SCHWERIN

This article appears in Volume V24, Page 394 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SAR-SCY

SCHWERIN , a town of Germany, the

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

of the grand duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, prettily situated at the S.W. corner of the lake of Schwerin (14 M. long and 3z M. broad), 129 M. by rail N.W. of Berlin, and 20 M. S. of the Baltic. Pop. (1905) 41,638. The town is closely surrounded and hemmed in by a number of lakelets, with high and well-wooded banks, and the hilly environs are occupied by meadows, woods and pretty villas. The old and new towns of Schwerin were only united as one city in 1832; and since that date the suburb of St Paul and another outer suburb, known as the Vorstadt, have grown up. Though Schwerin is the oldest town in Mecklenburg, its aspect is comparatively modern, a fact due to destructive fires, which have swept away most of the ancient houses. The most conspicuous of the many fine buildings is the ducal palace, a huge irregularly pentagonal structure with numerous towers, built in 1844-1857 in the French Renaissance style. It stands on a small round island between Castle Lake and the lake of Schwerin, formerly the site of a Wendish fortress and of a later medieval castle, portions of which have been skilfully incorporated with the present building. The older and much simpler palace; the opera

house

, rebuilt after a fire in 1882; the government buildings, erected in 1825-1834 and restored in 1865 after a fire; and the museum, in the Greek style, finished in 1882, comprising a fine collection of paintings of the 17th century Dutch school; all stand in the " old garden," an open space at the end of the bridge leading to the new palace. Among the other secular buildings are the palace of the

heir

HEIR (Lat. heres, from a root meaning to grasp, seen in heres or erus, master of a
house
- HOUSE
- HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Dut. huis, Ger. Haus; in Gothic it is only found in gudhiss, a temple; it may be ultimately connected with the root of " hide," conceal)
, Gr. xeip, hand, Sans. hat ana, hand)

-apparent, built in 1779 and restored in 1878, the large arsenal, the ducal mews, the ducal library containing x8o,000 volumes, the town

hall

, the artillery barracks and the military

hospital

. The cathedral was originally consecrated in 1248, though the present buildinga brick structure in the Baltic Gothic style, with an unfinished towerdates for the most part from the 15th century. Among other religious edifices are St Paul's church, a Roman Catholic church and a synagogue. Schwerin is rich in educational institutions, which include a classical school, a veterinary college and a technical school. Since 1837 Schwerin has been once more the residence of the grand duke, and the seat of government, a factwhich has had considerable influence on the character of the town and the tone of its society. The

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

industry is the making of furniture, and there are also some manufactures of dyes and soap.
Schwerin is mentioned as a Wendish stronghold in ioi8, its name (Zwarin or Swarin) being a Slavonic word equivalent to " game-preserve." The Obotrite prince Niclot, whose statue is placed above the portal of the palace as the ancestor of the present reigning family, had his residence here. The town, found in 1161 by Henry the Lion in opposition to this

pagan

PAGAN
PAGAN (Lat. paganus, of or belonging to a pagus, a canton, county
district
- DISTRICT
,
village
- VILLAGE
, commune)

fortress, received civic rights in 1166. From 1170 to 1624 it gave name to a bishopric; and it was also the

capital

CAPITAL (i.e. capital stock or fund)
CAPITAL (Lat. caput, head)

of the duchy of Schwerin, which forms the western part of the grand-duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Destructive fires, the hardships of the Thirty Years' War, and the removal of the court to Ludwigslust in 1756 seriously depressed the town. It owes its revival and many of its

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

buildings to the grand-duke Paul Frederick, to whom a statue by Rauch was erected in 1859.
See Fromm, Chronik der Haupt- and Residenzstadt Schwerin
(Schwerin, 1863, revised and continued by G. Quade, 1892); G. Quade, Vaterlandskunde (Wismar, 1894) ; and Worl, Fuhrer durch Schwerin (1905).

End of Article: SCHWERIN

If you wish, you can link directly to this article.

<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/SAR_SCY/SCHWERIN.html">
SCHWERIN
</a>

(Previous)
SCHWENKFELD, KASPAR (149o-1561)

(Next)
SCHWERIN, KURT CHRISTOPH, COUNT VON (16841757)

JCSM was founded in 1997 and exists to help the community and bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ. JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, including its weekly inspirational emails that were sent continuously for over a decade.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA 92169
1-888-887-0417 or Email