Schwedt

Schwedt, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Brandenburg, on the left bank of the Oder, 13 m. N.E. from Angermunde by rail. Pop. (1905) 953 o. It is a pleasant, wellbuilt town, with broad streets and shady avenues. There are three Evangelical churches, a Roman Catholic church, a palace, built in 1580, and a gymnasium. The royal riding school was removed hence to Hanover in 1867. The industries include the manufacture of tobacco, cigars, machinery, vinegar, soap and bricks, and there is a considerable trade by water in agricultural produce.

Schwedt is mentioned in chronicles as early as 1138, and became a town in 1265. Towards the end of the 15th century it passed to Brandenburg, and, in 1684, after a great conflagration which laid it in ruins, was handsomely rebuilt by the electress Dorothea. The lordship of Schwedt was in the possession of the counts of Hohenstein from 1481 to 1609, when it passed to Brandenburg. In 1689 it was given to Philip William, a younger son of the elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William, and he and his successors called themselves margrave of BrandenburgSchwedt. When this line became extinct in 1784 the lordship reverted to Prussia, being claimed both by the king as personal property and by the state. The matter was not settled until 1872, when it was assigned to the state.

See Thom,,' Geschichte der Stadt and Herrschaft Schwedt (Berlin, 1873).