Art and architecture 1950 up to 2000

Joachim Näther was in charge of the construction of the long road in Rostock.

From 1975 cultural events from the “Baltic Sea week” were continued as the Rostock summer festival days, modern art biennials in the art gallery built in 1969, Baltic Sea musicians’ rendezvous or the book bazaar. Press festivals from the SED district newspapers had a folk festival character. The people’s theatre in Rostock and Mecklenburg state theatre were internationally well-regarded.

Fritz Reuter, Gerhart Hauptmann and Ernst Barlach were honoured with museums. In 1969 and 1970 Rostock was given museums for shipbuilding and shipping. Schwerin, Rostock, Dorf Mecklenburg, Alt Schwerin and Klockenhagen were given technical, historical or agricultural museums.

The re-evaluation of legacy and tradition led to personal museums being built in honour of Heinrich Schliemann in Ankershagen and Johann Heinrich von Thünen in Tellow. Güstrow Palace and royal representative rooms in Schwerin were restored. Monument preservation was enhanced through congresses held by the international organisation ICOMOS in 1977 and 1984.

The cultural infrastructure was improved after 1990. Theatres, music schools and museums were predominantly modernised in listed buildings.

The Barlach memorial in Güstrow became an internationally renowned museum through the reconstruction of the exhibition hall and the print room. The Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania summer of music and open air performances by the Mecklenburg state theatre attracted many spectators.

Expansion of the city centres from the 1970s onward leads also to the large-scale demolition of quarters containing significant historical buildings, for instance in Greifswald. Gothic churches and monastery buildings are protected as heritage sites.
Gerhart Hauptmann's summer retreat on the island of Hiddensee is converted into a museum. The internationally respected German Oceanographic Museum is established in Stralsund.
The exhibition 'Treasures of Art from the North of the GDR' in 1986 shows the Hiddensee gold treasure in Stockholm.

The government officially relaxes the rules on regional heritage awareness around the mid-1980s, permitting a commemoration of Pomeranian history.
The cultural infrastructure improves after 1990. Stralsund and Wismar are awarded World Heritage Site status in 2002 in recognition of their medieval architectural legacy. The Pommersche Landesmuseum opens in Greifswald in 2005, exhibiting the inventories from Stettin Museum that had been stored in Kiel until then. A spectacular new building is added to the Ozeaneum in Stralsund in 2008. The Summer of Music on Usedom and the Bach Weeks in Greifswald attract droves of visitors.