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city in Lower Saxony, Germany
Europe > Central Europe > Germany > Lower Saxony > East Frisia > 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 edit

"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 edit

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

By car edit

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 edit

  • 1 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 edit

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 edit

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 edit

 
Map of Wilhelmshaven

By bus edit

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

See edit

  • JadeWeserPort Infocenter, Am Tiefen Fahrwasser 11, ☏ +49 4421 7719091, fax: +49 4421 7719089, . Tu-Su 10:00-18:00. An exhibition on the port as well as modern container trade in general. They also offer bus tours through the harbor (€6.90, €5.90 reduced; combined ticket with exhibition €9.90, €7.90 reduced). You can access the roof of the exhibition building to see what is going on at the harbor from a better vantage point. Adult €4, reduced €2.50. (updated Apr 2016)
  • 1 Deutsches Marinemuseum (Navy museum).   (updated Mar 2017)
  • 2 Botanischer Garten der Stadt Wilhelmshaven, Gökerstraße 125. A botanical garden.     (updated Mar 2017)
  • 3 Kaiser-Wilhelm-Brücke (Emperor William Bridge). A 159-m-long swing bridge.     (updated Mar 2017)
  • 4 Küstenmuseum Wilhelmshaven. Tu-Su 11:00-17:00. Regular €5, kids €2.50, reduced €3.50.   
  • 5 Vollzugsmuseum Wilhelmshaven.   
  • 6 Kopperhörner Mühle.   
  • 7 Rathaus Wilhelmshaven, . A huge blocky brick building from the 1920s that is certainly an interesting and unusual architectural choice if anything....   
  • 8 Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven.   

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This city travel guide to Wilhelmshaven is a usable article. It has information on how to get there and on restaurants and hotels. An adventurous person could use this article, but please feel free to improve it by editing the page.
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