Hansebelt e.V. is a German business association working to increase cooperation between Northern Germany and Scandinavia. The association’s name also reveals a romantic relationship with the old Hanseatic League between the port cities around the Baltic Sea. The association’s management has just visited the construction site and the exhibition center in Rødbyhavn. Front woman Astrid Bednarski believes that it is time to get beyond the steppes:
Let us get started
– The tunnel construction is making visible progress. Therefore, it is important in the coming years to make the best possible use of the opportunities that the connection provides for people in the Hanseatic area and thus make the tunnel’s construction a successful project for our region. Let’s work together to get started, says Astrid Bednarski from Hansebelt.
If you ask a seasoned Germany-expert like Siegfried Matlok, former editor-in-chief of Der Nordschleswiger, it probably requires a little more work:
Hesitant and cautious Germans
Of course, there will be effects on both sides. But there is not at all the same enthusiasm on the German side. Germans are generally more hesitant and cautious, he says.
When the Germans are a little more reluctant to exploit the business potential of the Fehmarn project, it is not just a question of mentality. There has been relatively great opposition to the project from German environmental organizations such as NABU, and it has received a lot of attention in Germany in general. But also locally in Northern Germany and not least on Fehmarn, there has been something at stake:
Growth is moving from Fehmarn to Lolland
– After all, Fehmarn was a growth area that invested in, among other things, tourism. And back then, Lolland was almost like the GDR. Now it’s the other way around: the growth is on Lolland, and in Burg, on Fehmarn, they are afraid that the tourists will leave, so they have felt that they had something to lose, Siegfried Matlok explains.
German drivers fooled
Another thing that has dampened German enthusiasm is the financing of the Fehmarn link. The standing narrative in Germany is that people have been tricked. It was thought that Danish pension funds, foundations and public funds had to pay for the connection, but instead, it is the German motorists who have to pay. There, is where there is something to talk about in connection with increased Danish-German cooperation.
Not able to speak the same language
– They can’t speak the same language, so it’s not easy. In Northern Germany, people have forgotten how to speak Danish, and the Danes have forgotten how to speak German. Something must be done about that, says Siegfried Matlok.
