Stralsund is a Baltic port town located in the east of Germany. The town was founded in the first half of the thirteenth century on the lands inhabited by the Polabian Slavs, but it was settled by the German immigrants from the west. The bicultural origin of the town was reflected in its name, which combines a Polabian word "strela" meaning an arrow or spearhead, and the Germanic "sund" meaning a strait. Thanks to its location Stralsund developed very quickly and in the fourteenth century it became the second most important port on the Baltic Sea. As a port town it belonged to the Hanseatic League, an international association of merchant guilds.
