Anklam

Infobox German Location
Art = Town
Wappen = Wappen Hansestadt Anklam V2.svg
lat_deg = 53 | lat_min = 51 | lat_sec=0
lon_deg = 13 | lon_min = 41 | lon_sec=0
Lageplan = Anklam_in_OVP.pngBundesland = Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Landkreis = Ostvorpommern
Höhe = 5
Fläche = 41.65
Einwohner = 14092
Stand = 2006-12-31
PLZ = 17389
PLZ-alt = 2140
Vorwahl = 03971
Kfz = OVP
Gemeindeschlüssel = 13 0 59 002
Adresse = Markt 3
17389 Anklam
Website = [http://www.anklam.de/ www.anklam.de]
Bürgermeister = Michael Galander
Partei = parteilos

Anklam is a town in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany, situated on the banks of the Peene river, 8 km from its mouth in the Kleines Haff, and 85 km northwest of Szczecin, on the railway to Stralsund. It is the capital of the district of Ostvorpommern. Population: 14,603 (2005).

The fortifications of Anklam were dismantled in 1762 and have not since been restored, although the old walls are still standing; formerly, however, it was a town of considerable military importance, which suffered severely during the Thirty Years', Seven Years' and Second World Wars; and this fact, together with the repeated ravages of fire and of the plague, has made its history more eventful than is usually the case with towns of the same size. It does not possess any remarkable buildings, although it contains several, private as well as public, that are of a quaint and picturesque style of architecture. The church of St Mary (12th century) has a modern tower, 50 m high. The industries consist of iron foundries and factories for sugar and soap; and there is a military school. The Peene is navigable up to the town, which has a considerable trade in its own manufactures, as well as in the produce of the surrounding country, while some shipbuilding is carried on at wharves on the river.

History

In the Early Middle Ages, there was an important Scandinavian and Wendish near the present-day town, now known as "Altes Lager Menzlin".

Anklam was founded at the site of a former Slavic fortress during the medieval German Ostsiedlung. First named after the locator Tanglim, it obtained German town law in 1244. In 1283, it became a member of the Hanseatic League. Although the town was a rather small and non-influential town compared with other Hanseatic cities, the membership brought wealth and prosperity to Anklam.

The decline of Anklam began with the Thirty Years' War, when Swedish and Imperial troops battled almost twenty years for Anklam. After the war, the town became a part of Swedish Pomerania (1648), but in 1676 was taken by Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, and in 1713 it was plundered by the Russian Empire.

The southern parts of the town, were ceded to the Kingdom of Prussia by the peace of Stockholm in 1720, while the smaller part north of the Peene River remained Swedish. Anklam was a divided town until 1815, when all of Western Pomerania became Prussian as well within the Province of Pomerania.

Anklam was severely destroyed during the last days of World War II, when the advancing Soviets burned and leveled most of the town. After Prussia and her Pomeranian province were dissolved, Anklam became part of the East German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, that was soon to be dissolved, too. Anklam then was within the district of Neubrandenburg. The town was reerected in a rather uniform socialist style.

Since the 1990 reunification of Germany, Anklam is within the re-created state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Museums

*Museum im Steintor (local history)
*Otto-Lilienthal-Museum

Sons and daughters of the town

*Christian Andreas Cothenius, prominent physician
*Heinrich Hannover, German jurist and author
*Ulrich von Hassell, German diplomat and anti-Nazi resistance fighter
*Ludwig von Henk, German vice-admiral
*Gustav Lilienthal, German master builder and social reformer
*Otto Lilienthal, German aviation pioneer
*Günter Schabowski, German politician
*Matthias Schweighöfer, German actor
*Max Wagenknecht, German composer

Twin towns

*flagicon|Sweden Burlöv, Sweden
*flagicon|Latvia Limbaži, Latvia
*flagicon|Germany Heide, Germany
*flagicon|Poland Ustka, Poland

See also

* Swedish Pomerania

References