The State of Mecklenburg (German: Land Mecklenburg) was a subdivision of the Soviet occupation zone (until 1949) and one of the states of East Germany (from 1949) which corresponds widely to the present-day German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The state was originally formed as an administrative division, the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) in July 1945. It consisted of the 1934-established (a merger by the Nazi Gauleiter Friedrich Hildebrandt of the free states of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz) and parts of the former Prussian provinces of Pommern (Western Pomerania to the Oder–Neisse line) and Hanover (Amt Neuhaus). The city of Swinemünde (now Świnoujście) was handed over to Poland in