Neustrelitz

Neustrelitz (Niegenstrelitz) is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the shore of the Zierker See in the Mecklenburg Lake District. From 1738 until 1918 it was the capital of the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. From 1994 until 2011 it was the capital of the district of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

The name Strelitz is derived from the Polabian word Strelci, meaning "archers" or "shooters".

History
The village of Strelitz was first mentioned in 1278. It grew to a small town in the following centuries. In the 17th century Strelitz was a part of the duchy of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, which ceased to exist after the death of the last duke in 1695. Afterwards the new Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz was established (1701). This small duchy contained the present-day district and an exclave around Ratzeburg, which is today situated in Schleswig-Holstein.

In 1712 the castle and the town of Strelitz burnt down. After this disaster the duke and his family lived on their hunting lodge at the lake called Zierker See (Lake Zierke) to the northwest of Strelitz. Around this place the new town of Neustrelitz (New Strelitz) was constructed. It became the official capital of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1736.

Neustrelitz remained the ducal seat until 1918 and was the capital of the Free State of Mecklenburg-Strelitz from 1918 to 1933. In 1934 it was merged with Mecklenburg-Schwerin to the Gau of Mecklenburg.

The ancient town of Strelitz continued to exist after the fire of 1712; it was a small village, which was suburbanised by Neustrelitz in 1931.

When the Red Army troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front entered the town on 30 April 1945, 681 people committed suicide.

Sights and monuments
The city centre is characterised by Baroque architecture. Its heart is the Marktplatz (Market Square), with the Stadtkirche (city church), built in 1768–1778 and the opposite Rathaus (Town Hall), built in 1841 by Friedrich W. Buttel, a disciple of Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

The Baroque Neustrelitz Palace was destroyed in 1945, but the palace gardens (Schloßgarten) still exist. Worth seeing are the 18th-century Orangerie (from orange), initially used as a summerhouse, the Schloßkirche (Palace Church) built in 1855–1859 in English Neo-Gothic style, the Neoclassic Hebe temple (with a replica of a statue of the goddess Hebe), and the Louise Temple, built in 1891 in the shape of a Greek temple to house the tomb of Queen Louise of Prussia, born Princess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

There is a small lake, Glambeck See, where one can swim in summer in a protected area and have lunch at a restaurant overlooking the lake.

Transport
The town has a station on the Berlin Northern railway and provides direct connections to Berlin and Rostock.

Entertainment
The city has hosted the popular Immergut Festival since the year 2000, attended by almost 5000 visitors each year.

Neustrelitz boasts its own theatre with a permanent resident cast. Drama, operas, operettas and musicals are regularly performed there. The theatre seats 400 persons. A review (in German) of a 2017 opera performance of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann is to be found here. www.myway.de/hoffmann/1617-neustrelitz.html

Notable people



 * Adolf Friedrich von Olthof (1718-1793), a Swedish Pomeranian councillor and patron of the arts.
 * Carl Eggers (1787–1863), history painter
 * Albert Wolff (1814–1892), sculptor
 * Wilhelm von Kardorff (1828-1907), landowner and politician
 * Heinrich Gärtner (1828–1909), landscape painter.
 * Karl Ludwig Ernst Schroeder (1838–1887), gynecologist
 * Karl Kraepelin (1848–1915), biologist, founder of the Natural History Museum in Hamburg
 * Emil Cohn (1854–1944), physicist worked on theoretical electromagnetism.
 * Emil Kraepelin (1856–1926), psychiatrist, considered as father of modern psychiatry
 * Hans Kundt (1869–1939), German-Bolivian general in the First World War and the Chacokrieg
 * Marie Kundt (1870–1932), photographer, teacher and director at the Lette-Verein, Berlin
 * Carl Friedrich Roewer (1881–1963), pedagogue, arachnologist and museum director
 * Franz Rademacher (1906–1973), lawyer and diplomat.
 * Herbert Wagner (born 1948), politician (CDU), Lord Mayor of Dresden 1990–2001
 * Thomas Böttger (born 1957), composer and pianist
 * Charly Hübner (born 1972), actor
 * Anna Kovalchuk (born 1977), a Russian film, TV and theatre actress.

Aristocracy

 * Adolphus Frederick III (1686–1752), Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz from 1708 to 1752.
 * Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg (1708–1752), member of the Strelitz branch of the House of Mecklenburg.
 * Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels (1812–1875), German prince and military officer for Austria & the Grand Duchy of Hesse; founded New Braunfels, Texas
 * Frederick William, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1819–1904), grand duke from 1860 to 1904.
 * Kuno von Moltke (1847–1923), adjutant to Wilhelm II; main player in the Eulenburg affair, a homosexual scandal.
 * Adolphus Frederick V (1848–1914), grand duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz from 1904 to 1914.
 * Adolphus Frederick VI (1882–1918), the last reigning grand duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz from 1914 to 1918.

Sport

 * Bernhard Horwitz (1807–1885), chess master
 * Rainer Ernst (born 1961), footballer, played over 330 games and 56 for East Germany
 * Ulf Hoffmann (born 1961), gymnast, silver medallist at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
 * Andreas Dittmer (born 1972), three time Olympic gold medallist in canoeing
 * Olaf Winter (born 1973), gold medallist in canoeing at the 1996 Summer Olympics

Twin towns – Sister cities
Neustrelitz is twinned with:
 * 🇷🇺 Chaykovsky, Russia
 * 🇵🇱 Szczecinek, Poland
 * 🇫🇮 Rovaniemi, Finland
 * 🇩🇪 Schwäbisch Hall, Germany