Rødby is a town and market town on Lolland with 1,993 inhabitants
(2020) located in Lolland Municipality, Region Zealand. Rødby is
located in a landscape-flat part of Lolland near the former Rødby
Nor, now dammed. It was formerly a port city. Since it was decided
in the 20th century to drain the large area, a pumping station at
Kramnitse has made sure to keep the noret and Rødby Fjord dry of
water, not least to avoid flooding in the city. However, it has also
meant that the old market town finally lost its direct connection to
the sea.
Rødby is today a small town. From the time as a port
city, there are several old warehouses and grocery farms, including
Willers Gård from 1729, which today functions as a tourist agency.
Rødby Church dates from the Middle Ages and was rebuilt in 1632,
1728 and in the 19th century. The tower is 38 meters high.
From the city there are approx. 5 kilometers to the port city
Rødbyhavn and approx. 12 kilometers to Maribo.
Attractions and sights
The Rødby area's absolute biggest
attraction is the holiday center Lalandia, which opened in 1988, west of
Rødbyhavn on the Fehmern Belt.
In Nørregade there is the
Stormflods pillar, which shows how high the water was inside the market
town in 1872.
In Tågerup, just outside the city, is the
Polakkasernen, which sheds light on the life of the Poles who came to
Lolland to work as seasonal workers with the sugar beet production on
the island.
In Østergade 65 is the old, well-preserved Warehouse,
which dates from approx. 1700 and raised/newly built in 1853. An
archaeological bulwark has been found at the site of the Warehouse from
the time when goods were sailed to and from the Warehouse via the
Rosenå. Today the Pakhuset is the citizens' cultural center, and in June
2017 a mini-museum will be inaugurated with Rødby's history from harbor
town to today's market town, the history of the dam, the history of the
South Lolland dyke after the storm flood in 1872 and the cultural
history of the warehouses.
The city has the football club Sydalliancen, which plays at Rødby Stadium, where there is room for 1,500 people.
In King Valdemar's Land Register from 1231, Rødby is listed under the name Ruthby. The prefix indicates a (forest) clearing in Zealand medieval Danish. The town name thus means that Rødby was built on a former forest area.
In the first centuries, Rødby was a trading post and an important ferry point to Holstein for Scandinavian travelers going on to the central part of Europe. This important position meant that Christian I in 1454 gave the city certain freedoms to trade with the Germans "like merchants", and later in 1506 the rights were extended to also apply to trade with "farmers and foreign merchants". In 1517, Christian II confirmed the town's old rights and gave it half of Langø for perpetual use. In 1528 the privileges were confirmed again. What gave the town some importance at the time was that it was a customs post and crossing point for Holstein and Fehmarn, as the crossing took place over its outport Dragsminde - which, however, gradually sanded down and was finally closed down in 1749. In 1555, Rødby's citizens were exempted from paying Den store Told when they traveled out with tools and livestock used for their own breeding. by Royal Letter of 24 August 1557, on the occasion that the inhabitants had complained that they had to answer taxes both as citizens and farmers, it was decided that those who give land grants etc. should be exempted from civic burdens (contribution to ships' equipment), but those who run merchants had to answer to all burdens as merchants. In 1656, Arent Berntsen says in "Danmarckis oc Norgis Fructbar Herlighed" that Rødby was previously only considered a noble village, but that it is now generally considered a market town. However, it quickly became a farming town.
In a royal letter of 24 January 1551, it is said that since Rødby had
mostly burned down, it should be investigated whether it would not be
better to place the town closer to the beach. Rødby was first granted
market town rights in 1682. In 1694, the town was hit by a violent storm
which destroyed large parts of its business life. Rødby's citizens
therefore applied for tax relief, as they were unable to re-establish
the city's economy without help. One accident after another hit Rødby in
the 18th century. The town's Latin school closed in 1740. Despite the
floods, Rødby Fjord gradually began to sand, which meant that the town's
outer harbor at Dragsminde closed in 1749 and was subsequently moved to
Kramnitse. In 1774, a fire ravaged and destroyed most of the market
town, including the town's old half-timbered town hall with its archive,
which was lost forever. It sent many Rødby citizens fleeing the area in
deep poverty, and historians believe that the expression "My God, are
you from Rødby?" dates from this period. In 1776 it was called "this
above all unremarkable market town", and as late as 1833 it was
characterized as more like a village, as most of the houses were
thatched. Until 1735, it shared the town clerk with Maribo.
The
lack of a harbor at Rødby meant that the population had to use Bandholm
as a shipping port for agricultural products, and this made the Rødby
area unattractive to trade with in the long run. In this way the small
market town was kept in poverty.
Rødby's population was increasing in the late 1800s but stagnated in
the 1860s and later: 1,339 in 1850, 1,545 in 1855, 1,578 in 1860, 1,553
in 1870, 1,796 in 1880, 1,837 in 1890, 1,726 in 1901, 1,745 in 1906 and
2,020 in 1911.
The livelihoods of the inhabitants were in 1890:
132 lived from immaterial activity, 556 from craft and industry, 261
from trade and turnover, 7 from fishing, 580 from agriculture, 241 from
other occupations, 27 from their means, 30 enjoyed alms, and 3 sat in
prison. According to a census in 1906, the population was 1,745, of
which 87 supported themselves by non-material activities, 571 by
agriculture, forestry and dairying, 9 by fishing, 630 by crafts and
industry, 289 by trade and more, 59 by transport, 32 were salespeople,
62 lived on public support and 6 on other or unspecified business.
In 1855, the city had only 2 brandy distilleries of factories and
industrial facilities. In 1872, factories mention cotton and linen
weaving mills as well as 1 printing house that published "Rødby Avis".
At the turn of the century, the city had 1 wool spinning mill, 1 brewery
and 1 printing house, from which "Rødby Avis" was published (another
newspaper, "Rødby Dagblad", was published in Nykøbing).
A severe
blow to the city occurred in 1872. Here, Rødby and the rest of southern
Lolland and Falster were hit by the most violent storm surge ever and
several lives were lost on that occasion. When the worst effects of the
storm were over, the construction of a 63 kilometer long dyke along the
southern part of Lolland's coast began, and drainage of Rødby Fjord was
also begun. The dredging was completed in 1966 and today the dykes
stretch from the Hyllekrog peninsula in the east to the Albuen shoal in
the west. In the early 1900s, Rødby had a small shipyard, but it closed
again due to the drainage.
In 1912, the railway connection from
Nykøbing Falster to the newly built Rødbyhavn was extended and this gave
a little more impetus to the area's economic growth.
The interwar
period
Throughout the interwar period, Rødby's population grew: in
1916 2,110, in 1921 3,290, in 1925 2,750, in 1930 3,108, in 1935 3,060,
in 1940 3,443 inhabitants. But at the same time there was growth in the
suburbs of Ringsebølle in Ringsebølle Parish and Sædinge in Sædinge
Parish, where a number of people with work in Rødby settled.
At
the census in 1930, Rødby had 3,108 inhabitants, of which 280 supported
themselves by non-material activities, 874 by craft and industry, 284 by
trade etc., 189 by transport, 630 by agriculture, forestry and fishing,
214 by housework, 577 were out of business and 60 had not declared the
source of income.
WW2
In 1941, during Denmark's occupation,
the Fugleflugtlinjen motorway project between Copenhagen and Hamburg was
started, which was to go via Rødbyhavn and the Fehmarn Belt. With
Germany's defeat in World War II, this project was temporarily halted.
The post-war period
After the Second World War, Rødby continued
its population development. In 1945, there were 3,511 inhabitants in the
market town, in 1950 3,349 inhabitants, in 1955 3,392 inhabitants, in
1960 3,551 inhabitants and in 1965 4,692 inhabitants. Furthermore, the
suburbs continued their development.
The bird flight line only
started up again in 1963 with the expansion of Rødbyhavn into an actual
ferry port. For Rødby, this meant that, from this year, an important
access to the Baltic Sea was suddenly restored via the ferry connection
to Puttgarden and Fehmarn.
Despite the improved traffic conditions, Rødby has never really
succeeded in maintaining any major industry in the area. It is primarily
Rødbyhavn's shipping of agricultural products and the ferry port that
have created jobs for the two towns' populations. Tourism also plays a
central role, as yachtsmen, bathers and those staying at Lalandia are
frequent holidaymakers in Rødby.
It is expected that Rødby will
be economically affected when the Fehmarn Belt connection to Germany is
scheduled to be completed in 2028, but how strong the growth will be is
for the time being uncertain.
Rødby is close to the E47 motorway and secondary routes 153 and 291.
Rødby itself no longer has a station (it was previously served by
Maribo-Rødby and Nakskov-Rødby), but Rødby Ferry Station in Rødbyhavn is
the terminus for regional trains from Copenhagen.
After the dam,
there is no coastline at Rødby, and therefore Rødbyhavn has been built
approx. 5 km south of the city. The ferry route Rødby-Puttgarden runs
from Rødbyhavn.
In 2011, Holeby and Rødby's 7th, 8th and 9th classes were combined at Rødby school.