Administrative Subdivisions
Vorpommern today is understood as comprising the islands of Rügen and Usedom and the nearby mainland, roughly matching the administrative districts of Vorpommern-Rügen and Vorpommern-Greifswald, though those districts' boundaries with Mecklenburg proper do not match the pre-1945 demarcation.
The region is mentioned in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state constitution as one of the two constituating regions of the state with the right to form a Landschaftsverband, which is an administrative entity subordinate only to the state level. Consideration was given during an unsuccessful district reform project in 1994 to restoring the old boundary, but this was not implemented. The Ribnitz area of Nordvorpommern and the Malchin area of Demmin were both formerly part of Mecklenburg. The old western boundary line is preserved in the division between the two Protestant church bodies of the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Mecklenburg (German: Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche Mecklenburgs) and the Pomeranian Evangelical Church (German: Pommersche Evangelische Kirche).
Major towns in Vorpommern include Stralsund, Greifswald, Demmin, Anklam, Wolgast, and Barth. With Polish entry into the European Union and the opening of borders, Szczecin has resumed its place as a dominant city for southern parts of the region.
Read more about this topic: Western Pomerania