Wismar

I had read that Wismar is beautiful but, as part of the former DDR (East Germany), a little run down and not packed with tourists. This was not entirely true. Contrary to what you might think, the Internet can be wrong sometimes.

There’s a part of Germany tourism that Brian has labeled “the EPCOT effect”. It’s when the city is pretty, almost too pretty, like no one really lives there. Hannover has it. Our old town was reconstructed after World War 2 by moving the intact historic buildings in from other parts of the city. They were reassembled in one designated area - almost an outdoor museum to what Hannover could have looked like long ago.

Now that Brian and I have been in Europe enough to see a lot of big churches, sidewalk cafes and statues, it’s usually our goal to avoid the EPCOT effect. That’s what this whole trip was about. I know, we are tourism snobs. At first glance, Wismar could be the home of ‘it’s a small world after all’.

 

Wismar, along with Rostock and Lübeck was one of the first Hanseatic cities. What I have learned about cities that were in the Hanseatic trading league is that they were really rich for about 200 years. They usually have a big tall church on every block or two. After that era ended, Wismar was part of Sweden for about 150 years. Then it industrialized and became a shipping center. During World War 2, Wismar was bombed ten times. But the bombs hit their industrial targets and only about 26% of housing was destroyed (in comparison, 90% of Hannover was destroyed by bombings). That means that the picturesque old buildings are the real thing, not Mickey Mouse’s version.

Wismar's old town doesn't show much evidence of the East German era, and seems to thrive on weekend tourism now. But it’s still the home of a working port and lots of places to buy fish sandwiches.

Wismar was not just home to rich medieval merchants and Swedes. It was also the home of Klaus Störtebeker, pirate and beer drinker. Störtebeker and his gang, called the Victual Brothers, were mercenaries hired by Sweden to fight against the Danes in the late 1300s. After the war, they turned into pirates,  capturing and robbing Hanseatic ships on the Baltic Sea. Störtebeker's name means something like "to drink in one gulp," since he could reportedly down a 4 liter mug of beer without coming up for air. When he was finally captured and beheaded in Hamburg, legend states that his headless body got up and walked past 12 of his crew before the executioner tripped him. Today, we mostly know Störtebeker because there is a beer named after him. 

Wismar was a real working city, and in most ways it still is. But like Störtebeker's story, might have been polished a little over time. But I think it'll be a while before there is a Störtebeker themed roller coaster here, with Goofy greeting you at the entrance. "Pirates of the Baltic" does have a nice ring to it, though.