Send Gift Baskets to Neubrandenburg, Germany

Broda Abbey, a monastery at the shore, was the first Christian monastery in the area (about 1240). When the Margrave of Brandenburg decided to build a settlement in the northern part of his fief, he named it Neubrandenburg, after the older city of Brandenburg to the south. As of 1292, Mecklenburg included the town and its surroundings.

Incessant warfare caused the city to lose its position as a trade center during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48). In 1631, Imperial Catholic League forces recaptured the city from the Swedes during the dramatic advance of Gustavus Adolphus’s Swedish army into Germany. During this campaign, many Swedish and Scottish soldiers were reported to have been killed by the Catholic forces while surrendering. The Scottish soldier of fortune Robert Munro, 18th Baron of Foulis, claimed that when the Swedes adopted a “no prisoners” policy, they would cut short any pleas for mercy with the cry of “New Brandenburg!”. A city, therefore, played an unconscious role in escalating the brutality of one of history’s most horrific conflicts.

Fiveeichen was home to two German prisoner-of-war camps during the Second World War, the large Stalag II-A and the adjacent Oflag II-E/67 for officers. As well as a forced labor camp, there was one in this town for Sintis and Romanis. About 600 people committed suicide after the Red Army burned down 80% of the old city in a fire a few days before the Second World War ended. There have been numerous reconstructions of historical buildings since then. As a result of the war, the former Stalag II-A was used as the location of the special NKVD-camp No. 9.

The bezirk center of Neubrandenburg existed between 1952 and 1990.