Crossed by the Warnow and located nearly centrally on Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's Baltic Sea coast, Rostock is the largest Baltic port of Germany. In 1251, the city became a member of the Hanseatic League, so that in the 14th century it was a powerful seaport town. In 1419, one of the earliest universities in Europe, the University of Rostock, was founded. Beginning with the end of the 15th century, the city largely lost its economic importance, which regained it in the first half of the 19th century, due at first to the wheat trade, then, from the 1850s, to industry, especially to its shipyards.
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