Flensburg

Flensburg stands at the sheltered head of its long fjord, near the old overland road through Schleswig. Danish settlers founded the town by 1200 and were joined by German merchants. Its rights were confirmed in 1284. Herring from the fjord brought prosperity: the fish, often smoked, travelled inland and to ports across Europe, while the town maintained close contacts with the Hanseatic merchants.

Queen Margaret I died aboard a ship in Flensburg harbour in 1412. Fire devastated the town in 1485, and plague repeatedly took its toll. In the sixteenth century Flensburg became one of the important trading towns of the Danish realm, with merchants sailing as far as the Mediterranean. The Thirty Years' War interrupted this prosperity. In the eighteenth century trade with the Danish West Indies brought another period of growth, as imported cane sugar was refined locally and the town became known for rum.