Güstrow

Güstrow takes its name from the Polabian language and grew beside a Wendish castle. Founded in the early thirteenth century, it became a residence of the lords of Werle from 1229 until their line ended in 1436. Its cathedral began as a collegiate church founded in 1226. In 1330 an accusation of desecrating the Host led to the burning of twenty-three Jews and the destruction of their synagogue.

Fires ravaged the town in 1503, 1508 and 1512, repeatedly in the early sixteenth century, and the palace burned in 1556. After the partition of Mecklenburg in 1621, Güstrow became the capital of Mecklenburg-Güstrow. The imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein held the duchy during the Thirty Years' War. Its last ruling Mecklenburg duke died in 1695, and the town passed to Mecklenburg-Schwerin.