WISMAR, a seaport town of Germany. in the Land of Meck lenburg, at the southern end of the Bay of Wismar, one of the best harbours on the Baltic, 20 m. by rail N. of Schwerin. Pop. (1933) 27,456. Wismar is said to have received civic rights in 1229, and came into the possession of Mecklenburg in 1301. In the 13th and 14th centuries it was a flourishing Hanse town, with important woollen factories. A plague carried off io,000 of
the inhabitants in 1376. By the peace of Westphalia in 1648 it passed to Sweden, but in 1803 Sweden pledged it to Mecklen burg, reserving, however, the right of redemption after I oo years.