SCHWERIN  , a

town of Germany, the capital 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-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 building—a brick structure in the Baltic Gothic style, with an unfinished tower—dates 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 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 fortress, received civic rights in 1166 . From 1170 to 1624 it gave name to a bishopric; and it was also the capital 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 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) .