The historical territory of Mecklenburg was settled by Germans rather late. Until the second half of the 12th century, the "Wends", Slavic tribes of the Obotrites and Lutici, lived here. In the course of the Christianization and Germanization of the eastern lands, the territory of Mecklenburg eventually came under German influence, was subject to various rulers over the following centuries, and had a turbulent history. From the year 1701 onwards, it consisted for a long time of two duchies and later grand duchies -- Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
Presumably already with the Christianization and conquest of Mecklenburg towards the end of the 12th century, the first Jews must have settled in Mecklenburg as traders in the retinue of the eastward-moving expeditions. An exact date can no longer be determined today. Not only the desire to trade must have motivated them to shift their center of life eastward, but also the swelling hatred of Jews since the Crusades and the ever-recurring pogroms in their ancestral territories along the Rhine.
The still most important contribution to the preservation of Jewish history of Mecklenburg was provided as early as the 19th century by the prematurely deceased scholar and rabbi Dr. Leopold Donath (1842--1876) with his book "Geschichte der Juden in Mecklenburg von den aeltesten Zeiten (1266) bis auf die Gegenwart (1874)". Even for him, the date of the first settlement of Jews in Mecklenburg lay in obscurity. As he surmised, however, the first Jews had already come in the 13th century from the March of Brandenburg and the towns along the Rhine to escape the persecution there. The first verified evidence of Jewish settlement can be found for the year 1260 in Wismar and in a Wismar document dated 14 April 1266.
In this first phase of Jewish life in Mecklenburg, which was to last from the first settlement from the mid-13th century at the latest until the banishment in 1492, the Jews all too often became pawns in the conflicting interests between the dukes, the noble estates, and the proud towns with their self-confident councils and citizens. The Mecklenburg princes, notably Heinrich I the Pilgrim as one of the first, granted selected resident Jews a so-called protected Jew privilege -- the granting of sovereign protection in exchange for money. The conferral of the right of settlement for the Jews was also made dependent on the payment of this "recognition money", as this protection fee was then called, which was to be paid quarterly "praenumerando", i.e. in advance. Even though the amount of this protection fee of up to twelve Reichstaler was rather moderate, it demanded considerable commercial skill from many Jews to earn it in the first years of their trading business.
The protection fee was by no means significant to the state treasury, given the manageable number of protected Jews in Mecklenburg, but it nevertheless represented a welcome inflow for the state coffers. For this reason alone, the dukes' intention behind it was not entirely selfless, but it was not the sole reason for granting such privileges. For the Jews additionally provided, as traders, a better range of goods in the towns or helped the princes with their financial affairs, bailing them out on many an occasion. The princes were well aware of this. Besides the already existing trade envy of the townsfolk towards the Jews, this not infrequently aroused additional resentment and dislike precisely because of their proximity to the prince as his protégés. And the tense situation between the towns -- particularly Rostock and Wismar -- and the princes contributed its share as well.
Jewish life developed nonetheless, although in most towns only a few families were resident. At most in Parchim and Krakow am See did notably large Jewish communities emerge during this first period.
All of this ended, however, with the onset of the plague in the mid-14th century. Scapegoats were quickly sought, as the extent of the suffering could not be explained. The Jews were accused of having poisoned the rivers and wells. Thus, for example, as early as 1350 a temporary expulsion of the Jews from the towns of Wismar and Rostock took place, for whom the pretext was convenient in any case. In the course of this, several violent incidents were to occur in the following years. In Krakow am See, an alleged host desecration around 1325 led to the accused Jews being broken on the wheel on the local Joernberg, and also in Guestrow, riots against resident Jews occurred for the same reason in 1330, ending in the burning of the "guilty" and the destruction of their synagogue.
Well preserved and documented is the alleged Sternberg host desecration of 1492, when in the Mecklenburg town of Sternberg 27 Jews were burned at the stake. This Sternberg incident ultimately led in 1492 to the final banishment of all Jews from Mecklenburg.