POMERANIA (Germ. Pommern) is a maritime province of Prussia, bounded on the N. by the Baltic, on the W. by Mecklenburg, on the S. by Brandenburg, and on the E. by West Prussia. Its area is 11,620 square miles. The province is officially divided into the three districts of Stralsund, Stettin, and Cöslin; but more historical interest attaches to the names of Vorpommern and Hinter-pommern, or Hither and Farther Pomerania, applied to the territory to the west and to the east of the Oder respectively. As a whole Pomerania is one of the lowest and flattest parts of Germany, but to the east of the Oder it is traversed by a range of low hills, and there are also a few isolated eminences to the west. Off the west coast, which is very irregular, lie the islands of Rügen, Usedom, and Wollin; the coast of Farther Pomerania is smooth in outline and bordered with dunes or sandbanks. Besides the Oder and its affluents, there are several small rivers flowing into the Baltic, none of which, however, are navigable except for rafts. Many of these end in small littoral lakes, separated from the sea by a narrow strip of land, through which the water escapes by one or more outlets. The interior of the province is also thickly sprinkled with lakes, the combined area of which is equal to about one-twentieth of its entire surface. The soil of Pomerania is for the most part thin and sandy, especially to the east of the Oder; but patches of good soil occur here and there. About 55 per cent, of the surface is under tillage, while 19 per cent, consists of meadow and pasture and 20 per cent, is covered by forests. The principal crops are potatoes, rye, and oats, but wheat and barley are grown in the more fertile districts; tobacco and beetroot for sugar are also cultivated. Agriculture is still in ...many respects carried on in a somewhat primitive fashion, and the live stock is as a rule of an inferior quality. Large flocks of sheep are kept both for their flesh and wool, and geese and goose-feathers form lucrative articles of export. (A tabular view of the agricultural products of Pomerania will be found under Prussia.) Owing to the long coast-line and the numerous lakes, fishing forms a not unimportant industry, and large quantities of herring, eels, lampreys, <fcc., are sent from Pomerania to other parts of Germany. With the exceptions of its inexhaustible layers of peat or soft coal, the mineral wealth of Pomerania is insignificant. Its industrial activity is also of no great importance, though there are a few manufactories of machinery, chemicals, tobacco, sugar, and other articles, chiefly in or near the larger towns, and linen-weaving is practised as a domestic industry. Shipbuilding is carried on at Stettin and other places on the coast. Commerce, however, is relatively much more flourishing. Stettin is one of the chief seaports of Prussia, and Stralsund, Greifswald, and Colberg also possess a foreign trade, the exports consisting mainly of grain, timber, and fish.
In 1880 Pomerania contained 1,540,034 inhabitants, all of whom were Protestants except 23,877 Roman Catholics and 13,886 Jews. The Slavonic element in the population is now represented only by a few thousand Poles and a handful of the ancient Cassubians on the east border. Pomerania is the most sparsely populated province in Prussia, the ratio being 132 inhabitants per square mile. About 67 per cent, of the population belong to the rural districts, while the remainder live in communities of 2000 and upwards. There are only nine towns with more than 10,000 inhabitants, at the head of which stands Stettin with 91,000. The Pomeranians belong mainly to the old Saxon stock, and are, as a rule, tall, strong, and well-built. They somewhat resemble the Scots in their cautious and persevering character, their strong theological bias (which perpetuates the existence of numerous small Protestant sects), and their turn for dry humour; but they are by no means so enterprising or so open to new ideas. In 1883 only 0’32 per cent, of the Pomeranian recruits were illiterate, a fact which speaks well for the educational system of the province. There is a univeιsity at Greifswald. The province sends 16 members to the reichstag and 26 to the Prussian house of representatives. The heir-presumptive of the Prussian crown bears the title of governor of Pomerania.
History. — In prehistoric times the southern coast of the Baltic seems to have been occupied by Celts, who afterwards made way for tribes of Teutonic stock. These in their turn migrated to other settlements and were replaced, about the beginning of the 6th century of our era, by Slavonians. The name of Pomore or Pommern, meaning “on the sea,” was attached to the district by the last of these immigrant racés, and has often changed its political and geographical significance. Originally it seems to have denoted the coast district between the Oder and the Vistula, a territory which was at first more or less dependent on Poland, but which appears towards the end of the 12th century as divided between two native dukes owning the supremacy of the German emperor. Afterwards Pomerania spread much farther to the west, while correspondingly curtailed on the east, and a distinction was made between Slavinia, or modern Pomerania, and Pomerellen. The latter, corresponding substantially to the present province of West Prussia, remained subject to Poland down to the beginning of the 14th century, when part of it fell away to the Teutonic knights and part of it was annexed to the duchy of Pomerania-Wolgast. Christianity was introduced in the 12th century, and its advance went hand in hand with the Germanizing of the district. The later mediaeval history of Pomerania is occupied with an endless succession of subdivisions among different lines of the ducal houses, and with numerous expansions and contractions of territory through constant hostilities with the elector of Brandenburg, who claimed to be the immediate feudal superior of Pomerania, and with other neighbouring powers. The names Vorpommern and Hinterpom-mern were at first synonymous with Slavinia and Pomerellen, but towards the close of the 14th century they were transferred to the two duchies into which the former (Pomerania proper) was divided. In 1625 the whole of Pomerania became united under the sway of Bogeslaus XIV., and, on his death without issue in 1637, Brandenburg laid claim to the duchy in virtue of a compact of 1571. The Swedes, however, had in the meantime occupied the country, and at the peace of Westphalia (1648) the elector had to content himself with East Pomerania and see the other half awarded to Sweden. In 1720 Swedish Pomerania was curtailed by extensive concessions to Prussia, but the district to the west of the Peene remained in possession of Sweden down to the dissolution of the German empire. On the downfall of Napoleon, Sweden assigned her German possessions to Denmark in exchange for Norway, whereupon Prussia, partly by purchase and partly by the cession of Lauenburg, finally succeeded in uniting the whole of Pomerania under her sway.
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