BAD DOBERAN

'Bad Doberan' is a town in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is the capital of the district Bad Doberan. Population: 11.424 (2006).
Bad Doberan is situated just west of Rostock's city centre and therefore part of most developed regions in the north-eastern part of Germany. The town is nestling between beautiful beech tree forests just 6 km from the Baltic Sea and stands for one of the earliest German settlements in Mecklenburg. Today the town is a very popular bathing resort, thanks to Heiligendamm, a district of Bad Doberan situated directly at the cliff line of the Baltic. Historically, Doberan used to be the summer residence for the Mecklenburg Dukes who residented in Schwerin and for their entourage.

Contents

History

Sights

External links

References

History

The area's first settlers were Cistercian monks, who founded a monastery in 1171. Doberan (its original name) remained a small village until 1793, when the duke of Mecklenburg founded the first German bathing resort, Heiligendamm. Doberan and Heiligendamm have been connected by a narrow gauge railway the Mollibahn since 1886. The town has been called ''Bad'' Doberan since 1921 ("Bad" means "spa" and is a common prefix in Germany).
In August 1932, Adolf Hitler was granted an honorary citizenship; Bad Doberan was the first town in Germany to do so. In fact, as the certificate was lost, there was disagreement for several years as to whether he had been granted honorary citizenship or not. However, in Spring 1932 the Nazi Party had an absolute majority in the town council assembly, and published articles still exist from that time, so it was generally accepted that Hitler was really honoured in this way. With the town hosting the G8 summit in June 2007, it was decided on April 2 that Hitler should be removed from the town's roll of honour, although normally an honorary citizenship of this kind ends upon the death of the person involved.^[1] [1]

Sights

The classicist buildings characterizing the centres of Bad Doberan and Heiligendamm were all constructed between 1801 and 1836 by the architect Carl Theodor Severin.
However, the most famous building in Bad Doberan is the cathedral, or minster (''Doberaner Münster'', 1368), which once belonged to a Cistercian monastery and is one of the most impressive examples of North German brick architecture.
Bad Doberan is also home to the "Molli". A historic 19th centurey steam engine that acts as a tourist attraction/shuttle for everyday use, in the town and to the nearby beach village.

External links

★ Official website

★ Doberan Newspaper on Sunday

★ Accommodations in/around Bad Doberan

References

1. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1887948.htm