Schwerin

A Slavic Obotrite settlement stood among the lakes here by the 11th century, and the place was first recorded in 1018 as Zuarina. Henry the Lion defeated the Obotrites and captured it in 1160, granting town rights that make Schwerin the oldest city in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the bishopric he founded built a cathedral consecrated in 1248. A castle on the island grew into a ducal palace; from 1358 Schwerin belonged to the Duchy of Mecklenburg, and after the division of 1621 it was the capital of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, apart from the years 1765–1837 when the court sat at Ludwigslust.

The grand dukes rebuilt the castle in 1845–57 in the Romantic historicist style, with the architects Gottfried Semper, Friedrich August Stüler, Georg Adolf Demmler and Ernst Friedrich Zwirner, and the state gallery (1882) and the theatre (1886) followed on the Alter Garten. Many people emigrated in the mid-19th century, a large number to Milwaukee, now a sister city. The grand duke abdicated in 1918, and from 1919 to 1933 the theatre served as the first parliament of the Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

Bombs destroyed only about three per cent of the city in the Second World War; the worst raid, on 7 April 1945, killed 224 people. American troops took Schwerin on 2 May 1945, then handed it to the British and on 1 July to the Soviets. In East Germany it was a district capital, and industry and the Großer Dreesch estate from the 1970s took its population past 100,000. After reunification it was chosen over Rostock as the capital of the restored state, and in 2024 the castle and its residence ensemble were added to the World Heritage List.

Schwerin's culture is a court culture that outlived its court. The Mecklenburg State Theatre, built in 1883–86, stages plays, opera, operetta, ballet and Low German drama, with concerts by its orchestra, the Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle. Its annual high point is the Schlossfestspiele, open-air opera on the Alter Garten in June and July with the castle as a backdrop. The state gallery's Dutch paintings, its collection of Oudry's animal pictures and the castle's museum rooms reflect the tastes of the grand dukes.

The calendar fills up from May, with the Filmkunstfest Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, held since 1991, the parade of the lake's passenger fleet and a night run, followed by a potters' market, a dragon-boat festival and an old-town festival; the Christmas market, Der Stern im Norden, ends the year. The castle has its own legend: it is said to be haunted by Petermännchen, a small, impious ghost.

Residents like to call Schwerin the city of seven lakes and forests. In sport it is known as a boxing town, thanks to the trainer Fritz Sdunek, and above all for the women's volleyball team of Schweriner SC, many times German champions. Like most of eastern Germany, the city is largely secular, though the cathedral and the Schelf Church are still in use.

The 2022 census counted about 96,000 people, making Schwerin the smallest state capital in Germany; by the end of 2025 the city reported just under 100,000 and growing. It had passed 100,000 in 1972 but lost some 34,000 residents by 2005 through unemployment, falling birth rates and moves to the surrounding villages, where new housing added about 20,000 people. The prefabricated estates of the Großer Dreesch, Neu Zippendorf and Mueßer Holz lost the most.

As the state capital, Schwerin lives largely on government: ministries, courts and the parliament in the castle. Healthcare is a major employer, with the Helios hospitals employing more than 2,000 people, alongside machine building, high technology, railway supply, consumer goods and tourism. Higher education is represented by two colleges of applied sciences.

Life moves at a measured pace. The trams, running since 1908, carry people from the southern estates to the centre, and the city sits on the eastern edge of the Hamburg metropolitan region, an hour from Hamburg by train. Sebastian Ehlers of the CDU, elected in April 2026, took office as mayor in July 2026.

Schwerin eats the food of Mecklenburg, a cuisine long considered down-to-earth and hearty, shaped by farming, a long coastline, many lakes and large forests full of game. Potatoes, called Tüften locally, are the staple, along with kale, Grünkohl, and a sweet-and-sour streak that comes from cooking with dried fruit. The signature dish is Mecklenburger Rippenbraten, roast ribs; Tüffel un Plum is a potato soup with plums and bacon, and Kloppschinken and Topfleberwurst are other farmhouse classics.

The lakes and the coast supply fish: smoked eel, fried or baked, and fried Maischolle, plaice. Desserts include Rote Grütze, a red-berry pudding, Schwarzbrotpudding made with black bread, Mecklenburgische Götterspeise and Sanddorntorte, a cake made with sea buckthorn.

To drink there is grog in winter, sea buckthorn juice, wine and spirits, and the beers of Mecklenburg's breweries, such as Lübzer from the Mecklenburgische Brauerei Lübz and Darguner from the Darguner brewery. The best places to eat in Schwerin are the streets of the old town around the Markt and cathedral, the Schelfstadt and the shores of the Pfaffenteich.