History of the Hanseatic City of Wismar

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The article History of the Hanseatic City of Wismar deals with the development of the German city of Wismar . Founded as a Slavic settlement in the 10th century, the city was mentioned for the first time in 1229 and shortly thereafter received the Lübische city charter, confirmed in 1266 .

Wismar belonged to the principality, later the Duchy of Mecklenburg , was owned by the kings of Sweden in the Holy Roman Empire from 1648 to 1803 (factually) or 1903 (formally) , then until 1918 in the Duchy or Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin , then a Free State until 1934 and until 1945 and 1952 in the state of Mecklenburg . In 1952 Wismar belonged to the Rostock district of the GDR and since 1990 to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Wismar had been an important Hanseatic city in the Baltic Sea region since the 13th century .

The water art from 1602 on the market square. in the background the town hall from 1819, on the right a town house ( Old Swede ) from 1380 and the Reuterhaus

Name story

The documents relating to the name of the Hanseatic city of Wismar are not clear even after the latest research. Among other things, the derivation of Wismaria or Place des Vysěmêr or Visemêr , the alleged locator of the place, is mentioned. The place name changed from 1229 Wyssemaria , 1230 Wissemaria to 1237, 1246 to Wismaria . In contrast, the name Wismar is mentioned as early as 1147 through the Knýtlinga saga , which emerged 20 years later , when the Danish King Sven Grade landed in Wizmar Havn - the Wismar Bay. This is not credible as it was at most an anchorage. The Danish King Waldemar also landed in Wismar Havn in 1164 . The demonstrable forgery of the document of January 4, 1211, which can be traced back to both events, according to which Emperor Otto IV “allowed the dear citizens of Schwerin to keep any number of smaller ships and two larger ships in the port of Wismar”.

The name of the city of Wismar is not clear, even if one looks at the document from 1167, around 60 years before the city was founded. This is a document from Heinrich the Lion to confirm the determination of the boundaries of the diocese of Ratzeburg. where for the first time the name Wismar is mentioned as aqua que Wissemara dicitur, ad aquem Wissemaram as the eastern border of the diocese. It is a small river east of Wismar. Ultimately, the documentary mention of the city of Wismar dates from 1229 as Prince Johann “gives his dear citizens (one only speaks of citizens when a city (civita) exists) a piece of land between the Köppernitz and ...”. This is mentioned in the Kirchberg Chronicle of “un dy stad zur Wysmar”.

The name for the planned settlement of the three-capped hill on the southern Wismar Bay, today's Hanseatic city of Wismar, derives from the name of the east of the city, according to the proven Hanseatic and Wismar researcher Friedrich Techen, the Mecklenburg old master of history Friedrich Schlie and Friedrich Schildt located brook of the aqua Wisemaraa . The presumed village of Alt Wismar there can possibly only be viewed as a settlement that later became known as the new city and then the old Wismar . The aqua wissemaraa was demonstrably there and also the place Alt Wismar (see document from 1167). Two names indicate this place: The Altwismartor, which was demolished in 1868, to the east of the city and today's Altwismarstrasse to the east. It is difficult to give Viysemar , the locator, as the only evidence for the city name Wismar, whereby the name Wismar appears in 1147 and 1167, decades earlier and the locator mentioned was certainly not yet present.

Since 1990, the city has had the addition of the Hanseatic city ​​again .

Before the city was founded

The region around today's Hanseatic city of Wismar is already due to its favorable location a settlement area that is thousands of years old, which has been proven by excavations and finds in recent years. After the Germanic tribes withdrew during the migration , the region around the Wismar Bay was exclusively inhabited by the Wendish or Slavic Obodrites until the end of the 12th century , while those near Wismar near the present-day village of Mecklenburg and in Ilow Castle east of Wismar their headquarters or residence had.

City foundation

Reconstructed St. Georgen Church , historical starting point for Wismar Neustadt

The founding of today's city of Wismar probably goes back to Prince Heinrich Borwin I , Lord of Mecklenburg. The year the city was founded is estimated at 1226. The people who settled here came - according to their family names - from Holstein , Westphalia , Lower Saxony and the Mark . The city of Wismar was first mentioned in a document in 1229. Shortly afterwards, the town charter of Lübeck was introduced in Wismar , confirmed in 1266 by Prince Heinrich I of Mecklenburg . The originally isolated settlements around St. Marien and St. Nikolai grew together until 1238. With the unabated influx of settlers from 1250 onwards, the new town around St. Georgen was added. The Benedictine monastery Wismar is said to have been founded between 1180 and 1239 and taken over by the Franciscans after 1251 ; The Dominicans came to the city in 1292/93 . In 1276 the first phase of settlement was over. Wismar built a city wall enclosing all quarters, the location of which today defines the boundaries of the old town.

Time of the Hanseatic League

Wismar at the time of the Hanseatic League
Salt road from Bad Sülze via Dändorf to Wismar from 1243 to 1907

Shortly after the city was founded, Wismar became a member of the Hanseatic League . On September 6, 1259, the ambassadors from Lübeck and Rostock met in Wismar to conclude a protection treaty against the increasing piracy. That was the cornerstone for the rapidly developing Wendish quarter of the Hanseatic League. According to Bernhard Latomus , Hildbrandt von Pfuel was mayor of the city in 1260 . In 1280, Wismar, which was located on the Hanseatic Ostseestrasse , formed the Wendish League of Cities with Stralsund , Rostock , Lübeck and Hamburg and the city became an important member of the Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages . The Wismarer Neustadt was built from 1238 to 1250, and Wismar reached the extent that it was until the 18th century.

Prince Johann I von Mecklenburg moved his residence from Mecklenburg Castle to Weberkamp in front of the city in 1257 . On September 6, 1259 the cities of Rostock, Lübeck and Wismar joined forces to fight the pirates together; with the Peace of Rostock, which followed in 1283 , the cooperation between the cities of the Wendish quarter of the Hanseatic League stabilized. As the most important city in the principality, the city remained the seat of the Mecklenburg princes until 1358. In 1267 there was the first big fire in the city. The rich Hanseatic city was then rebuilt with many brick houses. The increased self-confidence of the city was reflected in the uprising in 1310 against the sovereign Henrich II of Mecklenburg . The trigger was Wismar's refusal to hold the wedding of his daughter Mechthild with Duke Otto zu Braunschweig-Lüneburg in the city. But already in 1311 Wismar had to submit to the duke.

In 1350 around 2000 people died of the Black Death . In the armed conflict between the Hanseatic League and Denmark, Wismar stood with the cities of the Wendish quarter. Shortly after the Peace of Stralsund , Emperor Karl IV. , Coming from Lübeck in 1375, visited the city, where he was given an honorable welcome. The loss of the Swedish crown by the Mecklenburgers brought the Mecklenburg Hanseatic cities of Wismar and Rostock into conflict for the first time with the other Hanseatic cities, which were more likely to oppose the Mecklenburg dukes and the emperor with Queen Margarethe of Denmark. The conflict was waged as a pirate war, the letters of piracy issued by the Mecklenburgers for private parties were the hour of birth of the Vitalienbrüder .

In the Wendish Münzverein , uniform coinage regulations were contractually secured from 1379 to the 16th century, mainly between Lübeck, Hamburg, Wismar, Lüneburg and temporarily Rostock, Stralsund and Hanover. The Witten for four pfennigs , the Dreiling (also Driling ) and the Schilling were u. a. valid as coins in Wismar. (See also Mecklenburg coin history )

Princely court in the Mecklenburg Johann Albrecht style , 16th century
Wismar in 1640

Urban riots broke out at the beginning of the 15th century. The handicraft offices rebelled under their leader Claus Jesup and set up a new council before 1410 ; Jesup was also mayor at times. The unrest escalated again in 1427 after the defeat of the Hanseatic fleet and in Wismar the fleet leader Hinrich van Haren and the mayor Johann Bantzkow were executed on the execution block of the market square. Bantzkov's family fled; his eldest son and the patricians appealed against the executions to the Emperor Sigismund . Because of the events, Wismar came under imperial ban. In 1430, at the instigation of the emperor, the new council was dissolved and the old old council was reinstated by force of arms. As an atonement, the city had to build the Bantzkow Atonement Chapel, which was demolished in 1850 . Gebekendorpe, first mentioned in 1349, fell in the 15th century .

The place was first mentioned in 1349 as Jebendorpe and was last mentioned in 1381 as Gebbekendorpe. It can be assumed that this settlement became deserted in the 15th century, although the reasons for the abandonment of the place are unknown. [1]

Since the effective collection of taxes for state purposes, the revenue of which came primarily from the commercial turnover of city merchants and from the wages of free city dwellers, required the cooperation of the city tax authorities, the introduction or change of each individual tax was subject to the approval of the state estates, including Wismar , on their diets. Their emergence goes back to the beginning of the 14th century, when the knighthood, the totality of the vassals in Mecklenburg, who gathered irregularly since the 13th century, called in representatives of the cities that formed the landscape . Since the unification of Mecklenburg under Heinrich IV. In 1471, the estates of the three partial dominions Mecklenburg (Mecklenburgischer Kreis), Wenden (Wendischer Kreis) and Stargard (Stargardscher Kreis) increasingly gathered together in joint state parliaments, before they formed a union in 1523 around the imminent renewed one to counteract the dynastic division of the country by Albrecht VII .

From 1524 reached Reformation Wismar, as the preacher Henry Möllens (Henricus Mollerus) in spring 1524 in the George church preached that deals with the delegation of Duke Albrecht VII. Was in town. He met with great approval from the population, so that in 1527 he was appointed pastor of St. George. In the Gray Monastery , the Franciscan Heinrich Never and other brothers adopted the new Lutheran teaching early on. While the Black Monastery was able to hold out for some time after the Reformation, the Gray Monastery became a children's school in 1541 and a Latin school in 1544 , which was later named the Great City School . It was under ecclesiastical supervision until 1587, when the city council gained influence.

An Anabaptist congregation was established and Menno Simons also took part in its meetings in the winter of 1553/54 . In 1555 the Wendish Hanseatic cities announced a mandate against the Anabaptists, but even after 1555 there are still a few Anabaptists in the Hanseatic city.

The canal construction of the Viechelner Fahrt, today called Wallensteingraben , was put into operation in 1594 as a waterway to the Schweriner See and the Elbe , but fell into disrepair shortly afterwards because it was not looked after and maintained enough during the politically troubled times.

The city around 1716

Sweden time

In the Thirty Years War Wismar was conquered by Sweden in 1632 and fell to the Swedish crown as an imperial fiefdom in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, together with the island of Poel and the Neukloster office . From 1653, the city was the seat of the Upper Tribunal , the highest court of justice for the Swedish areas south of the Baltic Sea, which until 1712 included the Duchy of Verden and until 1815 Swedish Pomerania .

During the Skåne War , Wismar was attacked by Danish troops on December 13, 1675 and occupied by the Danes until November 1680. On November 23, 1680, the Swedish Count Otto Wilhelm von Königsmarck moved into the city as a representative of the Swedish king and Wismar became part of Sweden again. The Swedes then built Wismar into one of the strongest sea fortresses in Europe. The port entrance was secured via the fortress on the island of Walfisch .

View around 1850

In December 1711, the battle at Lübow was fought outside the city gates after Wismar had been blocked by a Danish corps in August 1711 . The city fortifications were razed again after the Swedish defeat in the Northern War , after the besieged Wismar was captured by Prussian-Danish troops on April 19, 1716 in the Pomeranian campaign of 1715/1716 .

The Swedish rule over Wismar ended de facto in 1803 when the kingdom pledged the city with the Malmö pledge agreement for 99 years to the duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin . However, it and the surrounding areas did not finally revert to Germany until 1903, when Sweden contractually waived the redemption of the pledge. Every year in late summer, Wismar celebrate the Sweden Festival .

From 1803 to 1933

Advertisement by Bades Söhne (Wismar) for polar and Mediterranean trips with the Thalia 1907

On June 26, 1803, the pledge agreement was signed in Malmö, Sweden, for the return of traffic to Wismar after 155 years to Mecklenburg, initially for 100 years. The Mecklenburg Duke Friedrich Franz moved into Wismar on August 19, 1803.

From 1806 Mecklenburg and Wismar were occupied by the Napoleonic troops, which only withdrew in 1813. Wismar was weakened economically by the Swedish times and the French occupation. Many buildings fell into disrepair and shipping, brewery and trade all went into decline. The Wismar town hall from 1350 collapsed in 1807 and was rebuilt by 1819. As a legacy from the Swedish era, the export and import tariffs were retained, which also made economic activity more difficult. In 1864, when Mecklenburg joined the North German Confederation, this relic disappeared.

City Secretary Johann Walter called on September 28, 1815 in an extra supplement to the Wismarer Zeitung for a monetary and material donation to build a park in front of the Altwismartor. Due to the high willingness to donate, work on the plant could begin on October 12, 1815, which was named Lindengarten on December 5, 1815 through a newspaper publication .

On September 12, 1816, the first Mecklenburg music festival took place in Wismar with the performance of Joseph Haydn's The Creation in St. Nikolai with 100 singers. From this the second oldest music association in Germany, founded on November 5, 1818, developed.

On January 3, 1821, the shipbuilder Hammer submitted an application to build a bathing ship for the beach section of the village of Wendorf, which belongs to Wismar. This was approved on January 6, 1821 and on June 14, 1821, the Hammersche Badeschiff was inaugurated. Wismar and today's seaside resort Wendorf were among the first bathing resorts in Germany. This attraction was in operation until 1850.

On January 2, 1825, the municipal savings institution founded on June 23, 1824 (forerunner of today's Sparkasse) opened in the town hall. In 1827, the Hanseatic city applied again to be included in the landscape from which Wismar had left under the Swedish regiment, but initially did not succeed. Wismar was one of the last cities that still had a cemetery in the center of the city. On September 14, 1831, the council and the citizenship decided on a new cemetery. It was built south of the old town (today on both sides of Schweriner Straße with access via Wiesenweg) in front of the Mecklenburg Gate.

The Wismar architect Heinrich Thormann built the theater on Mecklenburger Strasse, which was officially opened on October 2, 1842. It burned down completely on January 9, 1948 and was not rebuilt.

The traffic routes have always been important for the port city of Wismar, as it was in the founding century, when the citizens settled on the Alte Salzstrasse . The first paved road led south to Schwerin in 1834 and the Chaussee followed in 1844 towards Brüel. Then in 1846 roads in the direction of Kröpelin and in 1847 to Lübeck were completed. In 1862 the shipowner Christian Thormann built the first storage facility. In 1888 the new Grand Ducal Customs Office was built at the port. The management of the Wismar seaport was housed here until 1994.

Until the end of the 19th century, today's old port fulfilled a variety of tasks. In 1893 the breakthrough took place at the tree house to the New Harbor and thus for the decisive expansion. Just like the Holzhafen and the Westhafen, created from 1909. The handling volumes of around 300,000 tons as a top result appear modest. In 1927 the sea border slaughterhouse was built, which was supposed to increase the seaward import and export of cattle. The storehouses built between 1935 and 1940, such as the Löwe-Speicher built in 1935 , the 34-meter-high Ohlerich-Speicher built in 1938 and the Kruse-Speicher built in 1940 on the Lastadie were enormously important for the handling of grain, but the volumes handled stagnated, in addition to grain also included coal. Over 200,000 tons were no longer reached and the Second World War almost brought the cargo handling to a standstill. The sea border slaughterhouse suffered bomb damage and was dismantled after the war by order of August 13, 1951.

The Swedish heads are Wismar's trademark. It is unknown who set it up. In 1902 they were so damaged in the port entrance that one of the heads was taken into the museum. On May 23, 1903, two copies were placed in the same place.

In 1830, in the wake of the July Revolution , riots broke out in Wismar under the leadership of the lawyer Christian Düberg , which were resolved by a mixture of reform (the city's new constitution in December) and military intervention. In 1842 the pharmacist and businessman (member of the Krämer company) Friedrich Ferdinand Carl Wüstney (1796-1859) was granted the license to run a lithographic company and produced the well-known Wismar playing cards.

On September 9, 1844, the pharmacist Carl Friedrich Framm from Doberan received a license to open the third pharmacy in Wismar as Neue Apotheke , today's Hirsch Pharmacy on January 1, 1845.

A ferry company founded in 1847 started operations on April 18, 1847 with the paddle steamer Obotrit (ex Finland from 1842) and drove to Stockholm for the first time on behalf of the Mecklenburgische Dampfschifffahrtsgesellschaft AG. The steamer later no longer traveled this route; he was used for pleasure rides. Regular traffic to Copenhagen began on October 4, 1848, but this line also failed.

In 1848 the Mecklenburg publisher Dethloff Carl Hinstorff moved from Parchim to Wismar. Here began the connection with Fritz Reuter , as a result of which Hinstorff published all of Reuter's publications. Hinstorff is the editor of the Mecklenburgisches Tageblatt and the Voss un Haas calendar. Hinstorff died on August 10, 1882 in Wismar.

The Mecklenburg school law became binding in Wismar on March 1, 1855 and the first new school building was built after 400 years.

The municipal and voluntary fire brigade began operations on June 18, 1859. Wismar had been a garrison town with the Mecklenburg musketeers since 1820. The soldiers were initially housed with citizens. On July 7, 1851, a new military hospital was completed in front of the Altwismartor, which is now used as an office by the Wismar police station. The first quarter houses (barracks) for the Wismar garrison were completed in 1881 and 1882. This meant a noticeable relief for both the citizens and the military. On February 22nd, 1836, a railway committee was founded in Wismar and the city made land available for its construction. Despite the early readiness, Wismar only got a connection to the railway network with a branch line from the village of Kleinen to Wismar on July 12, 1848 and is therefore excluded from through traffic. The station was inaugurated on July 1, 1857.

In 1848 a railway line was built to Schwerin , in 1883 to Rostock and 1887 to Karow . On May 14, 1881, Rudolph Karstadt opened his first cloth shop in Wismar and thus laid the foundation for today's Karstadt department store chain . In 1908 he built his first department store in Wismar. From 1894 to 1908, the polar explorer Wilhelm Bade , who resided in Wismar, and, after his death in 1903, his sons, chartered passenger ships, organized Norway and polar cruises, thus proving themselves to be pioneers in the development of tourism in the North Sea .

Between 1869 and 1904, the entire city wall with defense towers and city gates was torn down in order to open up more to the economy. Only the remains of a wall, a defense tower and the water gate at the harbor have been preserved. On April 1, 1888, the post office got its new building, which is still used by the Deutsche Post today.

In 1350 Wismar had expelled his Jewish roommates from the city. For centuries they were only allowed to do business in the city. On October 4, 1867, the council and the citizenship unanimously decided that Jews would have unhindered access and immigration to the city.

Heinrich Podeus: A positive development in the industrial economy is thanks to Captain Heinrich Podeus, who was born in Warnemünde on November 9, 1832 . On April 27, 1870 he opened the Wismar coal trading company. In 1879 Podeus bought the iron foundry and machine factory of Crull & Co. in Wismar, which was founded in 1853. In 1895, 200 employees worked in this foundry. The takeover of the iron foundry was particularly influential in the further course of the company. In the iron foundry, supplies were made for shipyards, new ships, but also for house building and sewerage. In 1884 a sawmill and planing mill was added and with the steam shipping company, which was also founded in 1884, Podeus had the economic say in the city. The first steamer was the Wismar and by 1905 the Podeus fleet had grown to ten screw steamers with a total tonnage of 7387 GRT. In 1893 Podeus and his son Paul founded a railway testing institute, from which the Wismar wagon factory emerged in 1894 and the first passenger railway wagon was manufactured in 1895. This branch of the company developed quickly and through excellent quality work, sales could be increased by leaps and bounds.
The Wismar Canal Construction Association, founded on August 27, 1892, goes back to the initiative of Podeus, who recognized the predominant advantages of the never completed canal from Lake Schwerin to the Baltic Sea. He expanded the former canal construction planning to include a connection to the Elde and thus to the Elbe. The Elbe-Baltic Canal was for Podeus the link to Wismar centuries of bad connections to the hinterland, which is essential for each port. After the death of Henrich Podeus in 1905, his sons Heinrich and Paul continued to run the company. While the Podeus'sche Maschinenfabrik was built on the site of the old iron foundry, in which agricultural utility vehicles and trucks have been manufactured since 1902 and the first Wismar passenger car from 1910, the area for the wagon factory between Platter Kamp and Bleicher Weg was enlarged to 170,000 square meters, of which 50,000 square meters were covered. At peak times, the Podeus companies had up to 1,600 employees. The 5,000th wagon was delivered to the wagon factory in 1909. Due to increased innovations in the company's own product range, there were many large orders and the company was able to change production very quickly to the respective customer requirements. For example, wagons for the trams for Stettin, Rostock and Schwerin were supplied, and the new S-Bahn trains in Hamburg and Berlin also received their wagons from Wismar. Exports went to Holland and Denmark, as well as to China. The Wismarers had built a reputation for quality and that paid off. In 1911 the wagon factory, which had been owned up to that point, was converted into a public limited company. Production ran at full speed up to the First World War , and vehicles for the army were also built here during the war. In 1917 the 10,000 wagon left the factory. The companies got into difficulties in the course of the global economic crisis and were liquidated.

Wismar's economy developed particularly during the founding period . The sugar factory went into operation on November 2, 1889 as a stock corporation and the slaughterhouse in November 1888. In 1884 a paper factory was founded by Gustav Marsmann at Rothentor and later on Rostocker Strasse. The paper mill ceased operations in 1996. The merchant Wilhelm Müller took over the building of the Wismar paper factory on Rostocker Straße and set up a wire factory here in 1902

With effect from July 1, 1897, Wismar was reassigned into the landscape, but as a seaside town, like Rostock, it did not belong to any of the three districts into which the other towns with rural districts , the so-called country towns , were divided, and like these, it had its seat and represented votes in the state parliaments until 1918. The Wismar water supply was ensured by a pipe to the Metelsdorf springs until 1897. Due to higher consumption due to the increasing number of inhabitants and the growing industry, the demand could no longer be met. The reaction was to build a waterworks with a water tower, which was put into operation on November 3, 1897 at Turnplatz (Podeusstrasse). The business was maintained until 1929, when new sources were opened in Friedrichshof.

From 1933 to 1945

British and Soviet troops meet near Wismar on May 3, 1945
British Sherman tanks in the market square on May 4, 1945. In the background the east wing of the town hall, badly damaged by bombs

In 1933 the district of Wismar was established, while the city of Wismar itself remained independent .

Since the beginning of the National Socialist era , political opponents and others ostracized by the National Socialists, such as the Jews living in the city, were persecuted, driven into emigration and murdered. The popular Jewish doctor Leopold Liebenthal, after whom a street has been named since 1961, died three weeks after the November pogrom in 1938 . During the Second World War , prisoners of war as well as countless women and men from the countries occupied by Germany had to do military forced labor : u. a. in the railcar and wagon factory and the Dornier aircraft works . 36 victims of forced labor are buried in the cemetery on Schweriner Strasse.

On December 1, 1933, Dornier-Werke Wismar GmbH from Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance was entered in the Wismar commercial register. They initially took over parts of the Podeuswerke between Adolf-Hitler-Strasse (Dr.-Leber-Strasse) and Kanalstrasse, which had been under compulsory administration. This was preceded by a process of finding the Dornierwerke from Friedrichshafen to find a suitable location for their expansion. Schwerin and Lübeck were shortlisted alongside Wismar, but Wismar was chosen. It was hoped for well-trained workers in metal construction, as well as access to the sea via an open port and the engineering school were decisive arguments for the Hanseatic city. Dornier committed itself to primarily employing the unemployed. The main administrative headquarters were at Adolf-Hitler-Strasse 24 (today Dr.-Leber-Strasse ), as was Plant I on the former site of the former Po-deus'sche factory. The greater part of the Dornier works in Wismar was located on the Hafffeld. The construction of the production halls began here in 1934. The building hall was ready in 1934 and a few months later the sea ​​hall and the flight hall . The port belonging to the plant, today the buoy yard of the Waterways and Shipping Office, was also completed in 1934 so that production at Dornier could start up. In 1934, Plant II on Kopenhagener Strasse was put into operation. 1936, 1,908 people were working at Dornier in Wismar and just a year later there were 3,000 people. In 1944 the Dornier works reached a peak with 4,437 employees, although it must be added that a third of them were prisoners of war and forced laborers. The Wismar Dornier works were expropriated after the Second World War. Today, Schottel GmbH, which manufactures marine propulsion systems, is only home to one company on the site.

The Hamburg architect Konstanty Gutschow developed the development plan for the "Seestadt Wismar" in 1936/37. In 1939 he created the "Southeast" development plan. In the 1940s, the cemetery chapel was built on the historic cemetery according to his plans.

During the war, Wismar suffered from twelve bomb attacks . A total of 460 tons of bombs were dropped on the city by the British Royal Air Force and 400 tons by the USAAF . The attack by ten British Mosquito fighter-bombers on the night of April 14-15, 1945, which was carried out with air mines , was declared a test mission . Many historical buildings were destroyed - including the Georgenkirche , the Marienkirche and the surrounding Gothic quarter with the old school were badly damaged.

From 1945 until today

The old school in the Gothic Quarter, an outstanding building from the 14th century, destroyed in 1945
Tower of the Marienkirche ; After bombing in World War II, the SED government had the ruins of the nave blown up in 1960

After being occupied by British and Canadian troops on May 2, 1945, the Red Army moved in on July 1, 1945 and, as agreed, took over the city with western Mecklenburg , so that Wismar became part of the Soviet occupation zone .

Memorial plaque on the town hall from May 1995; Inscription: "Liberation of the German people from fascism 50 years ago"

Many memorial sites have been created in the city area - especially during the GDR era from 1949 to 1990 - which are intended to keep alive the memory of injustices suffered and atrocities committed:

  • Memorial stone from 1947 on the west side of the cemetery on Schweriner Straße for 43 (according to other information 36) women, children and men who were victims of forced labor
  • Memorial stone from 1921 on the east side of the cemetery for the shot workers who defended the republic during the Kapp Putsch in 1920. Since the 1960s, the memorial has been part of a grove of honor for the fighters for socialism .
  • Memorial plaque for the victims of fascism on the same place to the communists Johann Frehse and Ernst Scheel, who were both murdered in the Dachau concentration camp .
  • Memorial stone in front of the anchor school on the captain's promenade for the anti-fascist resistance fighter Johann Frehse, murdered in the Dachau concentration camp in 1942, after which a square and this school were named until 1990.
  • Memorial complex at the former Mathias Thesen shipyard for the communist Reichstag deputy Mathias Thesen , who was murdered in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1944 . The monument was razed after 1990.
  • Memorial stone from 1954 in Schweriner Strasse for the workers politician Ernst Thälmann , who was murdered in Buchenwald concentration camp in 1944 .
  • Memorial plaque from 1994 on his house at Altwismarstrasse 21 in memory of the Jewish doctor Leopold Liebenthal, who was a victim of the November pogrom of 1938.
  • Commemorative plaque from May 1995 on a side wall of the town hall, with which the city council thanked for the “liberation from fascism 50 years ago”.

From 1952, after the dissolution of the states in the GDR , Wismar belonged to the Rostock district .

In 1961 the city and the evangelical church signed a contract on the spiritual uplift . After that, the church ceded extensive property in and outside the city, against the promise not kept to rebuild the churches of Wismar.

Due to government regulations, Wismar rose to become the second port of the GDR after Rostock. The port specialized in the handling of bulk goods. The strong shipbuilding industry goes back to the establishment of a ship repair company of the Red Army. Wismar's harbor is now home to one of the largest European timber clusters in Europe and the shipyard with the new shipbuilding hall is one of the most modern of its kind.

After the end of the GDR, Wismar's historic city center was thoroughly renovated from 1991 as part of the urban development subsidy. Since 2002, Wismar's old town, together with Stralsund, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site with the name Historische Altstädte Stralsund and Wismar . Wismar founded the German World Heritage Foundation together with Stralsund .

According to plans, Wismar should merge with the district reform in 2009 in a future district of West Mecklenburg with the district town of Schwerin. Due to the decision of the state constitutional court of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , this could not be realized.

In the course of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania district reform in 2011 , Wismar became part and the administrative seat of the district of Northwest Mecklenburg , which was formed from the formerly independent city of Wismar and the district of Northwest Mecklenburg .

Burned out houses on the market square, May 2018

On the evening of April 27, 2018, a house fire broke out on the market square, which almost completely destroyed two historic houses on the south side of the market square. The fire brigade fought for several days to put out the fire and prevent it from spreading to another house. Because of the risk of collapse, the houses were then supported by massive wooden structures. The subsequent investigation revealed that arson was probably the cause of the fire.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Paul Kühnel: The Slavic place names in Meklenburg. In: Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. Vol. 46, 1881, p. 159.
  2. ^ Mecklenburgisches Urkundenbuch (MUB) , No. 88.
  3. ↑ MUB, p. 202.
  4. ↑ MUB, p. 88.
  5. ↑ MUB, Vol. 4, p. 239.
  6. ↑ A copy of the document book that was lost in a city fire in the 13th century.
  7. ↑ MUB, No. 362.
  8. ^ Westphalen: Monumenta inedita , Vol. 4, p. 763.
  9. ↑ Friedrich Techen: Pfingsblätter the Hanseatic Historical Society. Blatt VI, 1910, pp. 1–2.
  10. ↑ Friedrich Schlie: The art and historical monuments of the Grand Duchy of Schwerin. Section: The city of Wismar. Schwerin 1898.
  11. ^ Friedrich Schildt: History of the city of Wismar from its foundation to the end of the 13th century. Wismar, 1872, pp. 1-2.
  12. ↑ According to the rhyming chronicle of Ernst von Kirchberg after Rostock was founded and before Borwin's death, i.e. between 1218 and January 1227.
  13. ^ Karl Pagel: The Hanseatic League. Georg Wester Verlag, Braunschweig 1952, p. 114.
  14. ↑ Latomus, Bernhardus, 1560–1613: Jump in the clock and beginning of the knighthood, which was honored in the past, and hence the compturia that emerged. Item Kurtze Description and regular StamRegiester of all and every deceased and still living old and new nobility and knighthoods established in the land of Stargardt / with great staff / diligence and work from their and other written monuments, also from oral reports; Waiter, Stettin, 1619, page 154 . Retrieved May 25, 2019.
  15. ↑ Wismar was hit by renewed waves of plague in 1376 and 1387.
  16. ^ Friedrich Schlie : The art and history monuments of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin , Volume 2, pp. 170 ff, Stock and Stein, Schwerin 1992, ISBN 3-910179-06-1 .
  17. ↑ a b c Cf. “ 3. Mecklenburg Land estates including knightly manors and rural towns ”, on: State Main Archive Schwerin: Online Find Books , accessed on February 1, 2017.
  18. ^ Ingo Ulpts: The mendicant orders in Mecklenburg. Werl 1995, p. 346.
  19. ^ Mennonite Lexicon , Volume 4, keyword Wismar . 1967, p. 548-549 .
  20. ↑ JA Brandsma: Menno Simons from Witmarsum . JG Oncken Verlag, Kassel 1962, Chapter VII: Stay in Wismar .
  21. ↑ Historical view of the fortress as a digital copy at: digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de.
  22. ↑ see https://www.myheimat.de/wismar/kultur/der-denkmalgeschuetzt-friedhof-der-hansestadt-wismar-d1728760.html
  23. ↑ As part of the city wall, it was demolished in 1869 when the city was being decongested: http://www.ostsee-zeitung.de/Mecklenburg/Wismar/Als-das-Mecklenburger-Tor-abgerissen-wurde
  24. ↑ Cf. “Mecklenburg”, in: Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon : 20 vol., Leipzig and Vienna: Bibliographisches Institut, 1902–1908, Volume 13 'Lyrik - Mitterwurzer' (1906), pp. 499-508, here p. 503.
  25. ^ Sylvia Necker: "Konstanty Gutschow 1902–1978. Modern thinking and community utopia of an architect", Munich / Hamburg 2012, p. 194.
  26. ^ Olaf Groehler : Bomb war against Germany. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-05-000612-9 , pp. 433, 437 and 449.
  27. ↑ Joachim Grehn: The altar belongs in the middle of the Georgenkirche. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. (Letter to the Editor), February 19, 2009.
  28. ↑ Million damage after a major fire in Wismar. In: NDR. Retrieved May 21, 2018 (2018-05-03).
  29. ↑ Sascha Mestenhäuser: major fire in historic old town of Wismar . In: fire department magazine . April 30, 2018 ( feuerwehrmagazin.de [accessed May 21, 2018]).
  30. ↑ Kerstin Schröder: Fire in Wismar's old town: It was arson. In: Ostsee-Zeitung. May 24, 2018, accessed on May 24, 2018 (German).