Since the 1980s, the city of Newport News has expressed an interest in sistering with a European community.

In November 2003, Dr. Fred Dylla of Jefferson Lab gave a presentation to the SCNN Board of Directors on the town of Greifswald in Pomeranian, Germany. Situated on the Baltic Sea in what was once East Germany, the city is rich in history, natural resources and energetic positive thinking people. The town 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.

Today, Greifswald has approximately 125,000 inhabitants, and the University with approximately 11,000 students (up from 2,500 in 1990) houses the university clinics, the new university library and institutional and research buildings.

Newport News Mayor Joe Frank headed a delegation to Greifswald in July 2004. Continuing efforts to attract Greifswald culminated in a 17-member delegation lead by Mayor König visiting Newport News during Thanksgiving in 2005.

In February 2007, Newport News City Council affirmed Greifswald as an official Sister City. To honor this momentous event, a ceremony and signing of the Declaration of Sisterhood between the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald was held on October 4, 2007 in Newport News City Hall. 

Additional images of Greifswald

Visit the Greifswald, Germany website