Tag Archives: maritime

Flensburg Nautics 2012

The coming weekend, 17th to 19th of August, it’s time for the biennial Flensburg Nautics – a celebration of the city’s maritime history. There will be big sail boats visiting and a lot of things going on.

Some of the big ships that are scheduled to visit are:

You can even get on a sail boat yourself to experience first hand the historical activities on a traditional ship. There are short trips (1-2 hours) and long trips available (6 hours). Booking can be done from the page here.

On the harbour you can go see traditional crafts like rope makers, net weavers and carpenters and by some of them you can take part in them their craft. There will be all sorts of foods and drinks you can try. Plus live music from a couple of stages.

Friday the 17th August there will be a ‘parade’ as all the ships arrive and on Sunday around 3pm-4pm they will all leave again in another parade.

Friday night at 11pm there will be a 30-minute fireworks display, which you can enjoy good views of from all around the port.

From what I can tell from the website it might be even bigger than the Rum Regatta we went to earlier this year and that was a great experience.

Flensburg Maritime Museum

On the docks of Flensburg, in a beautiful old merchant’s yard, lies a museum dedicated to the maritime heritage of the city, or Flensburger Schiffahrtsmuseum as it is called in German.

Flensburg used to be in the centre of the Duchy of Schleswig that was under the Danish crown from 1460 to 1864. The city had an excellent location for trade being located at the bottom of a fjord with calm waters connected to the Baltic Sea and right on the main trade route (on The Cattle Road) from Viborg in the north to Hamburg in the south. It was the second biggest port in Denmark after Copenhagen.

From the Middle Ages the fjord was a good place to catch herring and after the collapse of the Hansa trade union Flensburg grew to become one of the most important ports in Scandinavia in the 16th century.

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In the 18th century sugar and rum became big business for the merchants of the city. Flensburg was also part of the triangle trade where crafted goods were shipped to Africa, slaves to the Danish West Indies and sugar and rum back to Flensburg.

Glass of rum

After the war in 1864 Flensburg became Prussian and kept thriving as a mercant harbour until the Kiel Canal open in 1895 and more or less overnight business moved to bigger cities like Copenhagen and Hamburg.

Flensburg’s shipbuilding industry is also covered and it was a big employeer in the area.

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The museum tells these stories with model boats, items and pictures from the various periods. However all text in the museum are only offered in German and Danish so if you are not proficient in either of those languages you will miss out on a lot of context.

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While we were there a barrel maker, his son and wife were working in the courtyard making a huge barrel. There  was also a special room dedicated to diesel engines and modern sailing with a big simulation system for navigating a modern day coaster/tanker.

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The ticket was €6 and if you can read the displays (in German or Danish) you can spend 1-1.5 hour here.

First photo by Stadt Flensburg.