City Portrait Kiel

A fresh sea breeze, fluttering pennants and full sails -- when summer arrives in Kiel, the international world of sailing gathers here for the Kiel Week sailing festival. Some three million guests pour into the city to gape at the impressive ships and watch the regattas.

Kiel, the capital of the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, is situated at the tip of a peninsula directly on the Baltic Sea. Shipyards and sailors were traditionally an integral part of life here. Today, however, Kiel hardly resembles the romantic old port city it once was.

During the Second World War, the city was almost completely destroyed and buildings from the 1960s and 1970s, modern shipyards and a huge harbor dominate the city today. Many tourists in Kiel are simply passing through, on their way to Scandinavia, but the long, sandy beaches just outside the city make Kiel a worthwhile destination in itself.

Bottoms up

Oddly enough, the largest employer in the city of 250,000 residents has little to do with shipbuilding. With total enrollment at nearly 30,000, the universities are the major source of income.

Kiel, however, is not your typical university town. You can still down a beer in the evening with the sailors and salty seadogs without being asked to show your ID.