SCHWEDT  , a

town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, on the left bank of the Oder, 13 M . N.E. from Angermunde by rail . Pop . (1905) 9530 . It is a pleasant, well-built town, with broad streets and shady avenues . There are three Evangelical churches, a Roman Catholic church, a palace, built in 1580, and a gymnasium . The royal riding school was removed hence to Hanover in 1867 . The industries include the manufacture of tobacco, cigars, machinery, vinegar, soapand bricks, and there is a considerable trade by water in agricultural produce . Schwedt is mentioned in chronicles as early as 1138, and became a town in 1265 . Towards the end of the 15th century it passed to Brandenburg, and, in 1684, after a great conflagration which laid it in ruins, was handsomely rebuilt by the electress Dorothea . The lordship of Schwedt was in the possession of the counts of Hohenstein from 1481 to 1609, when it passed to Brandenburg . In 1689 it was given to Philip William, a younger son of the elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William, and he and his successors called themselves margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt .

When this

line became extinct in 1784 the lordship reverted to Prussia, being claimed both by the king as personal property and by the state . The matter was not settled until 1872, when it was assigned to the state . See Thoma,' Geschichte der Stadt and Herrschaft Schwedt (Berlin, 1873) .