Explore the history of Burg on Fehmarn through its buildings, exhibitions and walking tours. The topics range from a Gothic brick church and a chapel with a distinctive original purpose to the history of the island and traces of the artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

Churches, a Chapel and a House Dating from 1581

St. Nikolai Church is a Gothic brick church built between 1230 and 1250. Inside is a late Gothic wooden winged shrine divided across its width. The construction period and the shrine point to different chapters in the church’s history, giving the visit a distinct architectural focus.

St. Jürgen Chapel has a different historical character: it was originally built outside the town walls as a plague chapel for people with leprosy and other outcasts. It tells the story of a distinctive former purpose of the building and differs markedly from St. Nikolai Church.

The Fehmarn Museum is housed in the island’s oldest building, the former parson’s widow’s house dating from 1581. Its 23 exhibition rooms cover Fehmarn’s geological history as well as the island’s eventful past. They also explore traditional crafts, the significance of the guilds, seafaring, fishing and hunting. The exhibition thus brings together natural and island history with aspects of daily and working life in the past.

Guided Tours and Walks through Burg

Historical town and church tours of St. Nikolai Church and the 800-year-old town of Burg are also on the Fehmarn Tourist Service events programme for 2026. The approximately 90-minute walk starts at the Fehmarn Museum at Breite Straße 49 in Burg. There is also a seasonal programme about the history of St. Jürgen Chapel: every other Monday at 5 p.m., Friedel Beck offers a tour or talk lasting about half an hour. Check the tour dates before your visit.

For a shorter option, an official audio-guide tour covers just under 3 kilometres through Burg. It takes about 35 minutes and passes through the historic old town, by the town hall and the historic Senator-Thomsen-Haus, and on to St. Jürgen Chapel, the Fehmarn Museum and St. Nikolai Church. Compared with the roughly 90-minute guided tour, this offers a different time commitment; the two durations can help you choose the right format for your stay.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Documentation and Tracing His Footsteps

The Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Documentation Centre in Burg displays life-size reproductions of important paintings, historical photographs and reproductions of sketchbook pages. Information about the artist’s life and work accompanies the pieces on display. The focus here is on engaging with the images and the artist’s biography.

The “In Kirchner’s Footsteps” trail leads through Burg, following the trail of the Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. It links places where he worked with recognisable motifs in his images of Fehmarn. The documentation centre and the trail therefore offer different points of focus: the works on display and information about the artist in one, and a search for traces through Burg and motifs on the island in the other.

For planning a stay, the tours offer a clear guide by time and focus: the audio guide takes about 35 minutes, the historical town and church tour about 90 minutes, while the seasonal programme determines the availability of the chapel tour. Visitors with a particular interest in Kirchner can also choose between the documentation centre in Burg and the trail through the town.

Discover more destinations: Neujellingsdorf, Lemkendorf, Dänschendorf on Fehmarn, Klausdorf, Blieschendorf, Bojendorf, Wulfen, Orth on Fehmarn.

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