Grevesmühlen

Grevesmühlen grew from a Slavic settlement into a small town in western Mecklenburg, between Lübeck, Wismar and Schwerin. Its medieval walls, gates and castle protected a community whose livelihood rested on crafts and the surrounding countryside. In 1359 Duke Albrecht confirmed Lübeck law and broad trading freedoms. Yet proximity to Hanseatic routes did not make it a great overseas port: around 1400 its inhabitants chiefly practised crafts, agriculture and forestry, trading with neighbouring communities.

Duke Heinrich V established a mint here in 1525, and the Reformation reached the town from 1540. Imperial troops were quartered there in 1627; plunder and arson followed in 1630. These burdens left only 453 inhabitants recorded in 1653. A still more destructive fire on 15 June 1659 consumed the town hall, castle, church and many houses. The castle was never rebuilt. Further fires in 1725 and 1756 delayed expansion beyond the medieval town until around 1800, while the old fortifications were dismantled early in the nineteenth century.