Wilhelmshaven

Wilhelmshaven is in East Frisia. The city's population in 2018 was about 76,000. Wilhelmshaven's main claim to fame is its connection to the sea and its function as a harbour.

Understand

"Haven", or rather in its modern German spelling "Hafen", means harbour. Founded in the 1850s as Prussia's military port on the North Sea, it served as the main North Sea harbour for the German Navy throughout the Kaiserreich (1871-1918). As the treaty of Versailles greatly limited the size of the German fleet, Wilhelmshaven sought and found new economic activities and invested heavily in tourism, which became the second important industry. Both the Nazis and post-war Germany kept and expanded the military capacities at Wilhelmshaven.

The most controversial piece of infrastructure, however, is an entirely civilian one: the JadeWeserPort, Germany's largest harbour project. It was opened in 2012 and is intended to become the third largest German port on the North Sea (after Hamburg and Bremen); however, transport volumes have stayed well below expectations as of 2015, leading to charges that the project is a "white elephant".

Get in

Due to the JadeWeserPort, several traffic connections have been upgraded or are scheduled to be upgraded.

By car

A29 is intended to serve as a major transportation route from the harbor and thus also serves as a good entry point to the city.

By train
  • 🌍 Wilhelmshaven railway station. Regional trains run from Oldenburg (every half-hour to hourly), Osnabrück (every half-hour to hourly), and several times daily from Bremen. If you arrive from further away you will probably have to change trains at one of the latter two. 

By plane

The next major airport is in Bremen (BRE IATA), but depending on your plans it might also make sense to fly into Hamburg (HAM IATA), as there are more flights to Hamburg than to Bremen.

By boat

The harbour mainly caters to freight ships, and does not have many ferry connections. Wilhelmshaven is not a stop on many cruise-lines. A connection to Heligoland was ended in 2014 due to lack of demand.

Get around

By bus

Wilhelmshaven has a city bus system, but it does not accept the Niedersachsen-Ticket.

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