In 1160 Henry the Lion conquered the region; afterwards German monks, peasants and traders arrived to settle here.The worst time in regional history was the Thirty Years' War, which depopulated the area almost completely.In 1793 the bathing resort of Heiligendamm (today a borough of Bad Doberan) was established, and the region became a summer residence for the dukes of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.The district comprised a 62 km coastline along the Baltic Sea and its hinterland on both banks of the Warnow River.The subdivisions of the district were (situation August 2011): Media related to Landkreis Bad Doberan at Wikimedia Commons