See Vita del servo di Dio Mechitar (Venice, 1901); E. Boré, Saint-Lazare (1835); Max Heimbucher, Orden u. Kongregationen (1907) I. § 37; and the articles in Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchenlexicon (ed. 2) and Herzog, Realencyklopädie (ed. 3), also articles by Sargisean, a Mechitharist, in Rivista storica benedettina (1906), “La Congregazione Mechitarista.”
(E. C. B.)
MECKLENBURG, a territory in northern Germany, on the Baltic Sea, extending from 53° 4′ to 54° 22′ N. and from 10° 35′ to 13° 57′ E., unequally divided into the two grand duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
Mecklenburg-schwerin is bounded N. by the Baltic Sea, W. by the principality of Ratzeburg and Schleswig-Holstein, S. by Brandenburg and Hanover, and E. by Pomerania and Mecklenburg-Strelitz. It embraces the duchies of Schwerin and Güstrow, the district of Rostock, the principality of Schwerin, and the barony of Wismar, besides several small enclaves (Ahrensberg, Rosson, Tretzeband, &c.) in the adjacent territories. Its area is 5080 sq. m. Pop. (1905), 625,045.
Mecklenburg-strelitz consists of two detached parts, the duchy of Strelitz on the E. of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and the principality of Ratzeburg on the W. The first is bounded by Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Pomerania and Brandenburg, the second by Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Lauenburg, and the territory of the free town of Lübeck. Their joint area is 1130 sq. m. Pop. (1905), 103,451.
Mecklenburg lies wholly within the great North-European plain, and its flat surface is interrupted only by one range of low hills, intersecting the country from south-east to north-west, and forming the watershed between the Baltic Sea and the Elbe. Its highest point, the Helpter Berg, is 587 ft. above sea-level. The coast-line runs for 65 m. along the Baltic (without including indentations), for the most part in flat sandy stretches covered with dunes. The chief inlets are Wismar Bay, the Salzhaff, and the roads of Warnemünde. The rivers are numerous though small; most of them are affluents of the Elbe, which traverses a small portion of Mecklenburg. Several are navigable, and the facilities for inland water traffic are increased by canals. Lakes are numerous; about four hundred, covering an area of 500 sq. m., are reckoned in the two duchies. The largest is Lake Müritz, 52 sq. m. in extent. The climate resembles that of Great Britain, but the winters are generally more severe; the mean annual temperature is 48° F., and the annual rainfall is about 28 in. Although there are long stretches of marshy moorland along the coast, the soil is on the whole productive. About 57% of the total area of Mecklenburg-Schwerin consists of cultivated land, 18% of forest, and 13% of heath and pasture. In Mecklenburg-Strelitz the corresponding figures are 47, 21 and 10%. Agriculture is by far the most important industry in both duchies. The chief crops are rye, oats, wheat, potatoes and hay. Smaller areas are devoted to maize, buckwheat, pease, rape, hemp, flax, hops and tobacco. The extensive pastures support large herds of sheep and cattle, including a noteworthy breed of merino sheep. The horses of Mecklenburg are of a fine sturdy quality and highly esteemed. Red deer, wild swine and various other game are found in the forests. The industrial establishments include a few iron-foundries, wool-spinning mills, carriage and machine factories, dyeworks, tanneries, brick-fields, soap-works, breweries, distilleries, numerous limekilns and tar-boiling works, tobacco and cigar factories, and numerous mills of various kinds. Mining is insignificant, though a fair variety of minerals is represented in the district. Amber is found on and near the Baltic coast. Rostock, Warnemünde and Wismar are the principal commercial centres. The chief exports are grain and other agricultural produce, live stock, spirits, wood and wool; the chief imports are colonial produce, iron, coal, salt, wine, beer and tobacco. The horse and wool markets of Mecklenburg are largely attended by buyers from various parts of Germany. Fishing is carried on extensively in the numerous inland lakes.
In 1907 the grand dukes of both duchies promised a constitution to their subjects. The duchies had always been under a government of feudal character, the grand dukes having the executive entirely in their hands (though acting through ministers), while the duchies shared a diet (Landtag), meeting for a short session each year, and at other times represented by a committee, and consisting of the proprietors of knights’ estates (Rittergüter), known as the Ritterschaft, and the Landschaft or burgomasters of certain towns. Mecklenburg-Schwerin returns six members to the Reichstag and Mecklenburg-Strelitz one member.
In Mecklenburg-Schwerin the chief towns are Rostock (with a university), Schwerin, and Wismar the capital. The capital of Mecklenburg-Strelitz is Neu-Strelitz. The peasantry of Mecklenburg retain traces of their Slavonic origin, especially in speech, but their peculiarities have been much modified by amalgamation with German colonists. The townspeople and nobility are almost wholly of Saxon strain. The slowness of the increase in population is chiefly accounted for by emigration.
History.—The Teutonic peoples, who in the time of Tacitus occupied the region now known as Mecklenburg, were succeeded in the 6th century by some Slavonic tribes, one of these being the Obotrites, whose chief fortress was Michilenburg, the modern Mecklenburg, near Wismar; hence the name of the country. Though partly subdued by Charlemagne towards the close of the 8th century, they soon regained their independence, and until the 10th century no serious effort was made by their Christian neighbours to subject them. Then the German king, Henry the Fowler, reduced the Slavs of Mecklenburg to obedience and introduced Christianity among them. During the period of weakness through which the German kingdom passed under the later Ottos, however, they wrenched themselves free from this bondage; the 11th and the early part of the 12th century saw the ebb and flow of the tide of conquest, and then came the effective subjugation of Mecklenburg by Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony. The Obotrite prince Niklot was killed in battle in 1160 whilst resisting the Saxons, but his son Pribislaus (d. 1178) submitted to Henry the Lion, married his daughter to the son of the duke, embraced Christianity, and was permitted to retain his office. His descendants and successors, the present grand dukes of Mecklenburg, are the only ruling princes of Slavonic origin in Germany. Henry the Lion introduced German settlers and restored the bishoprics of Ratzeburg and Schwerin; in 1170 the emperor Frederick I. made Pribislaus a prince of the empire. From 1214 to 1227 Mecklenburg was under the supremacy of Denmark; then, in 1229, after it had been regained by the Germans, there took place the first of the many divisions of territory which with subsequent reunions constitute much of its complicated history. At this time the country was divided between four princes, grandsons of duke Henry Borwin, who had died two years previously. But in less than a century the families of two of these princes became extinct, and after dividing into three branches a third family suffered the same fate in 1436. There then remained only the line ruling in Mecklenburg proper, and the princes of this family, in addition to inheriting the lands of their dead kinsmen, made many additions to their territory, including the counties of Schwerin and of Strelitz. In 1352 the two princes of this family made a division of their lands, Stargard being separated from the rest of the country to form a principality for John (d. 1393), but on the extinction of his line in 1471 the whole of Mecklenburg was again united under a single ruler. One member of this family, Albert (c. 1338-1412), was king of Sweden from 1364 to 1389. In 1348 the emperor Charles IV. had raised Mecklenburg to the rank of a duchy, and in 1418 the university of Rostock was founded.