The nearest larger towns are Kiel (68 km south) and Odense in Denmark (92 km northeast).
Flensburg is Germany's second most northerly town after Westerland on the island of Sylt and it lies about 7 km from the Danish border.
In Germany, Flensburg is known for
the nationwide database of traffic violators
the large erotic mail-order companies Beate Uhse and Orion
its beer Flensburger Pilsener, also called "Flens"
the center of the Danish national minority in Germany
Flensburg is situated in the north of the German stateSchleswig-Holstein, on the German-Danish border. After Westerland on Sylt it is Germany's northernmost town. Flensburg lies at the innermost tip of the Flensburg Fjord, an inlet of the Baltic Sea. Flensburg's eastern shore is part of the Angeln peninsula.
Neighbouring municipalities
Clockwise from the northeast, beginning at the German side of the Flensburg Fjord, the following communities in Schleswig-Flensburg district and Denmark's South Jutland County all border on Flensburg:
The town of Flensburg is divided into 13 communities, which themselves are further divided into 38 statistical areas. Constituent communities have a two-place number and the statistical areas a three-place number.
The communities with their statistical areas:
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01 Altstadt (Old Town) Lies somewhat down towards the sea rather than right downtown.
011 St. Nikolai
012 St. Marien
013 Nordertor
02 Neustadt (New Town)
021 Duburg
022 Nord
03 Nordstadt
031 Kreuz
032 Galwik
033 Klues
04 Westliche Höhe
041 Stadtpark
042 Marienhölzung
043 St. Gertrud
044 Friedhof
05 Friesischer Berg
051 Exe
052 Museumsberg
053 Friedenshügel
06 Weiche
061 Sophienhof
062 Schäferhaus
07 Südstadt
071 Martinsberg
072 Rude
073 Peelwatt
08 Sandberg
081 Achter de Möhl
082 Adelbylund
083 Sünderup
09 Jürgensby
091 St. Johannis
092 St. Jürgen
093 Jürgensgaard
094 Sender
10 Fruerlund
101 Blasberg
102 Bohlberg
103 Hof
11 Mürwik
111 Stützpunkt
112 Osbek
113 Wasserloos
114 Friedheim
115 Solitüde
12 Engelsby
121 Süd
122 Vogelsang
13 Tarup
130 Tarup
History
Middle Ages
Flensburg had been founded at the latest by 1200 at the innermost end of the Flensburg Fjord by Danish settlers. In 1284, its town rights were confirmed and the town quickly rose to become one of the most important in the Duchy of Schleswig. Unlike Holstein, however, Schleswig did not belong to the German Empire. Flensburg was not a member of the Hanseatic League, but it did maintain contacts with this important trading network.
Historians presume that there were several reasons for choosing this spot as a townsite:
Shelter from heavy winds
Trade route between Holstein and North Jutland (namely the Ochsenweg or "Oxway", a name for a series of roads between Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland, possibly dating from the Bronze Age)
Herrings, especially kippered, were what brought about the blossoming of the town's trade in the Middle Ages. They were sent inland and to almost every European country.
From time to time plagues such as bubonic plague, caused mainly by rat fleas (Xenopsylla cheopis – a parasite found on brown rats), "red" dysentery and other scourges killed a great deal of Flensburg's population. Lepers were strictly isolated, namely at the St.-Jürgen-Hospital (built before 1290), which lay far outside the town's gates, where the St. Jürgen Church is nowadays. About 1500, syphilis also appeared. The church hospital "Zum Heiligen Geist" ("To the Holy Ghost") stood in Große Straße, now Flensburg's pedestrian precinct.
A Flensburger's everyday life was very hard, and the old transportation routes were bad. The main streets were neither paved nor lit at night. When they got too bad, citizens had to make the dung-filled streets passable with wooden pathways. Only the few upper-class houses had windows.
In 1485, a great fire struck Flensburg. Even storm tides beset the town at times.
Every household in the town kept livestock in the house and the yard. Townsfolk furthermore had their own cowherds and a swineherd.
Early modern times
After the Hanse fell in the 16th century, Flensburg was said to be one of the most important trading towns in the Scandinavian area. Even as far away as the Mediterranean, Greenland and the Caribbean, Flensburg merchants were active. The most important commodities, after herring, were sugar and whale oil, the latter from whaling off Greenland. Only the Thirty Years' War put an end to this boom time as the town was becoming Protestant and thereby ever more German culturally and linguistically, while the neighbouring countryside remained decidedly Danish.
The rum blended in Flensburg then became a secondary industry in West Indian trade, and as of 1864 no longer with the Danish West Indies, but rather with Jamaica, then ruled by the British. It was imported from there, blended, and sold all over Europe. There is nowadays only one active rum distillery in Flensburg, "A. H. Johannsen".
History as a German town
Between 1460 and 1864, Flensburg was, after Copenhagen, the second biggest port in the Kingdom of Denmark, but passed to Prussia after the Second War of Schleswig in 1864. There is still, however, a considerable Danish community in the town today. Estimates put the percentage of Flensburgers who belong to it as high as 25%. Before 1864, it was more than 70%, witnessed even today by the great number of Danish surnames in the Flensburg telephone directory (Asmussen, Claussen, Jacobsen, Jensen, Petersen, etc.). The upper classes and the learned at that time, however, were already German, and since 1864, the German language has prevailed in the town.
On 1 April1889, Flensburg became an independent town (kreisfreie Stadt) within Schleswig-Holstein, and at the same time still kept its status as seat of the Flensburg district. In 1920, the League of Nations decided that the matter of the German-Danish border would be settled by a vote. As a result of the plebiscite, and the way the voting zones were laid out, some of Flensburg's northern neighbourhoods had to be ceded to Denmark, whereas Flensburg as a whole voted with a great majority to stay in Germany.
In return for this great pro-German majority, the town of Flensburg was given a great event hall, the "Deutsches Haus", which was endowed by the government as "thanks for German loyalty".
During the Second World War, the town was left almost unscathed by the raids that laid other German cities waste. However, in 1943, 20 children died when their nursery school was bombarded, and shortly after the war ended, an explosion at a local munitions storage site claimed many victims.
In 1945, Admiral Karl Dönitz, who was briefly President of Germany once Adolf Hitler had appointed him his successor and then killed himself, fled to Flensburg with what was left of his government where they were arrested and unseated at the Navy School in Mürwik by British troops. Flensburg was thereby, for a few weeks, the seat of the last Reich government, and also Germany's capital.
Since the Second World War
After the Second World War, the town's population broke the 100,000 mark for a short time, thereby making Flensburg a city (Großstadt) under one traditional definition. The population later sank below that mark, however.
In the years after the Second World War, there was in South Schleswig, and particularly in Flensburg a strong pro-Danish movement connected with the idea of the "Eider Danes". Their goal was for the town, and indeed all of Schleswig – the whole area north of the river Eider – to be united with Denmark. In the years following 1945, Flensburg's town council was dominated by Danish parties, and the town had a Danish mayor.
The town of Flensburg profited from the planned location of military installations. Since German Reunification, the number of soldiers has dropped to about 8,000. Since Denmark's entry into the European Economic Community (now the European Union), border trade has played an important rôle in Flensburg's economic life. Some Danish businesses, such as Danfoss, have set up shop just south of the border for tax reasons.
In 1970, Flensburg district was expanded to include the municipalities in the Amt of Medelby, formerly in Südtondern district, and in 1974 it was united with Schleswig district to form the district of Schleswig-Flensburg, whose district seat was the town of Schleswig. Flensburg thereby lost its function as a district seat, but it remained an independent (district-free) town.
Amalgamations
Until the middle of the 19th century Flensburg's municipal area comprised a total area of 2 639 ha. Beginning in 1874, however, the following communities or rural areas (Gemarkungen) were annexed to the town of Flensburg:
Year
Place(s)
Area added in ha
1874 Süder- and Norder-St. Jürgen 36
1874 Fischerhof 3
27 July 1875 Duburg 10.5
1877 Hohlwege and Bredeberg 5.5
1 December 1900 Jürgensgaarde 205
1 April 1909 Klues 19
1 April 1910 Twedt, Twedterholz/Fruerlund and Engelsby 1458
1916 part of Kluesries Forest (incl. open waters) 146.5
26 April 1970 Adelbylund 132
10 February 1971 demerger of Wassersleben Beach -147.5
22 March 1974 Sünderup and Tarup ?
Population development
Population figures are for respective municipal areas through time. Until 1870, figures are mostly estimates, and thereafter census results (¹) or official projections from either statistical offices or the town administration itself.
The Danish minority in Flensburg and the surrounding towns run their own schools, libraries and Lutheran churches but do not exclude themselves from the German majority. Rather than that, the co-existence of these two groups is considered a sound and healthy symbiosis.
In Denmark, Flensburg seems to be mainly associated with its duty-free shops where, amongst other things, spirits, beer and candy can be purchased at cheaper prices than in Denmark. However, owing to the vagaries of the money markets, the bargains are not as great as they once were.
Politics
The town council was led for centuries by two mayors, one for the north town (St. Marien) and the other for the south town (St. Nikolai and St. Johannis). The council members and the mayors were chosen by the council itself, that is, retiring officials had their successors named by the remaining councillors in such a way that both halves of the town had as many members. These councillors usually bore the title "Senator".
This "town government" lasted until 1742 when the "northern mayor" was made the "directing mayor" by the Danish King. From this position came what was later known as the First Mayor. The second mayor simply bore the title "mayor" ("Bürgermeister"). After the town had been ceded to Prussia, the mayors were elected by the townsfolk as of 1870, and the First Mayor was given the title Oberbürgermeister, still the usual title in German towns and cities. During the Third Reich, the town head was appointed by those who held power locally at the time.
In 1945, after the Second World War, a twofold leadership based on a British model was introduced. Heading the town stood foremost the Oberbürgermeister, who was chosen by town council and whose job was as chairman of council and the municipality. Next to him was an Oberstadtdirektor ("Higher Town Director") who was leader of administration. In 1950, when Schleswig-Holstein brought its new laws for municipalities into force, the title Oberbürgermeister was transferred (once again) to this latter official. At first, and for a while, he was chosen by council. Since that time, the former official has been called the Stadtpräsident ("Town President"), and is likewise chosen by council after each municipal election. However, since 1999, the Oberbürgermeister has been chosen directly by the voters as once before.
The first directly elected OberbürgermeisterHermann Stell died on 4 May2004 of a stroke. On 14 November of the same year, the independent candidate suggested by the CDU Klaus Tscheuschner was elected to replace Stell with 59% of the vote. Since the last municipal election in 2003, Hans Hermann Laturnus has been Flensburg's Stadtpräsident.
Represented on Flensburg town council are the CDU, the SPD, the South Schleswig Voters' League (Südschleswigscher Wählerverband) and the Greens.
Coat of arms
Flensburg's coat of arms shows in gold above blue and silver waves rising to the left a six-sided red tower with a blue pointed roof breaking out of which, one above the other are the two lions of Schleswig and Denmark; above is a red shield with the silver Holsatian nettle leaf on it. The town's flag is blue, overlaid with the coat of arms in colour.
The lions symbolize Schleswig, and the nettle leaf Holstein, thus expressing the town's unity with these two historic lands. The tower recalls Flensburg's old town rights and the old castle that was the town's namesake (Burg means "castle" in German). The waves refer to the town's position on the Flensburg Fjord.
The coat of arms was granted the town by King Wilhelm II of Prussia in 1901, and once again in modified, newly approved form on 19 January1937 by Schleswig-Holstein's High President (Oberpräsident)
Town partnerships
Flensburg maintains partnerships with the following towns:
West of Flensburg runs the A 7 Autobahn, leading north to the Danish border, whence it continues as European route E45. Furthermore, Federal Highways (Bundesstraßen) B 200 and B 199 pass through the municipal area.
Also west of the town lies the Flensburg-Schäferhaus airport.
Local transport is provided by several buslines such as "Aktiv Bus GmbH" and "Allgemeinen Flensburger Autobus Gesellschaft" (AFAG) along with others. They all operate within an integrated fare system within the Flensburg transport community (Verkehrsgemeinschaft Flensburg). They also all subscribe to the Schleswig-Holstein tariff system whereby anyone travelling from anywhere in Schleswig-Holstein or Hamburg may use Flensburg buses free to connect with their final destinations. It works both ways, of course, and a rider boarding any bus in Flensburg need only name his destination anywhere in Schleswig-Holstein or Hamburg, pay his fare, and travel all the way to that destination on the one ticket.
Flansburg's main railway station as lain since 1929 south of the Old Town. From there, trains run on the mainline joining Hamburg, Neumünster and Fredericia, among them some InterCity connections as well as trains serving the line running to Eckernförde and Kiel. Another stop for regional trains to Neumünster is to be found in Flensburg-Weiche. The stretch of line to Niebüll has been out of service since 1981, efforts to open it again notwithstanding. The secondary line to Husum and the lesser lines to Kappeln and Satrup no longer exist. Even the tramway, which opened in 1881 to horse-drawn trams, was electrified in 1906 and at one point ran four lines was replaced with buses in 1973.
Established businesses
A.H. Johannsen (Flensburg's last and oldest rum house)
In Flensburg, the "Flensburger Tageblatt", from the Schleswig-Holsteinischer Zeitungsverlag (newspaper publisher) is published daily, as is the bilingual (German and Danish) Flensborg Avis. There are also two weekly advertising flyers, "MoinMoin" (named for a common regional greeting) and "Wochenschau" (roughly "A Look at the Week") as well as an illustrated town paper ("Flensburg Journal"), the Flensburg "campus newspaper" and a town magazine ("Partout").
Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) runs one of its oldest studios right near the Deutsches Haus.
Flensburg is the site of a number of radio transmission facilities: on the Fuchsberg in the community of Engelsby, Norddeutscher Rundfunk runs a transmission facility for VHF, television and medium wave. A cage aerial is mounted on a 215 m-high guyed, earthed steel-lattice mast. This transmitter is successor to the Flensburg transmitter through which the announcement of Germany's surrender was broadcast on 8 May1945.
From the broadcasting tower at Flensburg-Freienwill come the countrywide VHF radio programmes of R.SH, delta radio, Deutschlandfunk and Deutschlandradio.
Flensburg has no local transmitter of its own. Schleswig-Holstein's state broadcasting laws only allow transmitters that broadcast statewide. From 1993 to 1996, "Radio Flensburg" tried to establish a local Flensburg radio station by using a local transmitter just across the border in Denmark. It had to be shut down, however, owing to the Danish transmitter's own financial problems.
The "Offener Kanal" ("Open Channel") shows programmes made by local citizens seven days a week, mostly in the evenings, and can also be seen on cable television.
Public institutions
Flensburg is home to the following institutions:
Handwerkskammer Flensburg ("Handicraft Chamber")
IHK Flensburg ("Chamber of Industry and Trade")
Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (government office in charge of road traffic)
Education
University of Flensburg with about 4,000 students; founded in 1946 as a Pedagogical College, raised to university in 1994. Unlike the University of Kiel, however, it is not a full university – theology, medicine, law and some other programmes are not offered here. The college does, however, have the right to confer doctorates.
Fachhochschule Flensburg, a Fachhochschule with more than 3,000 students; in 1886 a royal steamship machinist school was established, out of which developed a ship's engineers' school. From this grew the Fachhochschule for Technology, which was converted into the current Fachhochschule Flensburg in 1973, at which time the economics programme was also introduced.
Marineschule Mürwik (naval school), German Navy officers' children are trained here.
Also on hand in Flensburg is a complete range of training and professional schools, including a number of Danish ones. Flensburg is home to Schleswig-Holstein's Central State Library, a university library, a town bookshop and the Danish Central Library for South Schleswig. The last named offers not only intensive courses in Danish, but also, with its "Schleswigsche Sammlung" collection, a vast repository of unique material about the border area's history and culture. Flensburg has an extensive town archive. The Danish minority's archive is housed at the Danish Central Library.
Culture and sightseeing
Theatre
Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landestheater (at the Stadttheater) and Symphony Orchestra
Niederdeutsche Bühne der Stadt Flensburg ("Low German Stage of the city of Flensburg")
Dänisches Theater (Det Lille Teater)
Theaterwerkstatt Pilkentafel ("Theatre Workshop")
Orpheus-Theater
Archives and libraries
Town Archive, very comprehensive collection, at the town hall
Dansk Centralbibliotek for Sydslesvig, with archive of the Danish minority and Schleswig book collection
Town library
State Central Library and Zentrale Hochschulbibliothek (Central College Library)
Museums
Museumsberg – Museum for artistic and cultural history.
Schifffahrtsmuseum – Museum for shipping and shipbuilding.
Rummuseum – History of the "Rum Town" of Flensburg.
Naturwissenschaftliches Museum – Animal and plant worlds of northern Schleswig-Holstein.
Museumshafen – Private initiative for maintaining old sailing ships Segelschiffe.
Museumswerft – Shipbuilding (sail) of bygone centuries for children.
Fischereimuseum – Initiative of the fishery association, lies on the old Fischery harbour.
Phänomenta – For experiencing and understanding nature and technology.
Salondampfer "Alexandra" – Förderverein zur Wiederinbetriebnahme des Dampfers von 1908.
Gerichtshistorische Sammlung – a collection of legal history at the Flensburg State Court.
Bergmühle – Association for maintaining the historic windmill from 1792.
Johannesburger Heimatstube – Documents, pictures and writings from East Prussia.
Buildings
Flensburg has a well preserved Old Town with many things to see from centuries gone by. Characteristic is the row along the waterfront. Three of the four old town cores are found along this north-south axis. The building boom in Imperial times led to a partial rebuilding of the Old Town, but without destroying its structure, and rather leading to notable expansion of the town. Virtually unscathed in the Second World War, Flensburg, like other places in Germany, adopted a policy of getting rid of old buildings and building anew in the style of the times. This trend was limited in Flensburg by a lack of money, but before the policy was finally stopped in the late 1970s, countless old buildings had been demolished in the north and east Old Town to be replaced by newer structures. Despite great losses, Flensburg still comes across as having a compact, well preserved Old Town in the valley with good additions to what was built in the founders' time on the surrounding heights.
Deutsches Haus, gathering and event hall in the town core
Hauptbahnhof (Main Railway Station), completed in 1929
Town Hall, seventeen-floor cube from 1964, in 1997 totally renovated, popularly known as the "Umzugskarton" ("Moving Carton")
Altes Gymnasium, built in 1914, Flensburg's oldest Gymnasium, founded in 1566 as "Gymnasium trilingue" (Latin, Greek, Hebrew)
Duborg Skolen, Germany's only Danish Gymnasium, as well as other school buildings
West Indies Warehouse
Lost buildings
Gertrudenkirche, church in the Ramsharde (former neighbourhood where Neustadt now stands), folded after the Reformation, graveyard maintained until 1822
Jürgen-Hospital, abandoned after the Reformation, the new St. Jürgen-Kirche stands there today
Old Town Hall, 15th century, demolished in 1883
Government building, appellate court and house of the estates, from 1850 to 1864 political centre of the Duchy of Schleswig, gave way to a department store in 1964
Speicher Johannisstraße 78 (warehouse), bombed in 1945
Town fortifications
Flensburger Löwe (lion statue), unveiled 1862 today in Copenhagen, copy in Berlin
"Flensburg".
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