Cities with long-standing traditions.

Every summer during Mel Week” the state capital Kiel (246,000 inhabit-s) is the meeting place for the international sailing te and the venue of the popular cultural festival held trafCf°njUnCtion with the re8atta- Shipbuilding and ferry especially to Scandinavia - are just as much

a part of the city as the imposing sailing ship “Gorch Fock”, a training ship which documents Kiel’s close ties to the navy. Lubeck (217,000 inhabitants), the “Queen of the Hanseatic League” graced with many notable medieval buildings, has been placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The novels of Lubeck’s famous sons Heinrich and Thomas Mann rank among the world’s great literary works. Lubeck-Travemunde is one of Europe’s most important ferry ports. Once a year, meticulously restored sailing ships and replicas converge in Flensburg (87,000 inhabitants) for the “Rum Regatta”.

An economy in transition.

In recent years Schleswig-Holstein has undergone a profound structural transformation from a region based on agriculture and fisheries to a modern location for business, industry and technology. The shipbuilding industry, which at one time dominated the economy of the state capital Kiel in particular, survived the structural crisis by focusing on construction of specialized ships. Approximately one million hectares of the state’s land are given over lo farming; the future, however, belongs to modern technologies such as marine and medical technologies, software production, and energy and environmental technologies.