Researchers have mapped visions and concerns on both sides of the Fehmarnbelt. The book portrays a region where logistics, energy, industry and housing are gaining importance, while Denmark and Germany approach development from very different starting points.
The Fehmarnbelt link is bringing the region closer together on the map. Travel times will be shorter, and the fixed link is expected to strengthen the corridor between Scandinavia and Central Europe. Yet a new book on developments on both sides of the belt shows that a common direction for the region remains difficult to identify.
In the book “Visions from the Fehmarnbelt Region”, researchers and planners portray a region where the fixed link is already influencing plans for logistics, energy, industry and housing. But development is not moving in one single direction. Projects associated with growth and the green transition are also raising local questions about land use, landscapes, noise and everyday life.
The book cover
The book is the result of the Fehmarn BELT Plan & Network Initiative, a collaboration between Roskilde University, Technische Hochschule Lübeck and Rural Agency, supported by Interreg Germany-Denmark. It is based on three years of fieldwork, interviews, workshops and visits to towns, villages, harbours, former industrial areas and planning departments on both sides of the Fehmarnbelt.
A common direction is missing
One of the book’s central messages is that the Fehmarnbelt Region is still a region in the making. It exists on maps, in strategies and in political visions, but it does not yet function as one coherent development area. Instead, it is shaped by many different actors pursuing their own interests: municipalities, state authorities, investors, energy companies, logistics players, cultural actors, citizens and local protest groups.
That makes the Fehmarnbelt link more than a transport project. It has also become the starting point for a broader discussion about how land, harbours, towns and landscapes should be used in the years ahead. The book describes how logistics and energy are often discussed in broad terms such as growth, green transition and cohesion. In practice, however, the development appears as concrete interventions in the physical environment: solar parks, factories, noise barriers, construction sites and new industrial areas.
Danish expectations
On the Danish side of the corridor, the changes are already visible. Along the motorway, new industrial and logistics areas are emerging, and in several places solar parks have replaced former farmland. The projects are linked to expectations of increased trade, electrified transport, green energy and a stronger position between Scandinavia and the European mainland.
At the same time, the book shows that this development is creating local resistance. On Lolland, some residents refer to the large solar parks as “iron fields”, because the installations change the landscape and alter the familiar sense of place. In that way, the green transition also becomes a question of local acceptance, land use and the distribution of benefits and burdens.
Near Rødbyhavn, the book points to the tunnel factory and the large construction site as another example of how temporary construction areas can leave lasting traces. The site was created for the tunnel project, but the discussion is also about what should remain when the construction phase is over. This points to a central economic policy challenge: How can a historic construction project be translated into lasting local activity once the actual building work moves on?
German resistance
On the German side, the conflict takes a different form. In Bad Schwartau north of Lübeck, residents have protested against plans for a high noise barrier along the railway line. The barrier is linked to the future rail connection to the tunnel. Here, the issue is how a European transport corridor moves right up against residential areas and everyday life. A link described in strategies as a boost for mobility and trade is experienced locally through noise, barriers and changed urban spaces.
The book also points to a fundamental difference between Denmark and Germany. On the Danish side, municipalities have relatively wide scope to work with land use, business development and urban development within national frameworks. On the German side, spatial planning is organised across several levels between the federal government, the state, the region and the municipalities. This creates different processes, different speeds and different opportunities to turn visions into concrete projects.
For business development in the Fehmarnbelt Region, that is crucial. The fixed link creates new geographical opportunities, but the book shows that geography alone does not create a coherent region. If companies, investors and municipalities are to use the corridor strategically, they must navigate different planning systems, different local economies and different political expectations on each side of the border.
No shortage of projects
Labour and settlement are another part of the same challenge. The book describes how municipalities in the region are working with housing, urban development and social infrastructure to attract and retain people. It is not only about building homes, but about creating places where employees, families and young people can see themselves living in the long term. Without that foundation, new business areas and investments risk lacking the local base they need in order to function.
From a business perspective, perhaps the most important point in the book is that the Fehmarnbelt Region does not lack projects. What it lacks is a common direction for how those projects should work together. Energy, logistics, industry, housing, culture and local resistance are developing at the same time, but according to different logics and with different interests behind them.
The fixed link can create a new corridor between Denmark and Germany. The book shows that this corridor is already changing the region. What remains open is whether those changes will become a shared economic strength or a series of parallel projects on both sides of the belt.
