This is part 5 of 16 of a journey through my home country: Germany.

I invite everyone to take a closer look at what I call home. I will show you sides of today-Germany you didn't know of - especially when you are not German.
A lot of "foreigners" (actually I don't really like this word) connect Germany with beer, cars, lederhosen and sauerkraut. I admit these are parts of Germany and important ones too (especially the beer and the cars), but they by far are not everything!

This article serie will show you the 16 countries of Germany, some quite similar to each other, some totally different. Sure, this serie will mainly feature photography, but perhaps I will link to other styles of art like modern German music or so.

Our journey leads us through (click the ones in italic to see that article):

_{Bavaria
Saxony
Brandenburg
Berlin
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Schleswig-Holstein
Hamburg
Lower Saxony
Saxony-Anhalt
Thuringia
Hesse
Baden-Wuerttemberg
Rhineland-Palatinate
Saarland
North Rhine-Westphalia
Bremen}

Please, come and see...

Part 5 of 16 - Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)

From the big city I wrote about last week, Berlin, let's now come to a completely different state: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. I'll name it in the original, German version during this article: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Remember when I told you about Brandenburg two weeks ago, that it is among the largest German states concerning the area, but only in the middle field in population?! Well, that's the same here, yet even more extreme: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ranks fourth among the German states when looking at the size, but only fourteenth (out of 16, 3 of which are pure cities!) when looking at the population. So, there live only 1.68 million people in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (a density of 73/km²...), that's not even half of Berlin's population!
It is this lack of population that most characterizes the face of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. So in this article today, the shots to feature are mostly landscapes, as this whole state is mostly landscape!

But, as always after a first glimpse, let's begin with the cities - the few cities that there are in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern!
The capital of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is Schwerin, with 96,000 inhabitants a rather small capital. This city is a pitoresque, almost 1,000 years old town that has been a capital of different states or duchys for about 400 years. Schwerin is surrounded by a bunch of lakes, like the whole state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has a lot of lakes in it's plain landscape.

As this city is so very small for a capital (not much bigger than the unrecognizable city I live in), let's come to another city in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, of which many Germans think, it was the real capital of the state: Rostock - a town directly by the Baltic Sea.
Rostock is the biggest city of Mecklenburg Vorpommern. It has the largest area and the most inhabitants - which nevertheless are only about 200,000. Rostock too is a very old city and, how you will recognize in it's architecture, once was one of the more important cities in the Hanseatic League that dominated trade in Northern Europe for almost 400 years (we will hear about this League in the coming journals from time to time). Still today, Rostock is the economic heart of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and especially famous for it's naval tradition. So, it hosts Germany's biggest cruise company, AIDA cruises.

There are two more cities I'd like to speak about, even if they are so small that I'd leave them away in other states. But as all cities in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are rather tiny and these two cities are so beautiful, let me introduce you to Greifswald and Stralsund.
Both cities too are more than 800 years old - you see, the people of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are proud of what they have and not much into modernization.

Greifswald: According to the legend, a large griffin showed the first settlers (monks) the ideal place for a settlement - you can still hear this legend in the name: Greifswald = Forest of the Griffin. Today, the city is known for it's university. It is the home of Caspar David Friedrich, a famous romantic landscape painter, who was born here when the city was under Swedish rule in 1774.

Stralsund: This city was once one of the biggest powers in the Baltic Sea, that's why it was burned down by it's rival Lübeck (more about this town next week) 760 years ago. The city itself was destroyed several times, for example by Wallenstein in the Thiry Years' War. Nowadays, it's centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

From Stralsund, there are two bridges that lead to Rügen - the tourist magnet of Mecklenburg-Vormpommern. Rügen is Germany's largest island - and the most popular holiday island for Germans. There are several small towns on Rügen and the total population reaches 73.000 people.
The nazi regime too wanted to make Rügen a place for recreation and built a settlement called Prora, you can still see some of it's ugliness today! Yet, it is an interesting place to take some shots.
Besides from that, Rügen is really lovely. It's well known for it's beaches and the interesting chalk cliffs, which even inspired Caspar David Friedrich inspired (see above for him!).

Another beautiful island in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is Usedom. It's way smaller than Rügen, but it is special in a way: Half of the island is German, the other half is Polish! Hence, it is ideal for all day trippers who want to quickvisit Poland. On Usedom, there is the tiny town of Peenemünde where the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) developed the world's first cruise missiles, the V1 and the V2 in WWII!

Going back to the mainland, the only thing left to say is that, besides all touristic attractions Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has, it is a very rural and agrarian state. Most of it's streets are long, wonderful alleys - which leads to the highest mortality rate through car accidents among all German states.

Let's finish this article about Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with these wonderful pictures and some last words: McPom, as many Germany call this state, is not as vibrant as some other states are, it rather is kind of tiny, rural and 'gemütlich'. It is not made for party holidays, but it's perfect for recreation, water sports and cycling, especially with kids.
As one of the five new states, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has problems with a high rate of unemployment, but with the crisis and an increasing environmental awareness, more and more Germans decide not to fly to the Balearic Islands or even further, but instead stay and discover their own country. This is a great chance for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with all it's nature and it's cities relatively untouched by "Sovjet architecture".

Now, this was only a very, very short trip through Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and I know I missed a lot (if not almost everything). But this is supposed to be a short, informative journal and not a travel guide. I hope you like the pictures - if you do, please give the artists a visit and/or a fav, they really deserve it.

If you have any questions about this station of our trip or Germany as a whole: please ask, I'll try to answer as quick as possible.
And if you have any suggestions about how to make this trip any better, please don't hesitate to write me, either.

Artists featured in this article

Looking forward for your comments - and the next station of this trip...
Malte