Paintings of mecklenburg-vorpommern during 1890

 

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is a state in Germany (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)

Wartime

The Soviet Union's and Western allies' soldiers met east of Schwerin in May 1945. The Western allies handed Mecklenburg over to the Soviets after the Potsdam Agreement. Mecklenburg-West Pomerania was formed as the Province of Mecklenburg and West Pomerania on 9 July 1945, by order No. 5 of Red Army Marshal Georgy Zhukov, leader of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) (zapadnoi Pomeranii).

Pomerania was divided into two halves.

Due to wartime losses and the influx of evacuees, the population of Mecklenburg and Vorpommern altered throughout the war (mainly from the Berlin and Hamburg metropolitan areas that were subject to air raids). People fleeing and being expelled from Germany's former eastern areas east of the Oder-Neisse line settled in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (and elsewhere in Germany) after the war, boosting the population by 40%. Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania had a population of 1,278,700 people before the war, many of whom died in the conflict and others who moved west as the Red Army advanced. In 1947, 1,426,000 refugees from Germany's former eastern provinces were resettled in the United States.In 1947, 1,426,000 refugees from Germany's former eastern provinces were counted. The majority of them settled in rural areas, but urban populations grew as well, with Schwerin's population rising from 65,000 in 1939 to 99,518 in January 1947, Wismar's from 29,463 to 44,173, and Greifswald's from 29,488 to 43,897. Despite its location west of the Oder, the territory around the Pomeranian regional seat of Stettin/Szczecin, as well as the city itself, were also stripped.

Germany's Democratic Republic (GDR)

Rostock was East Germany's principal foreign port and is now one of the most prominent Baltic Sea ports. One of the world's major maritime festivals, Hanse Sail, is pictured.

On 5 June 1946, the Soviets passed a law creating an interim German government (Beratende Versammlung, English: "Consulting assembly") that would be supervised by the Soviets until 29 June 1946. Following elections on October 20, 1946, the Beratende Versammlung was replaced by a Landtag, which enacted the constitution of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on January 16, 1947. The state's name was abbreviated to Land Mecklenburg on April 18, 1947. When the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was founded in 1949, Mecklenburg became a component state ("Land").In 1952, the East German administration dropped the word "Land" and renamed its administrative geographical divisions "districts" instead (German: Bezirke). Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was divided into three districts: Bezirk Rostock, Bezirk Schwerin, and Bezirk Neubrandenburg, all of which encompassed about the same area. Under the highly centralised GDR government, these were known as Nordbezirke (northern districts). The East German government expanded shipyards in old Hanseatic ports (the largest of which were in Rostock and Stralsund) and built the Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant in Lubmin, near Greifswald.

Reunification

The eastern states were reconstructed along their postwar boundaries (with slight revisions) as they had been until 1952, and the traditional name Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was restored at the time of German reunification in 1990. The state has changed dramatically since 1990. The service, tourism, and high-tech industries are increasingly driving what was once mostly an industrial and agricultural economy. Mecklenburg-old Vorpommern's cities, hundreds of castles and manors, resort buildings, windmills, churches, and other cultural sites have all been renovated in recent years. Net migration into the state has been positive since 2013.