Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

State Service Flag
Statistics
Capital:	Schwerin
Area:	23,170 km²
Inhabitants:	1,790,000 (2001)
pop. density:	77 people/km²
Homepage:	http://www.m-v.de/
ISO 3166-2:	DE-MV
Politics
Minister-President:	Harald Ringstorff (SPD)
Ruling party:	SPD/PDS coalition
Map

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (German Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) is a Bundesland (federal state) in northern Germany.

It has an area of 23,170 km², and 1.7 million inhabitants making it one of the states with a low population density. Also, the Baltic Sea with it's beaches and islands as well as the many lakes in the interior attract many tourists every year. There are two universities, and a number of colleges of applied science.

The largest cities are Rostock, Greifswald, Stralsund, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, and Güstrow all having a population of less than 200,000.

History

The old Pomerania proper (Pommern), consisting of Szczecin (the former Stettin) and the land east of the Oder river (Hinterpommern), is now a part of Poland. Western Pomerania (Vorpommern) was under Swedish control from the peace treaty of Westphalia in 1648 until its annexation to Prussia in 1720 and 1815. See History of Germany.

Mecklenburg, to the west of Vorpommern, became a duchy in 1348 but was divided from the 17th century until 1934. The states of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz became grand duchies in 1815 but republican government was established in 1918. They were briefly combined with Vorpommern in 1947-1952 and have been part of the present state since German reunification in 1990.

Sixth largest in area but only thirteenth in population among the country's sixteen states, it is bounded on the north by the Baltic Sea, in the west by Schleswig-Holstein, in the south-west by Lower Saxony, to the south by Brandenburg and to the east by Poland. Its administrative seat is Schwerin but the Baltic port of Rostock is nearly twice as populous. The other major cities are Neubrandenburg, Stralsund, Greifswald and Wismar. The coast of the Baltic Sea contains several islands, most notably Rügen, Hiddensee, Usedom and Poel.

See also List of places in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is currently divided into twelve Kreise (districts):

Furthermore there are six independent towns, which don't belong to any district:

1. Greifswald
2. Neubrandenburg
3. Rostock
4. Schwerin
5. Stralsund
6. Wismar

In December 2003 a second administrative reform was started which will reorganize the Bundesland into 5 districts until 2008. Additionally to the larger territory the districts will also gain some responsibilities from the central government. The outline of the new districts isn't finalized yet.

see: University of Rostock, Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald

(1945-1952: Minister-Presidents of Mecklenburg)

1. 1945 - 1951: Willi Hocker
2. 1951: Kurt Bürger
3. 1951 - 1952: Bernhard Quandt
4. 1990 - 1992: Prof. Dr. Alfred Gomolka (CDU)
5. 1992 - 1998: Dr. Berndt Seite (CDU)
6. since 1998: Dr. Harald Ringstorff (SPD)

• Regional Tourist Board Vorpommern (D) (English, German, Swedish, Polish)
• Ost|See|Land - Tourism site (D) (English, German, Swedish, Polish)

States of Germany
Baden-Württemberg | Bavaria | Berlin | Brandenburg | Bremen | Hamburg | Hesse | Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania | Lower Saxony | North Rhine-Westphalia | Rhineland-Palatinate | Saarland | Saxony | Saxony-Anhalt | Schleswig-Holstein | Thuringia