Western Pomerania Vorpommern, Pomorze Przednie
Historical region
From top, left to right: Stralsund Old Town Greifswald Old Town Ducal Castle, Szczecin Chalk cliffs, Jasmund National Park
Flag Coat of arms
Current (grey lines) and historical (coloured areas) administrative division of Vorpommern. Historically, the Oder formed the eastern border of Western Pomerania[citation needed]
Country	Germany  Poland
Largest city	Szczecin
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)

Historical Western Pomerania, also called Cispomerania,^[1][2] Fore Pomerania, Front Pomerania or Hither Pomerania (German: Vorpommern; Polish: Pomorze Przednie), is the western extremity of the historic region of Pomerania forming the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, located mostly in north-eastern Germany, with a small portion in north-western Poland.

Western Pomerania's boundaries have changed through the centuries as it belonged to various countries such as Poland, the Duchy of Pomerania (later part of the Holy Roman Empire), Denmark, Sweden, as well as Prussia which incorporated it as the Province of Pomerania.

Today, the region embraces the whole area of Pomerania west of the Oder River, small bridgeheads east of the river, as well as the islands in the Szczecin Lagoon. Its majority forms part of Germany and has been divided between the states of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg, with the cities of Stralsund and Greifswald, as well as towns such as Ribnitz-Damgarten (Damgarten only), Bergen auf Rügen (Rügen Island), Anklam, Wolgast, Demmin, Pasewalk, Grimmen, Sassnitz (Rügen Island), Ueckermünde, Torgelow, Barth, and Gartz. The cities of Szczecin and Świnoujście, as well as the towns of Police, Goleniów, Wolin, Międzyzdroje, Nowe Warpno, and (the left-bank part of) Dziwnów are part of Poland. The German part forms about one-third of the present-day north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, while the Polish part constitutes the westernmost border areas of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship.

German Western Pomerania had a population of about 470,000 in 2012 (districts of Vorpommern-Rügen and Vorpommern-Greifswald combined) – while the Polish districts of the region had a population of about 520,000 in 2012 (cities of Szczecin, Świnoujście and Police County combined). So overall, about 1 million people live in the historical region of Western Pomerania today.

Terminology

The German prefix Vor- denotes a location closer to the speaker, and is the equivalent of "Fore"/"Front"/"Hither" in English and Anterior/Citerior/Cis- in Latin (with the corresponding antonyms in German, English and Latin being Hinter-, "Hinder"/"Rear"/"Farther" and Posterior/Ulterior/Trans-, respectively). Historically the name "Hither Pomerania" has been used, but in modern English the German region is more commonly called "Western Pomerania" or by its native name. The formerly widespread local dialect term is Low German: Vörpommern.

The name Pomerania comes from Slavic po more, which means "land by the sea".^[3] The adjective for the region is (Western) Pomeranian (German: pommersch, Polish: pomorski), inhabitants are called (Western) Pomeranians (German: Pommern, Polish: Pomorzanie). The Polish names for the historical region, Pomorze Zachodnie (Western Pomerania) or Pomorze Nadodrzańskie (Oder Pomerania), have usually been applied to the entire narrower Pomerania, including Farther Pomerania, but excluding Pomerelia. In the narrower sense, the designation may also refer to the western part of the area only, alternatively called for precision Pomorze Szczecińskie (Szczecin Pomerania), encompassing the entire German Pomerania combined with the Polish part of the historical Middle Pomerania up to Rega. In such case, the remainder of Farther Pomerania is called Pomorze Środkowe (contemporary Middle Pomerania) or Pomorze Koszalińsko-Słupskie (Koszalin-Słupsk Pomerania).

As a further complication, the borders of the eponymous administrative units have been drawn disregarding mostly the historical ones. The Polish unit called województwo zachodniopomorskie (West Pomeranian Voivodeship) includes the whole Polish part of Hither Pomerania, but only the western two-thirds of Farther Pomerania, with the remaining easternmost one-third (Słupsk, Ustka, Miastko) forming a part of the neighbouring województwo pomorskie (Pomeranian Voivodeship). On the other hand, it stretches far more south than the historical region, to include the northern part of the historical Neumark (Dębno, Chojna, Trzcińsko-Zdrój, Myślibórz, Nowogródek Pomorski, Lipiany, Barlinek, Pełczyce, Suchań, Choszczno, Recz, Drawno), as well as a strip the historical Greater Poland (Tuczno, Człopa, Mirosławiec, Wałcz, Czaplinek), or even a small part of Pomerelia (Biały Bór). As a consequence, the common understanding of the term West Pomerania has recently started to shift towards this current administrative extent. Similarly, borders of the German districts Vorpommern-Rügen and Vorpommern-Greifswald deviate from the historical ones in numerous locations.

The name Pomorze Przednie, Przedpomorze  – corresponding to Hither/Fore Pomerania German: Vorpommern  – is nowadays used in Polish almost exclusively when referring to the part located in Germany, while its usage in the full (historical German) meaning is limited to exact translations of German texts. It is also referred to as Pomorze Wołogoskie (Wolgast Pomerania).

Geography

The major feature of Western Pomerania is its long Baltic Sea and lagoons coastline. Typical is a distinct "double coast", whereby offshore islands separate lagoons (so-called bodden) from the open sea, forming a unique landscape. The islands Kirr, Hiddensee, Ummanz, Dänholm, Rügen, Öhe, Riems, Vilm, Greifswalder Oie, Usedom, Karsibór and Wolin, as well as the islands of the city of Szczecin are located in Western Pomerania.

The largest city in Western Pomerania is Szczecin on the Polish side and Stralsund on the German side. Today it is still an important town economically. The towns of Stralsund and Greifswald together, after Rostock, are the second largest centres of population in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In addition the region has the highest population density of the four planning regions in the state.

Western Pomerania has several national parks:

• Jasmund National Park
• West Pomeranian Lagoon Area National Park
• Wolin National Park

Another region in Western Pomerania under extensive conservation protection is the Peene Valley.

Administrative subdivisions

German Vorpommern is understood today as comprising the islands of Rügen and Usedom and the nearby mainland, roughly matching the administrative districts of Vorpommern-Rügen and Vorpommern-Greifswald, though those districts' boundaries with Mecklenburg proper do not match the pre-1945 demarcation.

The region is mentioned in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state constitution as one of the two constituting regions of the state with the right to form a Landschaftsverband, which is an administrative entity subordinate only to the state level. Consideration was given during an unsuccessful district reform project in 1994 to restoring the old boundary, but this was not implemented. The Ribnitz, Marlow and Fischland area of Vorpommern-Rügen were historically part of Mecklenburg. The old western boundary line was preserved in the division between the two Protestant church bodies of the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Mecklenburg and the Pomeranian Evangelical Church prior to their absorption into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany.

The Polish part encompasses the cities with powiat rights of Szczecin and Świnoujscie, the entire Police County, Gmina Goleniów in Goleniów County, as well as the part of Kamień County located on the island of Wolin (Gmina Międzyzdroje, western part of Gmina Wolin and western part of Gmina Dziwnów).

Cities and towns

There are four cities in the region, namely Szczecin and Świnoujście on the Polish side, as well as Stralsund and Greifswald on the German side of the border. Major towns in the German part of the region include Bergen auf Rügen, Demmin, Anklam, Wolgast and Pasewalk. The municipalities of Binz, Zingst, Zinnowitz and Heringsdorf do not have town rights, but are in fact semi-urban localities, with the latter of them covering the area known as Dreikaiserbäder (three emperors baths) consisting of the former municipalities of Ahlbeck, Bansin and Heringsdorf. Towns in the Polish part include Police, Goleniów, Wolin, Międzyzdroje, Nowe Warpno, and the left-bank part of Dziwnów. In addition, the highly populated villages of Mierzyn, Przecław, Warzymice and Bezrzecze constitute in fact direct residential extensions of the city of Szczecin, consisting mostly of large housing estates, thus having along with the resort locality of Trzebież a semi-urban character, in spite of neither holding town rights nor being seats of a municipality, and despite being several-fold more populated than the seats of the respective municipalities that they are parts of.

You can sort this complete table of cities and towns by clicking one of the upper columns. The list does not include the former town of Dąbie, which currently is a neighbourhood of Szczecin; it also does not include the Brandenburgian city of Schwedt whose parts located north of Wesel, acquired in contemporary times, belong to historic Western Pomerania.

Town or (bold) city in Germany/Poland	Coat of Arms	District of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania or (bold) Brandenburg/ County of West Pomeranian Voivodeship	first mentioned	Town privileges	Area in km2	Population at 31 December 2013[4]	Image
Szczecin		city with powiat rights		1243	301.30	408105
Hanseatic City of Stralsund		Vorpommern-Rügen	1234	1234	38.97	59363
Hanseatic and University City of Greifswald		Vorpommern-Greifswald	1241	1250	50.50	59691
Świnoujście		city with powiat rights		1765	197.23	41371
Police		Police County	1243	1260	36.84	33625
Goleniów		Goleniów County	1220	1268	11.74	22776
Bergen auf Rügen		Vorpommern-Rügen	1314	1613	51.42	13689
Anklam		Vorpommern-Greifswald	1243	1264	56.57	12312
Wolgast		Vorpommern-Greifswald	1123	1257	61.52	12055
Demmin		Mecklenburgische Seenplatte	1070	1236[5]	81.56	10395
Pasewalk		Vorpommern-Greifswald	1121	1251[6]	54.99	9811
Grimmen		Vorpommern-Rügen	1267	1287	50.29	9586
Sassnitz		Vorpommern-Rügen	1906[7]	1957	46.45	9199
Torgelow		Vorpommern-Greifswald	1281	1945	49.46	9307
Ueckermünde		Vorpommern-Greifswald	1178	1260	84.69	8598
Barth		Vorpommern-Rügen	1255	1255	40.83	8777
Międzyzdroje		Kamień County	15th century	1945	4.51	5425
Altentreptow		Mecklenburgische Seenplatte	1245	1282	52.83	5263
Wolin		Kamień County	966	1267	14.41	4999
Eggesin		Vorpommern-Greifswald	1216	1966	88.01	4748
Loitz		Vorpommern-Greifswald	1242	1242	89.53	4262
Putbus		Vorpommern-Rügen	1810	1810	66.60	4531
Ribnitz-Damgarten (Damgarten only)		Vorpommern-Rügen		1258 (Damgarten)		15721 (both parts, 2013) 3289 (Damgarten, 2018[8])
Jarmen		Vorpommern-Greifswald	1269	1720	30.64	2914
Gützkow		Vorpommern-Greifswald	1301	1353	42.68	2974
Tribsees		Vorpommern-Rügen	1136	1285	54.75	2669
Gartz		Uckermark	1124	1249	61.69	2508 (2019)
Garz/Rügen		Vorpommern-Rügen	1207	1319	65.44	2264
Penkun		Vorpommern-Greifswald	1240	1284	78.64	1815
Usedom		Vorpommern-Greifswald	1124	1298	38.54	1725
Lassan		Vorpommern-Greifswald	1136	1274	27.98	1491
Franzburg		Vorpommern-Rügen	1231	1587	15.19	1367
Richtenberg		Vorpommern-Rügen	1231	1535	15.62	1351
Nowe Warpno		Police County	1184	1295	24.51	1231
Dziwnów (Dziwna left-bank neighbourhood only)		Kamień County	1243	2004	4.07 (entire town) 3.04 (Dziwna)	2137 (entire town, 2013) 669 (Dziwna, 2001)

Economy

Popular tourist resorts can be found all along the Baltic beaches of the Pomeranian part (Darß-Zingst) of the Fischland-Darß-Zingst peninsula and the islands of Hiddensee, Rügen, Usedom and Wolin. The old Hanseatic towns are also popular tourist destinations due to their brick gothic medieval architecture, downtown Stralsund is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Stralsund, Greifswald and Wolgast also have a shipyard industry, the Volkswerft in Stralsund and the Peenewerft in Wolgast produce large ships, while the HanseYachts shipyard in Greifswald is specialized in building yachts. In Mukran near Sassnitz on Rügen, there is an international ferry terminal linking Western Pomerania to Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania and other oversee countries. An industrial complex northeast of Lubmin near Greifswald includes a shut-down nuclear power plant which is being deconstructed, and the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline which come ashore at this site. In Greifswald, the University of Greifswald runs several institutions and the major hospitals of the region. Also, Greifswald is the site of innovative scientific research, like the Wendelstein physics research center and biotechnology enterprises, most notably the federal Friedrich Loeffler Institute for animal diseases like BSE.

Away from the coastal tourist resorts, the rural areas of Western Pomerania have often maintained an agricultural character. A study published on 18 May 2009 revealed that the wealth situation of people in Vorpommern is on a mean range in Germany, with 27% of the population regarded as indigent – that is living with below 60% of an average German income.^[9] Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Hither_Pomerania
Text je dostupný za podmienok Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0 Unported; prípadne za ďalších podmienok. Podrobnejšie informácie nájdete na stránke Podmienky použitia.