Dummersdorfer shore

The Dummersdorfer Ufer nature reserve is now home to the largest abundance of rare plant species in Schleswig-Holstein.

If you follow the course of the Trave towards Lübeck, you will reach the Dummersdorfer Ufer on its western flank south of the Scandinavian quay. This approximately 5-kilometer stretch of riverbank was placed under nature protection in 1958. The Dummersdorfer Feld has also been a protected landscape area since 1991. Covering a total of 340 hectares, it is home to many endangered and highly sensitive plant and animal species, for which the steep shore and undulating landscape offer many tiny biotopes.

The gentle hills were formed during the ice ages, when glaciers moved over the land and melted away again. As the water level of the Baltic Sea rose, salt water penetrated the melting channel of the Trave and created the high banks that still exist today. The steep banks are largely characterized by scrub forests, which were used by farmers for centuries for firewood. Around the Stülper Huk, a peninsula jutting out into the Trave, there are still extensive dry grasslands that provide a niche for rare plant species. Thyme, heath carnations and gentian, for example, have specialized in nutrient-poor, sunny soils - sheep must regularly graze the dry grassland so that the delicate, colourful "specialists" are not deprived of light by faster-growing plant competitors. The landscape conservation association keeps a herd of Heidschnucken sheep especially for this purpose, which you may be lucky enough to see on the Dummersdorfer Ufer. There is a narrow beach fringe in front of the steep bank.