Greifswald, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

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In February 2007, Newport News City Council affirmed Greifswald as its 3rd official Sister City. Greifswald is situated in the northeastern part of the German federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, along the Baltic Sea. The town developed after Danish Cistercian monks settled there to build the Eldena Monastery in 1199 - the ruins of which are immortalized through numerous sketches and paintings by the town’s native son, Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840).

Greifswald is home to the Ernst Moritz Arndt University (founded in 1456 - the second oldest university in Northern Europe. Today Greifswald University boasts approximately 12,000 students and is well known for its medical program, new university library. The town is also home to 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.

Formerly part of East Germany, Greifswald has prospered since the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and German Unity (reunification) in October 1990.  In 2001, the first direct mayoral election was held.  Dr. Arthur König became Mayor of Greifswald and has since been re-elected.  He remains the Greifswald’s current mayor.  Large scale construction on the University campus including university clinics, a new university library, and institutional and research buildings have also occurred.

The Newport News Sister City partnership is supported in Greifswald by the Office of the Mayor and the community’s Friends of North America Club.
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