Stralsund

Stralsund stands on the sound separating the island of Rügen from the Pomeranian mainland. Prince Wizlaw I of Rügen granted the settlement Lübeck law in 1234. Merchants and settlers helped it grow into a prosperous port, provoking Lübeck to burn its rival in 1249. Stralsund was rebuilt behind strong walls and joined the Hanseatic League in 1293. Its merchants sent ships across the Baltic, and the town retained considerable independence after Rügen passed to the dukes of Pomerania in 1325.

In 1628, during the Thirty Years' War, imperial troops under Wallenstein besieged Stralsund. The city resisted with Danish and Swedish help, and a Swedish garrison remained; the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 confirmed it as part of Swedish Pomerania. In 1715, in the Great Northern War, King Charles XII himself directed its defence against a coalition of Sweden's enemies. The Congress of Vienna assigned Stralsund to Prussia in 1815, ending nearly two centuries of Swedish rule.