NEUBRANDENBURG

city, MecklenburgWest Pomerania Land (state), northeastern Germany, near the northern end of Tollense Lake, where the Tollense River flows out of the lake. It lies about 53 miles (85 km) south of Stralsund. Founded in 1248 by the margraves of Brandenburg as a fortified outpost, it lay near the intersection of a trade route running between Schwerin and Gstrow and the road from Stralsund to Berlin. The town passed to Mecklenburg about 1300 and was the capital of the duchy of Mecklenburg-Stargard from 1352 to 1471. During those years it prospered, chiefly as a result of its weaving industry and its function as a market centre. Its fortunes declined thereafter, as it was plundered during the Thirty Years' War, devastated by two great conflagrations (1679, 1737), and further battered by the Napoleonic wars. Neubrandenburg recovered somewhat in the second half of the 19th century. Though its medieval fortifications are well-preserved, most of its medieval buildings were destroyed by bombing in World War II. Much rebuilt after 1952, Neubrandenburg has engineering, food-processing, chemical, wood, leather, and paper industries as well as the Institute of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Greifswald. Pop. (1989 est.) 90,471.