Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Greifswald

GREIFSWALD, or Greifswalde, the chief town of a circle in the Prussian province of Pomerania and govern ment of Stralsund, is situated on the Ryck, 3 miles from its mouth in the Baltic, and 20 miles S. by E. of Stralsund, It has wide and regular streets, and is surrounded by pro menades formed out of its old ramparts. It is the seat of a court of appeal for the government district of Stralsund. The university, founded in 1456, is attended by nearly 500 students, about one-half of whom belong to the medical faculty ; connected with it are an anatomical theatre, an infirmary, a chemical laboratory, a pathological institute, and a library containing nearly 140,000 volumes. The principal other buildings are the church of St Nicholas (with a tower 330 feet high and a valuable library), the old town-house, the theatre, the gymnasium, the orphanage, and the lunatic asylum. There is a considerable shipping trade in Pomeranian corn with England, France, and the Mediterranean ports. Fish-curing, shipbuilding, and the manufacture of machines, railway waggons, needles, soap, tobacco, and oil, are the principal other industries. The population in 1875 was 18,022. Greifswald was founded about 1240 by mechanics and merchants from the Netherlands. In 1250 it received a town constitution and Liibeck rights from Duke Wratislaus of Pomerania. In 1270 it formed a league with the Hanse towns, Stralsuud, Kostoek, "VVisinar, and Liibeck ; and it took part in the wars which they carried on against the kings of Denmark and Norway. During the Thirty Years War it was formed into a fortress by the imperialists, but they vacated it in 1631 to the Swedes, in whose possession it remained after the peace of Westphalia. In 1678 it was captured by the elector of Brandenburg, but it was restored to the Swedes in the following year; in 1713 it was desolated by the llussians; in 1715 it came into the possession of Denmark; and in 1721 it was again restored to Sweden, under whose protection it remained till 1815, when, along with the whole of Swedish Pomerania, it came into the possession of Prussia. See Kosegarten, Gcschichte dcr Uni- versitat Greifswald, 1856; and Gesterding, BeitragzuT Gcscliichte dcr Stadt Greifswald, 3 vols., 1827-29.