The line swings to the north northwest to Pasewalk and runs on a mostly straight course through the foothills of Ueckermünder Heide.

In Ferdinandshof the line runs for a few hundred metres through an extension of the Friedländer Große Wiese (a largely drained bog).

Since parts of the line crosses boggy terrain and several small and medium-sized rivers, several bridges and culverts are necessary.

Federal highway B 109 runs between Prenzlau and Greifswald largely parallel to the line and crosses it six times.

Two years later, Prenzlau sent a deputation to offer a grant equivalent to 30,000–50,000 marks to sway the committee accordingly.

The Prenzlau magistrate, however, succeeded in having a station established at Passow and a highway constructed between the two towns, which at least guarantee the first connection to the line from 1843.

The Pomeranian cities, however, saw an advantage in the route designated as the Northern Railway running through Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

His ministers did not support the construction of a state railway, causing the king to change his mind the same year on 16 November 1853, when he agreed to the construction of three lines in Western Pomerania between Passow and Greifswald, Züssow and Wolgast and Pasewalk and Szczecin.

Only after the approval of the Prussian War Ministry—Stralsund was a fortress at the time—and that of the Vorpommern communal parliament was the line able to continue to Stralsund.

After the final contract was signed on 26 February 1861, actual construction began at several places on 1 August 1861.

Engine shed were also established at the larger stations in Prenzlau and Pasewalk and in Anklam and Greifswald connections were built to ports.

The biggest technical hurdle was the construction of river crossings over the Uecker north of Prenzlau, the Zarow in Ferdinandshof, the Peene at Anklam and the Ryck in Greifswald.

As passenger traffic grew more strongly than was initially expected, the BStE began to run separate trains on these routes a few years later.

As the condition of the line could no longer handle the ever-increasing traffic, Stralsund station was rebuilt in 1905 and the track was duplicated in 1907 and 1908.

In addition, the Karnin Lift Bridge on the line to Świnoujście (German: Swinemünd) was destroyed and the Rügen embankment was damaged.

Shortages were exacerbated by the dismantling of the second track at the direction of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany and the removal of locomotives and wagons as reparations to the USSR in 1947–48.

Together with the freight trains, mainly transporting products of the metal and petroleum industries, the capacity on the single track line was nearly exhausted.

This was mainly needed for heavy freight to the petrochemical complex (Petrolchemisches Kombinat, now PCK Raffinerie) at Schwedt.

A few years after the completion of the second track the new ferry terminal the district of Mukran in Sassnitz was opened originally only for the transport of freight to and from the Soviet Union, bypassing Poland.

To permit an increase in capacity, the line was included in East Germany’s electrification program.

This provided for continuous electrification between Berlin and Sassnitz, including the Angermünde–Stendell and Züssow–Wolgast Hafen lines, with a total length of 340 kilometres.

In 1990/91 the Punktförmige Zugbeeinflussung (PZB, “Indusi”) train protection system was installed on the line.

[8] The entire Berlin–Stralsund–Sassnitz–Angermünde main line was included in the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan (Bundesverkehrswegeplan) in 2003.

In the summer months an additional pair of excursion trains run as the UsedomExpress between Berlin and Seebad Heringsdorf.

The long-distance services stop in Stralsund, Greifswald, Züssow, Anklam, Pasewalk, Prenzlau and Angermünde.

Since 28 March 2011, a pair of Intercity-Express services runs from Monday to Friday at off-peak times between Stralsund and Munich; however, they do not stop in Prenzlau and Bernau due to their low platforms.

Long-distance freight traffic from the Sassnitz-Mukran ferry terminal run mainly at night.

If required, DB Schenker Rail also runs full trains to and from the port of Greifswald (especially oil), Lubmin, the port of Anklam (mainly wood and construction materials), Anklam (sugar), Torgelow (wood) and Prenzlau (mainly construction materials).