed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, is a mixing of Romantic architecture palaces with its status as a cultural site and as a parliament building.

The area offers many museums that depict varied cultural history and artistic masterpieces. The State Museum in Schwerin has Dutch masters and contemporary art: Marcel Duchamp and Günther Uecker. The Pomeranian State Museum in Greifswald tells the 14,000 years of local history and also displays other paintings by Caspar David Friedrich and Philipp Otto Runge. There is also modern art, and such museums as Kunsthalle in Rostock or manor houses turned into exhibition halls of modern photography and installations.

The summer is swarmed with cultural festivals. The most notable of them is the Festspiele, a classical music festival organized in unusual venues including barns, churches, and palace gardens. The open-air historical theater with horses and ships in the Störtebeker Festival in Rügen or the opera in Schwerin on the palace courtyard do take place. The music festivals are large-scale, ranging between experimental Fusion Festival or indie-rock Imm Germany and jazz festivals in Greifswald. Cinephiles are attracted to such film festivals as the Filmkunstfest MV and document showcases in Darß and Neubrandenburg.

Folk rural traditions exist all year round. Fall is marked by harvest festivals and parades around handmade crowns and people with their folk dances and the same is applicable to summer where harbor festivals and regattas using traditional sailing boats are held. Christmas markets and local traditions such as Lüttenweihnachten still have much local identity in winter.

Traditional food focuses on local and seasonal foods: potato, cabbages, freshwater fish, game, and sea buckthorn. The notable cuisine dishes are fried herring, smoked eel, potato-plum soup, sea buckthorn torte and Rote Grutze. The region has national recognition in terms of restaurants that have been able to gain national status in terms of culinary.

Language

Standard German (Hochdeutsch) is the official language in the area, and is used in education, administration and the media. Nevertheless, a peculiar language stratum is located below: the Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch dialect, Low German continuum (Plattdeutsch). This local dialect used to be the quoted dialect of the majority of the people in the countryside and also has more relations to the English and Dutch than to the High German. Today not widely spoken but it has hundreds of years of local identity.

Use of Plattdeutsch became official after World War II decreased drastically and particularly during the GDR era. National unity had influenced standard German to be propagated and therefore created a generation gap in regard to passing of the dialect. Nowadays there are very few senior speakers who use the dialect fluently in their everyday life mainly in rural environments.

Yet there are efforts to preserve culture. Low German as an optional subject is taught in some schools, and sometimes bits of the dialect also appear in regional broadcasting. To a degree, the dialect Plattdeutsch is used in the storytelling events and folk festivals, although this is not always necessarily, thus keeping a symbolic contact with the past. The north has associations and linguistic institutes protecting projects to record and renew the regional variants.

The most contemporary regional dialect in the region is a mixture of northern Standard German and dialects. You will notice unusual intonation and vocabulary particularly in colloquial speech. The Low German words and terms also live in localisms and local humor, though speakers of younger age who do not speak the dialect comprehensively may still use words and phrases.

Geography

The area has extended to northeast Germany and is surrounded by the Baltic Sea in the North and Poland in the East. It is also land-bordered with German states of Brandenburg, lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein. With an area coverage of approximately 23,000 square kilometers, it is among the largest states in area coverage in Germany but also the sparsely populated one.

On its northern end it also has the characteristic coastline that consists of cliffs, bays, and sandy beaches of about 350 kilometers. The two biggest German islands Rügen and Usedom are found nearby. Rügen is acclaimed over its chalk cliffs and secured woodlands whereas Usedom is well-known for its stretched coastlines and older shore towns.

Glaciers formed the landscape in the last Ice Age. That is why the terrain area is characterized by flat or slightly hilly land mixed with moraine, kettle lakes, peat bogs, and fertile plains. About 20 percent of the land is covered with forest, and 2/3 comes under agricultural land. The area is composed of 5 percent lakes and rivers.

It has over 1,700 natural lakes, an aspect that gave the area the name as the land of 1,000 lakes. Lake Müritzis the largest German lake within Germany measuring more than 110 square kilometers. Others are Lake Schwerin and Lake Kummerow. Most of the lakes are connected through rivers and canals hence the place is a site of boating and water tourism.

FAQs

Q.1: What is the capital in the state?

Its capital is Schwerin with a beautiful lake and the famous Schwerin Castle.

Q.2: Which are the spoken languages?

The national language is standard German which is the most spoken language. There are remote places in which the older generations speak a traditional dialect of Low German (Plattdeutsch).

Q.3: Is Mecklenburg-Vorpommern a tourist destination of good stature?

Yes! It is a popular destination for nature tourism, seaside resorts (such as those on Rügen and Usedom), hiking, bicycling and cultural festivals during the summer.

Q.4: What are the places that should not be missed?

The top attractions are Schwerin Castle, Jasmund National Park, old towns of Wismar and Stralsund, lake Müritz, and chalk cliffs of island Rügen.