Fehmarn is an island in the southern Baltic Sea, belonging to Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Understand

Fehmarn is a flat island, separated by the Fehmarnbelt from Denmark and by the (much narrower) Fehmarnsund from the German mainland. The island is mostly made up by farmland, and has 12,000 permanent inhabitants. As the island lies along the shortest route between Hamburg and Copenhagen, there are plans to replace the ageing bridge across Fehmarnsund and build a new tunnel under Fehmarnbelt for both motorcars and trains. However, as of 2020, there is not much construction activity and the project is mired in litigation and NIMBY protests on the German side.

Get in

By boat

Fehmarn has a harbour, Puttgarden with very frequent ferries from Rødby in Denmark, operated by Scandlines. Sailings take 45 minutes and there are departures every half-hour both day and night.

By car

The island is connected to mainland Germany by a road bridge.

By train

The island lies along the shortest route from Hamburg to Copenhagen and trains used to be put on the ferry here. The Danish and German sides have agreed to build a bridge-tunnel across the Belt, but Germany is dragging its feet in upgrading the links from the mainland to Fehmarn on their side for the expected traffic. The current line is single track and not electrified for most stretches.

• 1 Puttgarden station. Served by long distance trains which are loaded onto/off the ferry to/from Denmark here.  

See

• Windmühle in Lemkenhafen. Windmill built in 1787 is now a museum. 
• U-Boot (Hafen von Burgstaaken). 
• Wasservogelschutzgebiet Wallnau (Wallnau Waterbird Reserve). 
• Jimmy Hendrix monument, Campingplatz Flügge. This was the site of his last concert. Incidentally Ton Steine Scherben, the Band of Rio Reiser, gave their first concert on the same site and weekend. 
• Fährhafen Puttgarden. 
• Hafen Orth. 

There are 5 lighthouses on Fehmarn.

• 1 Leuchtturm Flügge.  
• 2 Leuchtturm Staberhuk.  
• 3 Leuchtturm Westermarkelsdorf.  
• 4 Leuchtturm Marienleuchte. 
• 5 Leuchtturm Strukkamphuk.  
• 6 Museum Katharienenhof. 
• Peter-Wiepert-Museum. 
• Meereszentrum, Burg. (updated Feb 2016)
• 7 Glambæk castle ruin. Destroyed in the Thirty Years War. (updated Jul 2018)

Do

• Birding

Buy

Fehmarn has several so called border shops that are dedicated to selling consumer goods to tourists from Denmark and Sweden. The border shops are probably the best place in Germany to find candy, soda, cider, beer, liquor and other things produced in Denmark and Sweden at lower prices than in their home market. This is due to the lower excise taxes in Germany, even though the gap is closing in. The deposit-refund systems in the three EU-countries are not compatible, so a proforma export declaration must be submitted and photo-ID must be presented when buying beverages that normally have a deposit paid in Germany. These deposit-refund exempt beverages are only permitted for export to Denmark and Sweden and will not be sold to Germans.

Sleep

• Hotel Dania, Fährhafenstraße 1, 23769 Puttgarden, ☏ +49 4371 866 0, hotel-dania@t-online.de. Hotel Dania is the only multi-storey building in Puttgarden and can be seen for miles. It is like a time capsule, where much of the interior is kept like it was during the 1960s. The room where Jimi Hendrix slept hasn't changed much since then. Make sure you get a room to the seaside with an excellent view. In the season Puttgarden may smell of fertiliser, since there are only fields surrounding this small town. 
• IFA-Hotel, Burgtiefe. 
• Pension Lindenhof, Sulsdorf. 
• Fehmarn Inn. 

Go next

Routes through Fehmarn

Copenhagen ← Rødby ←

N  S

→ Lübeck → Hamburg