DOBERAN, a town and watering-place in the Land of Mecklenburg, Germany, lying about 2m. from the shores of the Baltic and 7 W. of Rostock by rail. Pop. 5,30o. Besides the ruins of a Cistercian abbey founded by Pribislaus, prince of Mecklenburg, in 1173, and secularized in 1552, it possesses an Evangelical Gothic church of the 14th century, one of the finest in north Germany, a palace, a theatre, an exchange and a concert hall. Owing to its delightful situation amid beech forests and to its chalybeate waters, Doberan has become a favourite summer resort. In 1793 Duke Frederick Francis caused the first seaside watering-place in Germany to be established on the neighbouring coast, 4 m. distant, at the spot where the Heiligen-Damm, a great bank of rocks about 1,000 ft. broad and 15 ft. high, stretches out into the sea and forms an excellent bathing ground.