STRALSUND, a seaport and small manufacturing town in Western Pomerania, Prussia, is situated on the Strelasund, an arm of the Baltic Sea, 2 miles wide, which separates the island of Rügen from the mainland, 115 miles to the north of Berlin and 85 miles to the northwest of Stettin. The position of the town on a small triangular islet, only connected with the mainland by moles and bridges at the angles, has always rendered its fortification comparatively easy, and down to 1873 it was a fortress of the first rank. The quaint architecture of the houses, many of which present their curious and handsome gables to the street, gives Stralsund an interesting and old-fashioned appearance. The three vast Gothic churches of St Nicholas, St Mary, and St James, erected in the 14th and 15th centuries, and the town-house, dating in its oldest part from 1316, are among the more striking buildings. The public library, founded in 1709, contains 60,000 volumes. The manufactures of Stralsund are more miscellaneous than extensive; they include machinery, beer, oil, paper, playing-cards, and sugar. The trade is chiefly confined to the shipping of grain, malt, and timber, with some cattle and wool. In 1884 542 sea-going ships and 1964 river-craft entered the harbour, which is protected by the fortified island of Dänholm, and 513 ships and 1964 river-craft cleared. In 1882 the port owned a fleet of 247 sea-going ships, with a burden of 41,176 tons, besides numerous smaller craft below 60 tons. The population in 1880 was 29,481, in 1885 28,981. More than a fourth of the inhabitants reside in the Knieper, Tribseer, Franken, and Harbour suburbs on the mainland. About 1000 are Roman Catholics and 140 Jews....
Stralsund was founded in 1209 by Jaromar I., prince of Rügen, and, though several times destroyed, steadily prospered. It was one of the five Wendish towns whose alliance extorted from King Eric of Norway a favourable commercial treaty in 1284-85; and in the 14th century it was second only to Lübeck in the Hanseatic League. Although under the sway of the dukes of Pomerania, tho city was able to maintain a marked degree of independence, which is still apparent in its municipal privileges; it is also the only town in Prussia, with the exception of Breslau, which has an independent municipal ecclesiastical consistory. Its early Protestant sympathies placed it on the side of Sweden during the Thirty Years’ War; and in 1628 it successfully resisted a siege of eleven weeks by Wallenstein, who had sworn to take it “though it were chained to heaven.” He was forced to retire with the loss of 12,000 men; and a yearly festival in the town still celebrates the occasion. After the peace of Westphalia Stralsund was ceded with the rest of Western Pomerania to Sweden; and for more than a century and a half it was exposed to attack and capture as the tête-de-pont of the Swedes in Continental Europe. In 1815 it passed to Prussia. In 1809 it was the scene of the death of Major Schill, in his gallant though ineffectual attempt to rouse his countrymen against the French invaders.
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