Stralsund

Stralsund, officially the Hanseatic City of Stralsund, is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rostock, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg and Greifswald, and the second-largest city in the Pomeranian part of the state. It is located on the southern coast of the Strelasund, a sound of the Baltic Sea separating the island of Rügen from the Pomeranian mainland.
The Strelasund Crossing with its two bridges and several ferry services connects Stralsund with Rügen, the largest island of Germany and Pomerania. The Western Pomeranian city is the seat of the Vorpommern-Rügen district and, together with Greifswald, Stralsund forms one of four high-level urban centres of the region.
Stralsund was granted city rights in 1234 and is thus the oldest city in Pomerania. It was one of the most prosperous members of the medieval Hanseatic League. In 1628, during the Thirty Years' War, the city came under Swedish rule and remained so until the upheavals of the Napoleonic Wars. It was the capital of Swedish Pomerania from 1720 to 1815. From 1815 to 1945, Stralsund was part of Prussia.
Stralsund's old town is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Historic Centres of Stralsund and Wismar" alongside the old town of Wismar in Mecklenburg because of its outstanding Brick Gothic buildings and its importance during the time of the Hanseatic League and when the city belonged to Sweden. St Mary's Church has been the tallest church in the world from 1549 to 1569 and from 1573 to 1647. The city's other two large churches are St Nicholas' and St James'. Stralsund is the seat of the German Oceanographic Museum with its satellites Ozeaneum, Nautineum, and Natureum.
The main industries of Stralsund are shipbuilding, fishing, mechanical engineering, and, to an increasing degree, tourism, life sciences, services and high tech industries, especially information technology and biotechnology.

Geography

Stralsund is located in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a state in Western Pomerania region, Germany. in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It is separated from Rügen to the southwest by the Strelasund, which empties into the Baltic Sea.

Climate

Average annual precipitation is 656 mm, putting Stralsund within the lowest third of all such values in Germany. The driest month is February, the wettest July, with relatively little variation throughout the year.

Landscape

The city lies on the sound of Strelasund, a strait of the Baltic Sea. Its geographic proximity to the island of Rügen, whose only fixed link to the mainland, the Strelasund Crossing, runs between Stralsund and the village of Altefähr, has given Stralsund the sobriquet "Gateway to the Island of Rügen". Stralsund is located close to the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park.
Stralsund's city borough includes municipal forest and three municipal ponds on its western approaches.

Subdivisions

The city's territory covers an area of, which makes Stralsund, with its nearly 58,000 inhabitants one of the most densely populated cities in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The borough of the Hanseatic city of Stralsund is divided into as follows:

No.	Area	Quarter	Population
01	Altstadt		5,942
011	Altstadt	Altstadt	5,630
012	Altstadt	Hafeninsel	24
013	Altstadt	Bastionengürtel	288
02	Knieper		24,966
021	Knieper	Kniepervorstadt	6,059
022	Knieper	Knieper Nord	6,597
023	Knieper	Knieper West	12,310
03	Tribseer		9,876
031	Tribseer	Tribseer Vorstadt	5,204
032	Tribseer	Tribseer Siedlung	3,431
033	Tribseer	Tribseer Wiesen	1,129
034	Tribseer	Schrammsche Mühle	112
04	Franken		6,660
041	Franken	Frankenvorstadt	5,209
042	Franken	Dänholm	316
043	Franken	Franken Mitte	365
044	Franken	Frankensiedlung	770
05	Süd		3,947
051	Süd	Andershof	3,297
052	Süd	Devin	576
053	Süd	Voigdehagen	74
06	Lüssower Berg		225
07	Langendorfer Berg		318
08	Grünhufe		6,307
081	Grünhufe	Stadtkoppel	320
082	Grünhufe	Vogelsang	2,240
083	Grünhufe	Grünthal-Viermorgen	3,687
084	Grünhufe	Freienlande	60

The city also possesses estates in the local area as well as on the islands of Rügen, Hiddensee and Ummanz.

Neighbouring municipalities

Larger cities in the nearby area are Greifswald and Rostock. In the local area around Stralsund there are also the towns of Barth and Ribnitz-Damgarten.
Many of the smaller villages in the vicinity, like Prohn or Negast, have grown sharply after 1990 as a result of the influx of those living or working in Stralsund.

Etymology

In the Middle Ages the Dänholm isle and fishing village, both at the site of the latter city of Stralsund, were called Strale or Stralow, Polabian for "arrow". The city's name as well as that of the Strelasund are compounds of the Polabian stral and strela and the Germanic sund, a strait or sound. The canting arms of the city make reference to that etymology as well as to Stralsund's Hanseatic past in featuring a silver cross pattée above a silver arrow.
The full Polabian name can be rendered in Polish as Strzałów.

History

In the Middle Ages the Stralsund area formed part of the West Slavic Principality of Rügen. The village had a ferry to the island of Rügen. In 1168, following the siege of Arkona, the Principality of Rügen became part of Kingdom of Denmark.
In the course of German Ostsiedlung, many German settlers, gentry and merchants were invited to settle in the principality, and they eventually populated the Strale settlement. Merchants from other countries as well as locals were attracted to the area and made up one third of the settlement's population. The Danish navy used the isle as well. When the settlement had grown to town size, prince Wizlaw I of Rügen granted Lübeck law to "our town Stralow" in 1234, although a significant settlement had existed long before the formal founding. In 1240, when the prince gave additional land to the town, he called it Stralesund.
The success of the settlement challenged the powerful Free City of Lübeck, which burnt Stralsund down in 1249. Afterwards the town was rebuilt with a massive town wall having 11 town gates and 30 watchtowers. The Neustadt, a town-like suburb, had merged with Stralsund by 1361. Schadegard, a nearby twin city to Stralsund also founded by Wizlaw I, though not granted German law, served as the principal stronghold and enclosed a fort. It was given up and torn down by 1269 under pressure from the Stralsund Bürger.
In 1293 Stralsund became a member of the Hanseatic League. A total of 300 ships flying the flag of Stralsund cruised the Baltic Sea in the 14th century. In 1325 the Principality of Rügen became part of the Duchy of Pomerania, Stralsund however maintained a considerable independence.
In the 17th century opposing forces in the Thirty Years' War fought over Stralsund. In the Battle of Stralsund, the Imperial forces commanded by Albrecht von Wallenstein besieged the city after the council refused to accept the Capitulation of Franzburg of November 1627. Stralsund resisted with Danish and Swedish support. The Swedish garrison in Stralsund was the first on German soil in history. With the Treaty of Stettin, the city became one of two major Swedish forts in the Duchy of Pomerania, alongside Stettin.
After the war, the Peace of Westphalia and the Treaty of Stettin made Stralsund part of Swedish Pomerania. Lost to Brandenburg in the Battle of Stralsund, it reverted to Sweden in the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. In the Great Northern War in 1715 Charles XII led the defence of Stralsund for a year against the united European armies. Stralsund remained under Swedish control until the Battle of Stralsund, when Napoleon Bonaparte's army occupied it. Seized by Ferdinand von Schill's freikorps in 1809, it subsequently reverted to French control, with Schill killed in action. With the Congress of Vienna, Stralsund became a part of the Prussian Province of Pomerania and the seat of a government region resembling the former Swedish Pomerania.
Following the First World War Stralsund suffered the same sort of political unrest and unemployment that afflicted much of Germany. In May 1919 Stralsund workers clashed with police, and martial law was declared. In the early 1920s the Independent Social Democratic Party became the strongest party in Stralsund, but its political fortunes waned rapidly, and in September 1922 it reunited with the Social Democratic Party. The Stralsunder Zeitung was published as a local newspaper in Stralsund.
In the national parliamentary election of May 1924, the conservative German National People's Party polled 8,547 votes in Stralsund, the SPD 3,534, the Communists 1,825 and the German People's Party of Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann 1,417. However, in keeping with national trends, Hitler's National Socialists made rapid gains in the late 1920s, and by the time of the last free national election in July 1932 the Nazis polled twice as many votes in Stralsund as the SPD.
During the Nazi period, Stralsund's military installations expanded, and a naval training base opened on the nearby island of Dänholm. In World War II the city was subjected to repeated Allied bombing. Attacks by the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1944 killed some 800 Stralsunders and destroyed an estimated 8,000 dwellings. The 354th Rifle Division of the Red Army occupied Stralsund on 28 April 1945 – 10 days before the end of the war in Europe. Approximately half its population had fled.
During the period of the German Democratic Republic, Stralsund saw the construction of numerous Plattenbau prefabricated apartment blocks. Its economic life centered on the now state-owned shipyard, which largely focussed on building ships for the Soviet Union.
After German reunification in 1990, the city's historic old town was thoroughly restored, and Communist-era apartment blocks were renovated and upgraded. In 2002 the old towns of Stralsund and Wismar, some 120 km to the west, were listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Stralsund's shipyard was privatized, and thereafter specialized in constructing container ships.