Flensburg

Flensburg (Danish: Flensborg) is a city in Schleswig-Holstein located on the east coast. The 90,000 (2018) inhabitants live around the Flensburger Förde (Flensborg fjord). Its main claim to fame besides being a border town is the fact that the central registry for traffic offenses committed throughout Germany is headquartered in Flensburg. While Flensburg, like much of Schleswig Holstein, had received an enormous number of refugees after the war and thus its population jumped above 100 000 in 1945, making it a Großstadt according to the German definition of the term, it had lost this status again by 1952 when the population fell through refugees moving on to more permanent housing. As population has been on the uptick in the 21st century, there is talk locally of achieving the population of 100 000 again in the near future.



Understand
Flensburg has long been a bi- or even trilingual community with a strong Danish minority and a German majority that gradually switched from speaking High German ("Hochdeutsch") only with out-of-towners and speaking Low German ("Niederdeutsch" or "Plattdeutsch") in virtually all other situations to speaking less and less Low German - though there are efforts to preserve the language.

As the Danish border is just across the fjord, virtually all government offices and museums (even smaller ones) will offer their website in German and Danish and often also English. Dutch and Low German historically formed a dialect continuum and written Dutch is close enough to written German that competent speakers of one can make out the gist of a text in the other, but don't count on mutual intelligibility.

Due to the border, many Danes come to Flensburg to buy goods which are either unavailable or more expensive in Denmark, particularly booze, which is highly taxed in the Nordic countries. On the other hand, people from Flensburg like hopping across the border to places like Sønderborg to sight-see or shop.

The tourist information center is in the old town centre.

By bus or train
There are bus and train connections both from Denmark and Hamburg. Search Bahn.de for public connections in Germany, and DSB for Denmark.

By car
Most people arrive here by car. Flensburg is situated at the border of Germany and Denmark, beside the motorway ( in Denmark) leading to Hamburg in the south and to Kolding and further north in Denmark. It's one of the most important routes between the Nordic countries and Central Europe.

By plane
The nearest airports are Hamburg about  away offering a wide array of flights to domestic and international destinations and Sønderborg (, in Denmark   away; flights from Copenhagen only). Hamburg airport is served by the Hamburg S-Bahn and from Hamburg main station direct RE and Intercity trains leave for Flensburg with a travel time a bit under 2 hours. From Sonderborg airport take a taxi to the rail station and then DSB train.

Get around
Walking is the best way to get around in the city centre.

See
Flensburg offers a nice shopping district with old houses and gardens as well as a variety of museums and churches. The harbour is the hosting place for sailing regatta and events.

"Museum mountain"
There are combined tickets for all the museums on "Museum mountain" (which are rather close to each other) which cost €8 for adults and €4 for people who qualify for reduced entry.

Ferries
A nice way to enjoy the maritime atmosphere of Flensburg is to take a tour on one of the 5 different ferries.

Buy


Lots of people arrive in Flensburg from Denmark and the other Nordic countries for shopping. In the old centre of Flensburg are numerous shops along the pedestrian street Holm (Danish: Holmen) and Große Straße.

Malls
Thanks to being close to the border with Denmark and being served by a major Autobahn, the surroundings of Flensburg boast many major malls. Price differences between Denmark and Germany may make a certain item a bargain for Danish people but it might be expensive for Germans.

Budget
All these are in the city centre:



Go next

 * Kiel
 * Lübeck
 * Hamburg
 * Schleswig