Greifswald was developed after Danish Cistercian monks settled there to build Eldena Monastery in 1199; the ruins of which became famous and immortalized through numerous sketches and paintings by the town’s own Friedrich Kaspar David. It is also the home of The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), named for father of the quantum physics, Max Planck who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918. The city is also home to the University of Greifswald which celebrated its 550th anniversary this past October. More Greifswald history on the way – check back soon!