Nordvorpommern

Nordvorpommern
Statistics
State:	Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Capital:	Grimmen
Area:	2,168 km²
Inhabitants:	117,722 (2001)
pop. density:	54 inh./km²
Car identification:	NVP
Homepage:	http://www.lk-nvp.de
Map

Nordvorpommern ("North Western Pomerania") is a Kreis (district) in the northern part of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated at the coast of the Baltic Sea, where it encloses the city of Stralsund. Other neighboring districts are (from east clockwise) Ostvorpommern, Demmin, Güstrow and Bad Doberan.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Coat of arms
4 Towns and municipalities
5 External links

Geography

The coast is characterised by an elongated peninsula, the Darß. Between the Darß and the mainland there is a very shallow lagoon, which is a part of the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park, just as the entire peninsula itself.

History

In history this region was the westernmost part of Pomerania. The district was created in 1994 by merging the three previous districts Grimmen, Ribnitz-Damgarten and Stralsund.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms shows two griffins. The golden griffin to the left is the symbol of Princes of Rostock. The black griffin to the right derives from the coat of arms of Pomerania, which however used a red griffin as their symbol. The territory of the district was ruled by a branch of the Dukes of Pomerania which used a black griffin.

The coat of arms was granted on December 3, 1997.