Politics 1600 up to 1650

The second major territorial partition in 1621 led to the creation of the smaller principalities of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Güstrow. The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) and the destruction it caused spread across the state. Its last third was shaped in Mecklenburg by Albrecht von Wallenstein. He was elevated by the Emperor to Duke of Mecklenburg who reported directly to the Emperor. Yet after his murder his approaches to reform were withdrawn.

In 1648 Wismar with the island of Poel and the administrative town of Neukloster fell to Sweden. The Mecklenburg Dukes received the dioceses of Schwerin and Ratzeburg, which they already ruled, as secular principalities.

The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) ravages the country. The imperial commander, Albrecht von Wallenstein, fails in his first attempt to take Stralsund in 1628. King Gustav II. Adolf of Sweden lands on Usedom in 1630, with a strong army and occupying Stettin, where he forges an alliance with Duke Bogislaw XIV., Prince of Pomerania. The Pomeranian line of princes comes to an end. This leads to rivalry between Sweden and Brandenburg that remains unresolved until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Western Pomerania with Stralsund and Rügen, Stettin and Wollin in Farther Pomerania, and the Oder estuary all fall to Sweden. The area therefore acquires a double status as province of Sweden and territory of the Empire. Brandenburg takes possession of Kolberg and the Diocese of Cammin in Farther Pomerania.