Ludwigslust (district)

District
	Coat of arms
Country	Germany
State	Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
Disbanded	September 2011
Capital	Ludwigslust
Area
• Total	2,517 km2 (972 sq mi)
Population (2001)
• Total	131,292
• Density	52.162/km2 (135.099/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Vehicle registration	LWL
Website	http://www.kreis-lwl.de

Ludwigslust is a former district in the southwest of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. The district is mostly between the Elbe river and the city of Schwerin. It is the largest district of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, but not many people live there.

History

After the German reunification the two districts of Hagenow and Ludwigslust were made. In 1994 both districts with the two Ämter of Rastow and Stralendorf from the district Schwerin-Land were joined to make |100pxtoday's district of Ludwigslust.

Coat of arms

The coat of arms shows a horse in the top, to remember the horse breeding station in Redefin as well as the tradition of horse breeding in the area. The Counts of Schwerin also used a horse as their symbol. The wavy line separating the bottom is for the river Elbe. The three oak leaves in the bottom stand for the three districts which were merged to make up today's district. The colours are from the two historic counties - red-yellow from the county of Schwerin and red-silver-green from the county Dannenberg.