duchy · Germany and Central Europe

Duchy of Pomerania-Wolgast

1295 CE – 1625 CE (approx.) · capital Wolgast

The western of the two Pomeranian duchies created by the Griffin partition of 1295, ruled from the castle of Wolgast near the Baltic coast.

Origins

In 1295 the Griffin brothers Bogislaw IV and Otto I divided the Duchy of Pomerania. Bogislaw took the coastal lands north of the Peene and ruled from Wolgast. In 1325 his line gained the Principality of Rügen, and later partitions split off further branches, including the Duchy of Pomerania-Stolp in 1368.

The Griffins were a Slavic dynasty that had become thoroughly German in culture. Power was shared with the estates and with Hanseatic towns such as Stralsund, Greifswald and Anklam, which grew rich on Baltic trade, and Greifswald University was founded in 1456. Johannes Bugenhagen, a Pomeranian, helped bring the Lutheran Reformation, adopted at the Diet of Treptow in 1534.

The duchy was reunited with Stettin under Bogislaw X from 1478 and split off again in 1532. When Duke Philip Julius died childless in 1625, Bogislaw XIV of Pomerania-Stettin inherited it, uniting Pomerania for the last time shortly before Sweden occupied it in 1630; most of it later became Swedish Pomerania.

Cite this page

APA: The Epoch Institute. (2026). Duchy of Pomerania-Wolgast. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-pomerania-wolgast
MLA: “Duchy of Pomerania-Wolgast.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-pomerania-wolgast. Accessed .
Chicago: The Epoch Institute. “Duchy of Pomerania-Wolgast.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-pomerania-wolgast.
Harvard: The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Duchy of Pomerania-Wolgast’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-pomerania-wolgast (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻