Prodomo Flensburg

Harbour

by IceBear7

I just love cities built by the water, and Flensburg has its water right in its heart. It's called the Förde and is something like a natural canal running for a few miles to the Baltic Sea.

There are no big ships in the city center harbour area, just some old museum ships (like the Marie in the picture), small yachts, rowing boats and some boats doing excursions around the Förde for tourists (I'll do it during my next visit).

The people of Flensburg were a great seafaring people, very prosperous for many centuries. And with their trips to the caribbean they brought the rum to Germany (and to Denmark and to other places..).

Today there are still some shipbuilding and repairing companies, but only few of the inhabitants of the city are seafarers. But they live with the sea, and it's only a few kilometers to some great beaches - not sunny caribbean style, but rough and lonely and great for flying kites!

Northern bordercity

by Obak81

"Flensburg (Flensborg)"

Flensburg is a curious mixture of old and new, and of German and Danish culture. Prior to the Prussian-Danish war in the 1860'ties the city was under the Danish crown. In the post WWI reunification of the Southern part of Jutland with Denmark the elections ended up with Flensburg staying German with a relatively large danish minority. This Danish minority has since then kept active in the cultural life of Flensburg, and you can find danish shops and also a danish newspaper.
During the WWII the city (as most parts of Schleswig-Holstein) went free of allied bombing raids thereby preserving the atmosphere of this old merchant city.
Today many danes go to the city (and especially the many bordershops) to buy especially alcohol and other goods that are cheaper in Germany in comparison to Danish prices.