Coat of Arms	Map of Germany
Data
State	Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Area	50,2 km²
Population	52 140 (01 Sept 2003)
Population Density	1039 per square km
Altitude	17 m above sea level
Location
Postal Code	17489 (City Centre)
Telephone Code	+49-3834
Car Code	HGW
City Council	Markt 17489 Greifswald
Homepage	http://www.greifswald.de
E-mail	info@greifswald.de
Politics
Lord Mayor	Dr Arthur König (CDU)

Greifswald (German Greif=griffin, Wald=forest) is a city in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. Located at the south end of the Baltic Sea, and the mouth of the Ryck river . Population: about 55,000. Officially Hansestadt Greifswald in German (Hanseatic Leaque City of Greifswald).

Historical notes

The first settlers were Danish Cistercian monks, who founded the Eldena monastery in 1199. Due to the salt trade the monastery grew to a monumental religious centre. The town of Greifswald, close to the monastery, was first time mentioned in 1248. Enjoying a steady rise in population, Greifswald also became one of the earliest members of the Hanseatic League at the end of the 13th century, which helped increase trade and wealth.

In 1456, Greifswald's mayor Heinrich Rubenow set the foundations of the second oldest university of Northern Europe, one of the oldest in Germany, for a time the oldest in Sweden and Prussia.

The town of Greifswald became part of the Kingdom of Sweden in 1631 as a result of the Thirty Years War and remained Swedish until 1815.

During the period of socialist rulership following the Second World War, parts of the historic city have seen little renovation efforts. Since the German reunification of 1989/1990 this has changed substantially.

The largest nuclear powerplant in East Germany was located near the town. It had four reactors which were successively brought online starting in 1974. The plant was promptly shut down after the reunification of Germany, in 1990, due to safety concerns.

Education & science

• see Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald
• The Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik has it second site (after Munich) in Greifswald and is experimenting with a stellarator, Wendelstein 7-X.

People

• Romanticist painter Caspar David Friedrich
• German author Hans Fallada
• German author Wolfgang Koeppen

See also

• Swedish Pomerania
• Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald

External links

• Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald
• Official website of the City of Greifswald
• Pomeranian State Museum Greifswald
• Theater Vorpommern
• Information about Greifswald

Tourism links

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