Alter Schwede, Gothic town house in Wismar, Germany.

The Alter Schwede is Wismar's oldest burgher house, built around 1380 in the late Brick Gothic style on the market square. Its stepped gable marks it as a patrician house; the ground floor held living and business rooms, the upper floors served as storage. A Swedish head sits in the portal above the entrance door.

Built around 1380 in the late Brick Gothic style on Wismar's market square, the house is the oldest burgher's house in the Hanseatic city. Its ground floor held living and business rooms, while the upper storeys served as storage. In 1878 an inn opened in the building for the first time, and in 1977, during the GDR era, it was extensively restored.

The building shows how prosperous merchants lived and worked in those times, with living quarters above a business area. The rooms tell of a life closely tied to commerce and the sea.

The Alter Schwede stands directly on Wismar's Marktplatz, next to the Markt 15 building known as the Kommandantenhaus. It is part of the old town inscribed by UNESCO on 29 June 2002 together with Stralsund. The building has housed a restaurant since 1878 and is still used as one today.

The name was coined in the 19th century, during the reappraisal of Wismar's Swedish period, not during Swedish rule itself. One of the Swedish heads on the portal above the entrance door points to this. The Swedish era ended in 1803.