Rostock

Industrial port in the Land (administrative region) of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, Germany, on the River Warnow, 13 km/8 mi south of the Baltic; population (2005 est) 199,300. Industries include shipbuilding, ship repair, electronics, and fish processing. There is a technical university here.

Founded in 1189, in the 14th century Rostock became a powerful member of the Hanseatic League. It was rebuilt in the 1950s and was capital of an East German district of the same name 1952-90.

In the mid-1990s the German government decided to keep Rostock's shipyards open by subsidizing them. As a result, more efficient shipyards closed in Hamburg and Bremen.