Mecklenburg, the common name of two grand-duchies of Germany, distinguished respectively as MECKLENBURG-SCHWERIN and MECKLENBURG-STRELITZ, and situated between the Baltic on the N. and Brandenburg on the S., whilst Pomerania lies on the E. and Sleswick-Holstein and Lübeck on the W. The former is a compact territory, abutting on the Baltic for 65 miles, its area being 5197 sq. m. (much less than Yorkshire). Mecklenburg-Strelitz (1144 sq. m.) consists of two detached portions, the grand-duchy of Strelitz, lying SE. of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and the principality of Ratzeburg, wedged in between Schwerin and Lübeck. The region indicated forms part of the great North German plain, but is crossed by a low ridge from the south-east to the north-west, the water-parting between numerous small rivers that drain to the Elbe and to the Baltic. Along the line of this ridge there are more than 500 lakes, some of fairly large size. Canals too connect many of the lakes and navigable rivers, especially towards the Elbe. Except for sandy tracts and turf moors the soil is fertile; agriculture is the chief occupation. The merino sheep are the finest in Germany. There is some iron-founding, making of agricultural implements and tiles, manufacturing of beet-root sugar, distilling, brewing, and tanning. Amber is found on the coast and some of the lakes, and turf is dug. The chief ports are Wismar and Rostock (Warnemünde). The population of Schwerin in 1890 was 578,342, an increase of only 1287 in ten years; of Strelitz, 97,978, a decrease of 393, owing to the constant stream of emigration. The rural population are almost entirely Germanised Slavs, the nobility and the inhabitants of the towns for the most part of Lower Saxon stock. The popular dialect is Platt-Deutsch or Low German; the religious confession Lutheran. Rostock (q.v.), the largest town in Schwerin, has a university. The capital of each grand-duchy is a town of the same name as itself. Society in Mecklenburg is still organised on a feudal basis, and in the early part of the 19th century was not so advanced as England in the 13th century; serfdom was abolished only in 1824. At the head of each grand-duchy stands a grand-duke; but both grand-duchies are represented in one and the same national assembly, which meets every autumn at Sternberg and Malchin alternately. This body embraces all landowners (about 680), who also represent the peasantry and agricultural labourers, and representatives of forty-eight towns. The principality of Ratzeburg, and the towns of Wismar and Neustrelitz, have each an independent administration. A permanent college of nine members, representing the assembly, sits all the year round at Rostock. The executive is in the hands of four ministers (external and home affairs, justice, and finances) in Schwerin, and one minister in Strelitz. No financial statements are ever published in either grand-duchy. In Schwerin, however, there are three separate budgets, one controlled by the grand-duke, one, very small, controlled by the estates, and one by both parties in common. For the representation in the imperial assemblies, see GERMANY, Vol. V. p. 179. Although the evils under which the country workmen suffered fifty years ago, of which Fritz Renter, the great Platt-Deutsch writer, gives a painful description in his poem Kein Hüsung, have been greatly mitigated, still the fact that large numbers emigrate because they cannot find houses to live in, and the relatively high proportion of illegitimate children, owing to the restraints imposed upon marriage by the landowners, prove that they have not been altogether abolished yet. Fritz Reuter's great novel Stromtid (Eng. trans. My Old Farming Days, 1878-80) and other works give admirable pictures of the semi-patriarchal, semi-feudal life of his native country.
In the 6th century Slavic races settled in the districts now called Mecklenburg, which had just been left vacant by the Vandals. From the 9th to the 12th century the German emperors and the Saxon dukes attempted at different times to convert the inhabitants to Christianity. The country was only definitely incorporated in the German empire in 1170. It was divided over and over again, from 1229 onwards for more than five hundred years, amongst different branches of the descendants of the original Slavic princes. Of these dukes (dukes after 1348) the only one deserving special mention is Albert III., who, called to ascend the throne of Sweden in 1363, was kept a prisoner for many years by Margaret, queen of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The Thirty Years' War ruined the independent peasant proprietors. Wallenstein casting covetous eyes upon the duchies, they were sold (1628) to him by the emperor, but were restored to their rightful rulers in 1635. The two lines of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz date only from 1701; in 1755 they agreed that the line which survived longest should inherit the territories of the other, and when both became extinct Prussia should be heir. The title of grand-duke was assumed by both reigning dukes in 1815. The year 1848 brought disturbances and tumults in Mecklenburg; a representative assembly was called together, and other reforms initiated; but the reaction of 1850 and following years restored things to their original condition. The two states were again agitated by reform questions in 1871-78; but nothing came of the agitation.
See books by Geinitz on the geology, soil, lakes, &c. of Mecklenburg (1884-86); Boll, Geschichte Mecklenburgs (1855-56); and various works on the history and social condition of the people by Wiggers (1840 to 1865).