Neubrandenburg, Germany

The city flourished as a trade centre until the Thirty Years' War (1618–48), when this position was lost due to incessant warfare. During the dramatic advance of the Swedish army of Gustavus Adolphus into Germany, the city was garrisoned by Swedes, but it was retaken by Imperial Catholic League forces in 1631. During this campaign, it was widely reported that the Catholic forces killed many of the Swedish and Scottish soldiers while they were surrendering. Later, according to the Scottish soldier of fortune Robert Munro, 18th Baron of Foulis, when the Swedes themselves adopted a "no prisoners" policy, they would cut short any pleas for mercy with the cry of "New Brandenburg!". The city, therefore, played an unconscious role in the escalation of brutality of one of history's most brutal wars.

Neubrandenburg was one of two Vorderstädte (lit. 'primary cities') of the duchy of Mecklenburg, i.e. it represented the interests of the cities and towns at the regional assembly (the Landtag or diet). From 1701 to 1934, it formed a part of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a small, primarily rural, and socio-economically backward state of northeastern Germany, being its largest or second-largest city (closely tied with Neustrelitz, the capital). From 1856 to 1863, Fritz Reuter, the most successful author of Low German literature and one of the best-sold German authors of the 19th century, lived here. In 1864, Neubrandenburg was connected to Berlin by railway, and developed some modest industry, mostly connected with the needs of the predominant agricultural sector of the region.

Under Nazism, an airbase was built at nearby Trollenhagen and a facility for torpedo trials was established in Lake Tollense. The city's rural situation far from any borders shielded it from air attacks for some time. During the Second World War, two German prisoner-of-war camps for Allied POWs of various nationalities were located in Fünfeichen within the city limits: the large Stalag II-A and the adjacent Oflag II-E/67 for officers. The same site was operated from 1945 to 1948 as special NKVD-camp Nr. 9. The town was also the location of a forced labour camp for Sinti and Romani people. In 1945, a few days before the end of the Second World War, 80% of the old town was burned down by the Red Army in a great fire that destroyed, inter alia, City Hall (incl. most of the Municipal Archives), the Grand Ducal Palace (incl. the Municipal Arts Collections) and St. Mary's Church. About 600 people committed suicide in fear of or as a result of the Soviet advance.

After the war, within the newly-founded Socialist GDR (East Germany), the city centre was slowly rebuilt in the 1950s and 60s in a simplified neoclassicist and neo-Renaissance style. Large numbers of refugees from Germany's former eastern territories and from Czechoslovakia were resettled in the city. Neubrandenburg was designated the centre of a Bezirk, the highest tier of administrative divisions in East Germany, in 1952. As such, the city was supposed to embody the vision of a "Socialist city" and was to be greatly expanded and industrialised. Population increased from about 20,000 at war's end to about 90,000 in the late 1980s. Large panel-type housing estates were built in several parts of the city (among them the first example of WBS 70 which became the most common type of panel housing in East Germany). The demolished market square area was reshaped by the Haus der Kultur und Bildung (House of Culture and Education), a Socialist-style civic centre, complemented by a 56 m highrise. Brigitte Reimann, a prominent GDR writer whose works deal with the attempt at building a Socialist society, spent her last years (1968-1973) in the city.

As in all of East Germany, the reunification of Germany in 1990 brought an improvement of political and social freedoms but also a deep socio-economic crisis with large-scale unemployment and emigration. The population sharply dropped, stabilising at about 65,000 people (2023), with some of those losses, however, just going to surrounding bedroom communities. The economic situation finally slowly improved, many historical buildings were renovated, e.g. St. Mary's Church that was refurbished as a concert hall. The University of Applied Sciences was founded in 1991, focusing on social work, health, agriculture and food industry. After 1990, Neubrandenburg lost its position as a Bezirk centre and remained an autonomous district-level city (Kreisfreie Stadt) within the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In 2011, it emerged as the capital of a huge new district Mecklenburgische Seenplatte, the largest in Germany, with an area slightly more than half that of its former Bezirk.