Slawisch oder deutsch? Die Entwicklung Prenzlaus im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert

In 1234 Prenzlau was the first place in Pomerania to be granted a charter. At least one of the surveyors who laid out the town came from the town of Stendal in the German Altmark. Even before the name change of the territory to Brandenburg in 1250 churches, monasteries, mills as well as a modern urban structure with a market place surrounded by the houses of burgesses were built in Prenzlau. The structural analysis of the evidence from the archaeological investigations in the town centre of Prenzlau allow some insight into the complex building history of the town, its social topography as well as into the professional activities of the inhabitants. Finds discovered outside the late Slavic settlement areas within the town are reminiscent of the activities of a Slavic population and point towards the presence of Slavic inhabitants also in those parts of the town that were only developed after 1234. Surprisingly craftsmen from the late Slavic settlement of Prenzlau, which by 1250 had already been built over by one third of its total area by a monastery, became the focus of attention. From the time when the settlement of the Slavic craftsmen was abandoned the same type of built structures (Gewerke) are documented in other parts the old town as well. It follows that in 13th century Prenzlau the economic avant-garde included Slavic inhabitants who obviously played an important role in the new town established on German law.