city wall to the facilities of the new Lloydbahnhof Railway Station (now Hauptbahnhof). It was designed as a living quarter and consists mostly of large single houses, once inhabited by wealthy citizens.
2. Kr�peliner-Tor-Vorstadt in the west, designed to house the working population as well as smaller and larger industrial facilities such as Mahn & Ohlerich's Brewery (now Hanseatische Brauerei Rostock). The main shipyard, Neptun was just nearby at the shore of the river.
In the 20th century, important aircraft manufacturing facilities were situated in the city, such as the Arado Flugzeugwerke in Warnem�nde and the Heinkel Works with facilities at various places. It was at their facilities in Rostock-Marienehe that the world's first jet plane made its test flights. Aeroplane construction ceased at the end of the Second World War.
Large parts of the central city were destroyed in World War II by Allied bombing in 1942 and 1944. Through reconstruction and subsequent extension, the city became a major industrial centre of the German Democratic Republic with the port being developed as the primary gate to the world. Much of the historic centre has been faithfully rebuilt and much of its historic character restored. This includes several buildings characterised by vertical brick ribs, a style common to the Hanseatic towns.
Following the reunification of Germany in 1990, Rostock lost its prior privileged position as the principal overseas port of the former GDR and became one of several German ports, now located in one of the least industrialised regions of reunited Germany. Despite large infrastructure investments, the city's economy declined in the 1990s but is now growing again.
Rostock's population dropped from nearly 260,000 in 1989 to about 200,000 today, primarily due to sub urbanisation but also due to emigration to more prosperous western regions of Germany
