The town was founded in the 11th century as Racisburg. The name is traditionally derived from the local
Wendish ruler, Prince
Ratibor of the
Polabians, who was nicknamed Ratse. In the year 1044 Christian missionaries under the leadership of the monk came into the region and built a monastery. It was destroyed in a
pagan rebellion in 1066; the monks were stoned to death. Today monuments to the missionaries in two of the town's churches commemorate these events. Ansverus was canonised in the 12th century and his relics were entombed in the Ratzeburg cathedral.
Henry the Lion became the ruler of the town in 1143 and established a
bishopric in 1154. He was also responsible for the construction of the late
Romanesque Cathedral (
Dom), built in typical north German 'red-brick' style. Henry also prompted the construction of the similar-looking
Lübeck Cathedral and
Brunswick Collegiate Church with his remains interred in the latter. Since 1180 part of Ratzeburg diocesan area formed a
Prince Bishopric, whose ruler was sovereign and as such had a vote at the
Imperial Diet. The
Prince-Bishopric of Ratzeburg was the last state in
Northern Germany remaining Catholic. After the 1550 death of its ruler Prince-Bishop
Georg von Blumenthal, who feuded with
Thomas Aderpul, the bishopric converted to
Lutheranism in 1554. Though the town of Ratzeburg was part of the Ratzeburg diocese, the town itself was not within the territory of the Prince-Bishopric of Ratzeburg, but formed a part of the old
Duchy of Saxony and became part of its dynastic partition of
Saxe-Lauenburg around 1296, remaining with this duchy under altering dynasties until 1876. The cathedral quarter again formed an
immunity district (
Domfreiheit; cf. also
Liberty) to the prince-bishopric, secularised as a principality in 1648. In 1619 Saxe-Lauenburg's capital was moved from
Lauenburg upon Elbe to Ratzeburg and remained there since. The town was almost completely destroyed in 1693, when
Christian V of Denmark reduced Ratzeburg to rubble by
bombardment in his unsuccessful attempt to push through his succession to the dukedom against the prevailing
House of Hanover. After this event Ratzeburg was rebuilt in
baroque style. The castle, however, was never reconstructed or built anew. Ratzeburg briefly was part of the
First French Empire during the
Napoleonic Wars, afterwards the Duchy of (Saxe-)Lauenburg was awarded in
personal union to the
Danish crown in the
Congress of Vienna. After the Danish crown lost Lauenburg in the
Second Schleswig War (1864), Lauenburg's
estates of the realm offered the dukedom to the Prussian
Hohenzollern dynasty in personal union, who accepted in 1865. On 1 July 1876 the Duchy of Lauenburg merged into the
Kingdom of Prussia's
Province of Schleswig-Holstein, forming the still existing district
Herzogtum Lauenburg (Duchy of Lauenburg) seated in Ratzeburg. The former cathedral immunity district, at last a part of
Mecklenburg, finally became part of the town of Ratzeburg with the 1937
Greater Hamburg Act. From 1945 to 1989 the
Iron Curtain ran just east of the town, putting it on the border with the
German Democratic Republic. ==Sport==