Germany’s Baltic Resorts and Attractions

You’ve heard of the French Riviera, the Italian Riviera, and maybe even the Mayan Riviera of Mexico, but how about the German Riviera? Although Germany has no Mediterranean Sea coast it does have coasts on two seas: the North Sea (Nordsee) and the “East Sea” (Ostsee), the Baltic.

Also see Baltic Sea Facts and Trivia below.

Germany’s Baltic coast stretches almost 1500 miles (counting islands and bays) from Flensburg on the Danish border in the west to Świnoujście (Swinemünde) at the German-Polish border on the island of Usedom (Polish Uznam) in the east. Although Germany’s North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts are sometimes referred to as the “German Riviera,” it is mainly the Baltic coast that is semiofficially known as the German Riviera. Particularly Germany’s Mecklenburg coast is promoted as such by the hotel and tourism association known as German Riviera e.V., Mecklenburg.

The Baltic Sea is surrounded by nine countries: Denmark, Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Sweden. IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons

The Mecklenburg Baltic coast that extends from Wismar to Rostock and its Warnemünde port features historic seaside spas and white sand beaches. But the Western Pomeranian coast that runs from Darß, past the island of Rügen, and over to Usedom island also has long been a popular seaside destination for Germans and other Europeans. In addition to two coastal national parks (Jasmund and Vorpommersche Bodenlandschaft), there are beaches, seaside hotels, spas, boardwalks, bike paths, and piers.

The island of Rügen is famous for its scenic white chalk cliffs. Seen here is the 118-meter tall Stubbenkammer cliff in Jasmund National Park. In 2011 Rügen’s thick beech forest was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons

Farther west, the region around Kiel and the Bay of Kiel (Kieler Bucht) in Schleswig-Holstein also has beach resorts on its 240-mile-long (385 km) Baltic coast. The Kiel Regatta (Kieler Woche), the largest sailing event in the world, takes place annually in late June. The Bay of Kiel was the sailing venue for the 1936 and 1972 Summer Olympics. Some of the Baltic beach towns near Kiel have odd-sounding names: Cycling along the Baltic Sea bike path from Laboe, you can visit lovely beachside villages like Kalifornien and Brasilien, before arriving in Schönberg in Holstein (where I found my German grandfather’s birth records), 12 miles (20 km) northeast of Kiel.

The Kiel Canal (Nord-Ostsee-Kanal, NOK, “North [and] Baltic Sea Canal”) is an important 61-mile-long (98 km) shipping link between the Baltic and the North Sea. The canal, first opened in 1895 and later widened, saves vessels about 250 nautical miles (460 km) versus going around the Jutland Peninsula and risking the storm-prone waters of the Danish Straits or the Øresund (the Sound), the two straits that connect the North Sea and the Baltic. There are two main lock installations (Schleusenanlagen), one on the Baltic end (Holtenau/Kiel) and another on the North Sea end (Brunsbüttel/Elbe). Smaller private vessels are allowed to transit the canal only during daylight hours without a pilot. Larger vessels must use an official canal pilot (Kanallotse). Cyclists can enjoy the NOK bike path that runs along the canal (but is longer than the canal itself!) across a mostly flat but scenic landscape. There are some minor hills and the trip by bike takes at least four days with several (free) ferry crossings and overnight stays along the way. Several Radtour companies in Kiel offer NOK bike tour packages for serious cyclists – with various itineraries.

Ahlbeck on the Baltic island of Usedom is the easternmost of three “Imperial Spas” (Kaiserbäder): Ahlbeck, Heringsdorf and Bansin. All three are now part of the community of Heringsdorf. Besides the Ahlbeck pier (since 1898), the resort features scenic houses and mansions in the German Gründerzeit style of architecture. The longest beach promenade in Europe passes through Ahlbeck, spanning more than 7 miles (12 km) from Bansin to Świnoujście (Poland). PHOTO: Zeppelubil/Th. Haft/Torgau (Wikimedia Commons)

All along the German Baltic coast you’ll find many historic and picturesque towns and cities – many of them former Hanseatic cities – from west to east: Flensburg, Kiel, Travemünde/Lübeck, Warnemünde/Rostock, Stralsund, Greifswald, and Zinnowitz. Also scattered along the coast are many smaller, less well-known beach towns with names such as Timmendorfer Strand, Zingst, and Strandbek. Then there are the islands. Germany’s scenic Baltic resort islands include Fehmarn, Darß (actually a peninsula), Rügen, Poel, and Usedom, the second biggest Pomeranian island after Rügen.

Towns on the island of Usedom extend from Peenemünde in the west to Świnoujście in the east. IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons

Baltic Sea Facts and Trivia

The Baltic Sea (German: Baltisches Meer, Baltische See, Ostsee) is unusual in many ways. Did you know that…

• The Baltic is the youngest sea on earth, formed by glacial erosion during the last few ice ages only some 10,000-15,000 years ago.
• The Baltic Sea has virtually no tides, with no more than a few centimeters variation. Stronger tidal variations are found only in the area of the straits where the waters of the North Sea mingle with those of the Baltic.
• The Baltic is the world’s largest inland brackish (low salinity) sea. The salt content falls dramatically from west (1.7%) to east (0.8%). Since salt water is heavier than fresh water, there is a layer of saltier water in the lower levels of the sea.
• The open surface waters of the Baltic are borderline fresh water (0.3 to 0.9% salinity), which is why the Baltic can freeze over in extremely cold winters. Since 1720, the Baltic Sea has frozen over completely 20 times, most recently in early 1987.
• Peenemünde, on the western end of Usedom island in the Baltic, is where German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun developed and tested the world’s first functional large-scale liquid-propellant rocket, the V2. Following the first successful test firing at Peenemünde in October 1942, eventually over 3,000 V2s were launched against targets in England, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands. Today you can visit the Peenemünde Historical Technical Museum on the site of the former test site.

Baltic amber from the coast of southern Sweden. PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons

• The Baltic region is home to the largest known deposits of amber (Bernstein in German). Baltic amber (Baltischer Bernstein) is commonly found in the sand of Baltic beaches, especially in Russia (Kaliningrad) and Poland (Gdansk). Also known as succinite, Baltic amber is fossilized pine tree resin from forests that date from 44 million years ago.
• The Roman historian Tacitus named the Baltic Mare Suebicum after the Germanic people of the Suebi. Other ancient Latin sources also used Mare Germanicum. The first to name it the Baltic Sea (Mare Balticum) was the eleventh-century German chronicler Adam of Bremen.
• The Romance languages use forms of “Baltic” to name the sea: French (Mer Baltique), Italian (Mar Baltico), Portuguese and Spanish (Mar Báltico). Germanic languages, except for English, call the Baltic the “East Sea”: Afrikaans (Oossee), Danish (Østersøen), Dutch (Oostzee), German (Ostsee), Icelandic and Faroese (Eystrasalt), Norwegian (Bokmål: Østersjøen; Nynorsk: Austersjøen), and Swedish (Östersjön).
• The origin of the name “Baltic,” from Latin Balticus, is not entirely certain. Suggested sources include (1) North German balta (“straight”), in reference to the narrow entranceway of the sea; (2) Lithuanian balsas (“white”), possibly related to white sand or chalk cliffs; and (3) Latin balteus (“belt”), referring to the Danish straits, “the Belts.”
• The Baltic is about 990 miles (1,600 km) long, an average of 120 miles (193 km) wide, and an average of 180 feet (55 meters) deep. The maximum measured depth is 1,500 feet (459 m), southeast of Stockholm.
• The Baltic Sea was one of the main trading routes of the Hanseatic League (Hanse), extending from Novgorod (Russia) and Danzig to Lübeck, and beyond to Hamburg and London in the North Sea.
• About 85 million people live around the Baltic Sea, with 15 million living on or near the coast.
• The German term das Baltikum (from Latin Balticum) generally refers to the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – where six million people live. The Balticum is bordered by Russia, Belarus, and Poland. However, not everyone agrees on which nations or regions comprise das Baltikum. The German term dates from the 19th century.
• In a world first, all the sources of pollution around an entire sea were made subject to a single convention, signed in 1974 by the then seven Baltic coastal states. The 1974 Convention went into force on May 3, 1980. Since January 2000, the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), or Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission has tried to protect the fragile sea. The HELCOM signatories are Denmark, Estonia, the European Community, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, and Sweden.
• Despite HELCOM’s efforts, the surrounding coastal countries have not been very successful in balancing economic and social uses with environmental protection of the Baltic. The sea already has dead zones and algae blooms. The challenge is compounded by the fact that the Baltic Sea is one of the most intensively used seas on the planet, and that use is only projected to increase.

My wife and I so far have visited four sections of Germany’s Baltic coast (Kiel and Schönberg, Travemünde/Lübeck, Warnemünde/Rostock, and Usedom), but we hope to add a few more spots in future travels. I hope you, too, will soon enjoy a visit to the German Riviera, if you haven’t already. There are very good rail and road connections from Berlin and Hamburg.

– HF