Grimmen

Grimmen was founded in the Principality of Rügen by merchants and craftsmen from Lower Saxony, Westphalia and the Lower Rhine around 1250. It was first recorded in 1267 and had received Lübeck law by 1287, when a record named Berthold as its new bailiff. The original charter has been lost, leaving the exact date of its town rights uncertain. In 1325 the town became part of the Duchy of Pomerania.

Grimmen was repeatedly plundered during the Thirty Years' War and passed to Sweden after the conflict. Between 1695 and 1697 its mayor Johannes Flittner pursued alleged witches, at least seven of whom were executed. A great fire destroyed almost the whole town in 1797; three years later King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden visited. After the Napoleonic Wars the Congress of Vienna assigned Swedish Pomerania, including Grimmen, to Prussia in 1815.