Village name

Dierhagen was mentioned first as Deerhagen or Thierhagen in the confirmation of the Ribnitzer privileges by Erich of Denmark on  August 16, 1311.
However, with a little bit of fantasy the history could be traced back much further.

"Already 1275, the ownership of the villages Bentwisch, Wustrow and Volkshagen and a village from which on the document only the last two letters "ne" have been preserved by the cloister Dünamünde in Livland (Cistercian monastery Dünamünde close to Riga, Latvia; Livland encompassed the areas of Latvia and Estonia at this time) was confirmed by pope Gregor I. Correlating the Wendish name "Zwerine" and its German translation "Thiergarten" gives the German name "Derhagen", - the old Low German form. In the 16th century this translated in High German into Thierhagen which was been transformed later into Dierhagen. Therefore one might conclude that Dierhagen is nothing but the literal translation of the Wendish "Zwerine", and thus the gap in the document of 1275 mentioned above regarding the Wendish [Zweri]ne could be closed. "[1]

Dierhagen could therefore be a few years older. This, however, would only affect the organization of the forthcoming celebration of the 700th anniversary.
The two parts of the village name relate to two aspects. "hagen" was a common name for places with thick forests which had been cleared for settlement. "Deer" or "Thier" indicates that keeping animals was much more important  than growing grain.
The original village lies along the bicycle track along the Bodden which connects Dierhagen and Dändorf. On the Bodden side of the refuge the wooded area gives an idea of the rather modest expansion of the old village.

[1] translated:  Jahrbücher des Vereins für Mecklenburgische Geschichte und Altertumskunde / Band 32 / Jahrgang 1867, S.62// http://dlib.uni-rostock.de