Malchin

Malchin grew on the Peene from a Slavic fishing settlement. Prince Nicholas of Werle laid out a town with a regular grid of streets around a central market and church, granting it town rights in 1236. A great fire destroyed the town and its church in 1397; the church was rebuilt as a Gothic brick basilica with three aisles. For centuries Malchin lay near the boundary between Mecklenburg and Pomerania.

The Thirty Years' War brought severe suffering: armies camped in and around Malchin in 1639, and repeated plundering was followed by widespread hunger, disease and plague. From the seventeenth century the estates of Mecklenburg met alternately at Malchin and Sternberg. Later wars also touched the town, including the Northern War and the Seven Years' War.