Anklam

Anklam stands on the Peene close to the western lagoon of the Oder estuary. A Slavic settlement existed beside the river by the eighth or ninth century, and a nearby trading place at Groswin drew merchants before German settlement expanded eastward. The town began as Tanglim, founded beside an older Wendish stronghold and positioned at the head of navigation on the Peene.

Anklam received Lübeck law in 1244. Privileges of 1247 exempted its merchants from tolls and granted fishing rights, while later grants allowed navigation on neighbouring waters. Members of the Hanseatic League traded fish and cloth, and the town grew through the herring trade. The Church of St Mary, an Augustinian monastery, hospitals, and guilds shaped urban life. Fires in 1377 and 1384 destroyed most of the town, but its commercial institutions survived the rebuilding.

Pomeranian dukes, Brandenburg rulers, and later Sweden competed for the river crossing. The town became part of Swedish Pomerania in 1648 and a border garrison. Imperial, Swedish, Polish, Russian, and Prussian troops crossed or occupied it during repeated wars. By the Treaty of Stockholm in 1720, its southern part passed to Prussia while the north remained Swedish. Fishing, shipping, brewing, textiles, and local markets supported the small port through the eighteenth century. Its entire territory became Prussian after 1815.