Rostock - Lange Strasse

With more than 200.000 inhabitants Rostock is the largest city in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

Small Slawic settlemetns existed already in the 8th century. A settlement named Roztok was founded in the 11th century by Polabian Slavs. This town was burnt down by troops of the Danish king Valdemar I in 1161. Afterwards the place was settled by German traders.

After 1226 Rostock became the seat of the Lordship of Rostock.

In the 1250s the city became a member of the Hanseatic League. In the 14th century it was a powerful seaport town with 12,000 inhabitants and the largest city in Mecklenburg. Ships for cruising the Baltic Sea were constructed in Rostock. Until the last Hansa Convention in 1669, Rostock took a leading role in the Baltic Sea behind Lübeck.

In 1419, the University of Rostock was founded, the oldest university in the Baltic Sea area.
-
Only very few buildings along the Lange Strasse survived WWII.

After the war Rostock was the main harbour and thus an important city of the GDR. So a reconstruction of the street in terms of size and architecture was decided. In 1953, a street was finally built that was three times as wide as originally planned to provide enough space for the marches.

The brick buildings erected in the 1950s were monumental for this representative purpose. Although the façade was architecturally modern, the design reverted to elements of North German brick Gothic.