After forests were cleared and fields created by immigrant farmers from Lower Saxony, Westphalia and the Lower Rhine or Flemish regions, villages were created in Pomerania under the German Hide Directive.
In Mecklenburg, the immigrants came from Brandenburg, the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and Upper Saxony. Long straggling hamlets, other communities built around village greens and roadside settlements were created under the German Hide Directive. They were often built directly adjacent to Slavic habitations.
