Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania

With an area of 23,170 sq. km. and 1.79 million inhabitants, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (German Mecklenburg-Vorpommern; Polish Zapomorze) is the northernmost of the new German Bundesländer (federal states) which were until 1990 part of East Germany.

History The old Pomerania proper (Pommern), consisting of Szczecin (the former Stettin) and the land east of the Oder river, 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. 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.

Geography 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.

Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania is 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

External link State's own website: http://www.mecklenburg-vorpommern.de/