Mukran, Smelte und Kemi: drei Ostsee-Logistik-Terminals heute

Abstract

This article investigates various maritime-cultural developments of three new Baltic Sea harbours in Germany, Lithuania and Finland. The first to be discussed, Mukran Harbour on Ruegen Island, exemplifies the difficult path from a strategically important modern military facility to an all-round transhipment point with a good rail connection but inadequate access to the road system. Despite all the efforts undertaken there, this harbour's future is presumably still uncertain, owing primarily to the fact that environmentalists have blocked the construction of a modern means of road traffic access. The second example is Klaipeda-Smelte, likewise once a military facility. Despite its similarity to Mukran in terms of origins, and moreover burdened by a long process of transformation from erstwhile floated timber storage site to fishing harbour to modern terminal, Smelte has more hope of a viable future, in which modern forms of access to land transport routes are expected to represent a factor of major significance. The third example, Kemi in Northern Finland, proves the importance of modern "backcountry" connections with rail, highway and air traffic in close association with constantly modernized transhipment technology. Even the reception programme for luxury liners plays a role here.