Kröpelin

Kröpelin is a town in the Rostock district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated 9 km southwest of Bad Doberan, and 23 km west of Rostock.

Kröpelin first appears in the written record in 1177 as Crapelin a settlement with Wendish origins. The town's name probably derives from the Slavic word crepelice meaning the place of quail. Kröpelin was granted Lubeck rights in 1249. Granted a town charter on 25 August 1250 by Heinrich Borwin III of Rostock it was known as a shoemakers' town based on the number of people who worked in that profession.

The town has experienced a number of devastating fires during its history, in 1377, 1560, 1580, 1738 and 1774.

The early nineteenth century saw Jewish immigration into Kröpelin. The Jewish community built a cemetery outside the town in 1821. During the 1938 November pogrom it was desecrated by the Nazis and then fell until ruin. After the Second World War a memorial stone was erected to those members of the town's Jewish community who had died in the holocaust. In 2012, the cemetery was the subject to a number of anti-Semitic attacks, including criminal damage and racist graffiti.