Gedser is a town on Falster with 722 inhabitants (2020), located
40 km south of Stubbekøbing, 56 km south of Vordingborg, 17 km south
of Væggerløse and 24 km south of the municipal seat Nykøbing
Falster. The city belongs to Guldborgsund Municipality and is
located in Region Zealand.
Gedser belongs to Gedser Parish,
which until 1 October 2010 was a church district in Gedesby Parish.
Gedser Church from 1915 is located in the city.
Guldborgsund
Municipality has prioritized Gedser as a development area, and both
the city and Gedser Odde are covered by an area renewal program,
which will contribute to creating long-term and sustainable growth
in Gedser.
By train
Gedser has not had a train station since 2011. Train
passengers have to change to the bus service in nearby Nykøbing Falster.
By bus
Regular service with Nykøbing Falster.
In the
street
Coming from the north via the E55 or from the south via the
A19 (Germany, then by ferry).
By boat
From Rostock: 1 1/2
hours several times a day with ScandLines.
By bicycle
The
long-distance cycle route Berlin-Copenhagen (EuroVelo 7) leads through
the town: Coming from the north (Copenhagen) you can reach Gedser via
Nykøbing Falster, where there is also a connection to the Baltic Sea
Cycle Route (EV 10). From the south (Berlin) you can reach the place via
Rostock and Warnemünde (also connection to the EV10), where the ferry
crossing described in the "By ship" section is included.
1 The Sorte Geomuseum, Skolegade 2B. Email: palgeolbot@gmail.com.
Small museum, amber minerals with insects, prehistoric animals. Open:
Summer 2015: July and August, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat and Sun 11 a.m. to
4 p.m. Price: 30 DKK.
2 Gedser Vandtårn. Walk-in water tower.
3
Gedser Coach House (Gedser Railway Museum), Stationsvejen 20, 4874
Gedser. Tel.: +46 28 98 99 80, e-mail: info@gedserremise.dk commons.
Gedser Remise is a railway museum and a small piece of cultural history
from the "Golden Age of Railways" with an exhibition of railway
equipment. In addition to the Danish equipment on display, the depot
also houses the Nordic Railway Club with a Norwegian motor vehicle train
and two units for spare parts. Open: Wed-Sun: 11:00-16:00. Price:
adults: 50,- kr; Children (4-13 years): 25,- kr.
4 Gedser Coach House
(Gedser Railway Museum), Stationsvejen 20, 4874 Gedser. Tel.: +46 28 98
99 80, email: info@gedserremise.dk . Gedser Remise is a railway museum
and a small piece of cultural history from the "Golden Age of Railways"
with an exhibition of railway equipment. In addition to the Danish
equipment on display, the depot also houses the Nordic Railway Club with
a Norwegian motor vehicle train and two units for spare parts. Open:
Wed-Sun: 11:00-16:00. Price: adults: 50,- kr; Children (4-13 years):
25,- kr.
The name "Gedser" is believed to derive from the Old Danish getír
with the meaning "goat herder" and ør. Collectively, the place name thus
means "the goatherd's gravel beach".
Kongsgården
West of the
farm Søvang on Strandvej 33 A there is a rampart where Valdemar Sejr's
royal farm Gjedsergaard or Gjedesgaard was located. Peace negotiations
with Germany took place at Gjedsergaard in 1431, and here Frederik 1st's
daughter, Duchess Elisabeth, died in 1586, when she was on her way home
to Mecklenburg after a visit to Tycho Brahe at Hven.
The meadow
west of the rampart has been a cove, and from the south-west corner of
the rampart a trench led out to the cove. Right from the 13th century,
there was a ship crossing to Rostock here. However, it is said that the
icy winters of 1546 and 1554 were so severe that it was possible to
cross the Baltic Sea in a horse-drawn carriage. Christian IV used to lay
the road over Falster when he went to the Duchies.
Stormfloden
1872
On Sydfalster, only a narrow strip of land was not flooded
during the violent storm surge in November 1872. The water washed away
farms, houses, animals and people and caused many ships to run aground
on the east coast of Falster. 52 people died on Falster. Subsequently, a
17 km long dyke was built along Falster's east coast to protect itself
from the Baltic Sea.
Station and ferry port
In 1884, financier
C.F. Tietgen permission to construct the Nykøbing Falster-Gedser railway
line and a traffic port in Gedser. It was all completed on 1 July 1886.
The Gedserbanen became part of the original Sydbane, where the train
traffic to Germany went.
In 1899, Gedser is not yet described as
an actual town: "At Gjedserodde there is a school and Gjedser Lighthouse
(white, fixed lighthouse; the white, hexagonal lighthouse, built in
1802, stands 1200 Al. within Falster's southeast corner; Fl. height 62 F
., Light width 3 1/4 miles; on a secondary lighthouse, between the main
lighthouse and the coast, Fl. Height is 46 F.) with lighthouse keeper's
residence and telephone. Off Gjedser Reef...is the lighthouse "Gjedser
Reef". Gjedser Railway station... with the harbor (13-14 F. Vand), from
which there is a mail steamer connection with Warnemünde as well as
pilotage and an inn".[4]
The measuring table sheets also show a
poorhouse and a hospital. The hospital must be the quarantine station
that was set up at Kroghage west of the city during the First World War
for possible epidemics. Already in 1892, Gedser was affected by a
cholera epidemic for 2½ months, during which the ferry passengers had to
stay on the ship for 24 hours before they had to come ashore, where they
were disinfected in a house on the middle pier.
In 1903, the mail
steamers on the Warnemünde route were replaced by railway ferries and a
new station building was inaugurated. It was designed by architect
Heinrich Wenck. As military attacks from Germany were feared, the
station was equipped with towers and gun emplacements facing south. In
1926 it became possible to transfer cars with the German ferry
"Schwerin".
At the end of World War II, the ferries were bombed,
and the route was only resumed in 1947 with a Danish ferry. The division
of Germany made it necessary to have a route to West Germany, so in 1951
a ferry connection was established to the railway station Großenbrode
Kai at Femernsund, from where there was a train connection to Hamburg.
Gedser-Großenbrode became the main route, while the route to Warnemünde
in East Germany lived more quietly.
After the Bird Flight Line
With the opening of the Fugleflugtslinjen in 1963, Gedser-Großenbrode
was closed, and the new main route went from Rødbyhavn on Lolland to
Puttgarden on Fehmarn. However, the Norwegian-owned Moltzau Line – after
which Moltzaugade in Gedser is named – created a new route from Gedser
to Travemünde near Lübeck. It was significantly longer than
Rødby-Puttgarden with a sailing time of 3½ hours, but you missed a long
stretch of country road before you got on the German motorway network.
After German reunification in 1990, Moltzau Line, which after
several name changes was now called Europa Linien, discontinued the
route to Travemünde and instead created a route to Rostock's
Überseehafen on the east side of the Warnow river. DSB had also begun to
move its activities over here from the outdated ferry port in Warnemünde
on the west side of the river, and in 1995 DSB closed the
Gedser-Warnemünde route entirely. In 1996, DSB bought Rederi Europa
Linien. Through several mergers, DSB Rederi became part of Scandlines,
which still operates the Gedser-Rostock ferry route.
With the
closure of the Warnemünde route, there was no longer a rail connection
at the other end, so the last international train ran on the Gedserbanen
in 1995. But the intermediate stations of the Gedserbanen had long since
closed, and the line had lost its importance with the Fugleflugtslinjen.
The last regular train ran on the route on 12 December 2009.
The
station building in Gedser has been preserved on Stationsvej 1. The
Gedser Remise Preservation Association exhibits railway equipment in the
depot north of the station, and the members ran vintage trains on the
track until 2015, but now it is so run down that it can no longer be
done. The Gedserbanen is not officially closed.
The yellow track
signal building, known from the film The Olsen gang on the track, was
saved from demolition in Copenhagen and moved to Gedser, where it
attracts thousands of tourists.
Strandloppen is an integrated institution, rated for 10 nursery
children and 20 kindergarten children. It is part of a village scheme
under the management of Sydfalster School in Væggerløse, where the
children normally go to school.
The city has Dagli'Brugs with
over-the-counter sales and library service. Den Gamle Købmandsgård
contains tourist information, bicycle rental and several small
collections and exhibitions. Friday events have been held here since
1985 together with various folk dance associations. Gedser has a hotel,
pizzeria and several restaurants and cafes.
Gedser has a fishing
harbor and a marina. The ferry route Gedser-Rostock runs from the
traffic port. Gedser Redningsstation has a rescue ship, a lifeboat and
an inflatable boat on a trailer.
Gedser is Denmark's southernmost city, 551 km (via the Great Belt
Bridge) from the country's northernmost city Skagen. 3 km southeast of
the city lies Gedser Odde, which is the southernmost point of Falster,
Denmark, Scandinavia and the Nordics, marked with the Sydstenen. On the
headland stands Gedser Lighthouse, which was built in 1802 and is
occasionally open for visitors – the lighthouse keeper's residence is
inhabited, so the lighthouse is usually closed. At Sydstenen, there is
an information center with exhibitions about birdlife, the headland and
the lighthouse.
Gedser Vandtårn is open every day during the
summer months. From here you can see the seals on Rødsand and the
tallest buildings in Rostock and Warnemünde with binoculars. Inside the
city is also Det Sorte Geomuseum, a local geological museum with
fossils, minerals, rocks and amber.
Gedser Idræts- og
Medborgerhus is a cultural center and meeting place as well as a center
for sports activities. Sydfalster Sports Association uses the building
for badminton, boxing fitness, fitness, gymnastics and foam tennis. The
Octopus Association uses it for courses, games, etc.