The German Baltic coast, from Lübeck to Stralsund

Between the sea and the lagoons

The German Baltic coast runs from west to east, from Lübeck to Stralsund. It is a low coast: sandy beaches, pine woods, a few clay cliffs. You go from a red-brick town to a seaside resort with white villas. Most resorts have their Seebrücke, a long pier out over the sea.

At Travemünde, a path follows the Brodten cliff for 4 kilometres. Across the water, on the Priwall, the Passat lies at her moorings: a four-masted ship from 1911 that rounded Cape Horn 39 times. A car ferry crosses the Trave in a few minutes.

Further east, the Fischland-Darß-Zingst peninsula separates the sea from the Bodden, shallow lagoons. Here you see reed-thatched houses, the painted doors of the old sea captains in Prerow, and the cliff at Ahrenshoop, where painters settled at the end of the 19th century. Between Ahrenshoop and the northern tip, the Darß forest runs down to the Weststrand, a wild beach about 14 kilometres long. The forest and the beach are part of the Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft National Park; you reach them on foot or by bike from the car parks. In autumn, tens of thousands of common cranes spend the night in the lagoons.

Lübeck’s Marienkirche, completed around 1351, served as the model for some seventy brick churches around the Baltic. Its vault rises to 38.5 metres. The Holstentor, the town gate completed in 1478, is the emblem of Lübeck. In Rostock, the Marienkirche houses an astronomical clock from 1472 that still works. Lübeck has been on the World Heritage List since 1987, Wismar and Stralsund since 2002.

From 1648 to the early 19th century, Wismar and Stralsund belonged to Sweden. In 1803, Sweden pledged Wismar to Mecklenburg; it only gave it up for good in 1903.

Heiligendamm and sea bathing

In 1793, the Duke of Mecklenburg founded Heiligendamm, Germany’s oldest seaside resort. Its row of white villas facing the beach earned it the nickname “the white town by the sea”. Kühlungsborn, Warnemünde and Zingst followed, with their balconied villas.

To bring in the bathers, a small steam train linked Bad Doberan to Heiligendamm from 1886, then to what is now Kühlungsborn in 1910. The Molli still runs, all year round. In Bad Doberan, it goes right down the street, between the houses. The easiest thing is to park the van and take the train.

What not to miss

1. 1Schloss BothmerThe largest Baroque palace in Mecklenburg, and its avenue of lime trees trained into arches.
2. 2WismarThe Market Square and the Wassertor, the old harbour gate, filmed in Nosferatu in 1922.
3. 3The Kühlungsborn watchtowerAn East German border guard tower, right by the beach.
4. 4Bad Doberan MinsterThe church of a former Cistercian monastery, with almost all its medieval furnishings.
5. 5The Warnemünde lighthouseA lighthouse from 1898 beside the beach, which you can climb in season.
6. 6The Ozeaneum in StralsundThe museum of the sea, on the harbour, voted European Museum of the Year in 2010.

The German Baltic coast in pictures

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Warnemünde lighthouse and the Teepott, seen from the beach.

The Baltic table

Lübeck is the town of marzipan, made by the Niederegger firm since 1806. In the harbours, people eat Fischbrötchen, bread rolls filled with pickled herring or smoked fish. Sea buckthorn, an orange berry, is drunk as juice or eaten as jam.

For dessert, Rote Grütze is a compote of red berries served with cream. In Stralsund, the Störtebeker brewery is named after a legendary pirate. On the coast, people drink Köm, a caraway spirit.