Rostock

Geschichte

Rostock is the largest city in the north German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Rostock is on the Warnow river; the district of Warnemünde 12km north of the city centre is directly on the Baltic Sea coast.Rostock is home to one of the oldest universities in the world, the University of Rostock, founded in 1419.The city territory of Rostock stretches for about 20km along the Warnow to the Baltic Sea. The largest built-up area of Rostock is on the western side of the river. The eastern part of its territory is dominated by industrial estates and the forested Rostock Heath. Rostock is considered as the only regiopolis in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.HistoryEarly historyIn the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc (*ras-tokŭ, Slavic for "fork of a river"); the name Rostock is derived from that designation.The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161. Afterwards the place was settled by German traders. Initially there were three separate cities: Altstadt (Old Town) around the Alter Markt (Old Market) with St. Petri (St. Peter's Church), Mittelstadt (Middle Town) around the Neuer Markt (New Market) with St. Marien (St. Mary's Church) and Neustadt (New Town) around the Hopfenmarkt (Hop Market, now University Square) with St. Jakobi (St. James's Church, now demolished). In 1218, Rostock was granted Lübeck law city rights by Heinrich Borwin, prince of Mecklenburg.