Since time immemorial the development of shipping has been an important requirement and driving force for the opening up of new transport and trading routes in the Baltic region, thus making a crucial contribution to the emergence of today’s economic centres in the countries bordering on the Baltic Sea.
The shipping line Scandlines AG, based in Rostock, is one of the biggest ferry companies in the Baltic. The modern ferries operating on Scandlines’ extensive route network travel between 25 ports in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the three Baltic States.

With the launch of the rail ferry link between Warnemünde and Gedser on 30 September 1903, Danish State Railways and Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Friedrich Franz Railways set a milestone in European rail and shipping history by creating a rail ferry link between German and Scandinavia for the very first time.
Since then, one hundred years have past. The ferry service between Germany and Denmark has, apart from a few interruptions, developed with amazing success.

The commencement of the Warnemünde-Gedser rail ferry service provided the first direct link for international tourist traffic between the two capitals, Copenhagen and Berlin. The Warnemünde-Gedser line was, from the outset, an important transport axis for the exchange of goods between Scandinavia and the European mainland. From the 20s on, the line also provided tremendous impetus for tourism traffic, which was still a very new economic sector at the time.
Around 1930, another modern means of transport took the line by storm – with cars travelling across the Baltic Sea on board the ferries.
Although ferry traffic has been hindered several times over the past 100 years through times of crisis and war, this was not able to stop its continuing development.

The political changes that occurred in 1989/90 provided a new boost to ferry traffic between Germany and Denmark, with the Rostock-Gedser line suddenly finding itself once again at the centre of the Baltic shipping routes.  The partner shipping lines at the time, DFO Deutsche Fährgesellschaft Ostsee mbH and DSB Reederi, which amalgamated under the umbrella of Scandlines AG in July 1998, faced up to the new challenges and promoted the further development of ferry transport.
In 1995, the Baltic resort of Warnemünde bade farewell to “its” ferry services after rail traffic had already been relocated to the “Vogelflug Line”. The construction of a new ferry terminal in the Port of Rostock offered ideal conditions for the future development of the ferry transport segment.
With its continuing expansion of the Rostock-Gedser line within the Scandlines AG route network, the shipping line has set new standards for ferry transport in the Baltic region. Departures every two hours and shorter departure times now make the service extremely attractive for both cargo carriers and tourists. In 2002, this ferry link, so rich in tradition, was used by 1.2 million passengers, more than 200,000 cars and around 62,000 trucks.

In celebration of the line’s 100th anniversary, Scandlines AG is setting the course for still further expansion: by the summer of 2004, the company will drastically reduce the crossing time on the route and increase capacity by fitting more powerful engines to the ferry vessels, the “Kronprins Frederik” and the “Prins Joachim”. Both ships will then make the crossing between Rostock and Gedser in just 100 minutes, instead of the previous 120 minutes, departing every two hours.

For more information about the history of the Rostock-Gedser line, visit the Scandlines website at www.scandlines.de

Rostock, 12 September 2003