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WISMAR
, a seaport See also:town of See also:Germany, in the See also:grand-duchy of See also:Mecklenburg-See also:Schwerin, situated on the See also:Bay of Wismar, one of the best harbours on the Baltic, zo m. by See also:rail N. of Schwerin
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Pop
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(1905) 21,902
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The town is well and regularly built, with broad and straight streets, and contains numerous handsome and See also:quaint buildings in the See also:northern See also:Gothic See also:style
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The See also: The See also:harbour is deep enough to admit vessels of 17-ft. See also:draught, and permits large steamers to unload along its quays . Two See also:miles from Wismar lies the watering-See also:place of Wendorf . Wismar is said to have received civic rights in 1229, and came into the See also:possession of Mecklenburg in 1301 . In the 13th and 14th centuries it was a flourishing Hanse town, with important woollen factories . Though a See also:plague carried off ro,000 of the inhabitants in 1376, the town seems to have remained tolerably prosperous until the 16th See also:century . By the See also:peace of See also:Westphalia in 1648 it passed to See also:Sweden, with a lordship to which it gives its name . In 1803 Sweden pledged both town and lordship to Mecklenburg for 1,258,000 thalers, reserving, however, the right of redemption after See also:loo years . In view of this contingent right of Sweden, Wismar was not represented in the See also:diet of Mecklenburg until 1897 . In 1903 Sweden finally renounced its claims . Wismar still retains a few See also:relics of its old liberties, including the right to See also:fly its own See also:flag . See Burmeister, Beschreibung von Wismar (Wismar, 1857) ; Willgeroth, Geschichte der Stadt Wismar, pt. i . (Wismar, 1898) ; and See also:Bruno See also:Schmidt, Der Schwedisch-mecklenburgische Pfandvertrag s ber Stadt and Herrschaft Wismar (See also:Leipzig, 1901) .
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