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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.

The author calls attention to notable current innovations in maritime culture at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The discussion is based on five examples ranging from everyday life and work on oil-drilling platforms in German and Danish waters and the operation of the first Danish Baltic Sea wind park to the relationship between the athletic discipline of kitesurfing on the coasts and initial experiments with wind-powered auxiliary drive systems on German ocean-going vessels, problems of modern Baltic Sea harbour logistics and life on the water (in the coastal area). The intent is to point out the necessity of current critical documentation of the specific regional aspects of changing maritime culture.

This article represents the second instalment in the publication of the results of research carried out on new structures and phenomena of cultural development on the eastern Baltic Sea coast. Part 2 presents the material derived from the studies of Latvia, Estonia and Russia. The focus here is on the changes taking place in the fishing, coastal shipping, harbour and seaside resort / tourism industries in the coastal area between Liepaya and Narva as well as in the region of Kaliningrad and in the Neva river delta (in the period between 1920 and 2000). The ethnographic/ cultural-historical research was carried out between 2005 and 2007.

This article presents the results of current ethnographic field research carried out in the years 2005 to 2007 by a group of Danish, Polish and German scientists. Their activities focus on important changes in the maritime culture of the southern and eastern regions of the Baltic Sea. Part I discusses the fundamental features of cultural renewal in Poland (Gdansk Bay, Vistula Lagoon) and Lithuania (Courland Lagoon, northern coast) in the period between 1920 and 2000. The treatment of each region is structured according to period. The results of the research carried out in Latvia, Estonia and Russia will follow in the second part. Within the framework of the field research, observations on ethnical aspects and infrastructures are being recorded, as well as on coastal fishing, coastal shipping, harbour operations and seaside resorts (tourism). Part II will also comprise an overall assessment of the research results.

An extraordinarily important component of modern change in maritime culture in the Baltic region was the urbanization of fishing villages into harbour towns and large seaside resorts. This urbanization was initially evident from around 1700, and has continued into the present. To illustrate this process the author gives us eight municipal histories: those of Frederikshavn and Hirtshals in Denmark, Råå in Sweden, Pillau and Swinemünde in Germany, Mariehamn in Finland, and Gdynia and Władysławowo in Poland. To show the development of the seaside resorts, the history of Zoppot is described. Different aspects of this urbanization are considered, such as the geographical situation, the land-traffic connections, the phases of harbour construction including (in certain cases) the establishment of naval bases, the foundation of local maritime industries (shipbuilding, engine construction, the establishment of ice factories and cooling halls, fisheries and fuel depots), and also specific local developments of other kinds (consulates, sailing schools, ferries, radio stations and maritime museums). A large amount of as yet unpublished source material has also been included.

Continuing a historical analysis of the modern maritime cultural developments that began in the Baltic region around 1900, the first results of which have already been published in the 'Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv' (DSA 25, 2002, and 26, 2003), similarly fundamental changes are thoroughly analysed here: the course of the second phase of motorization of fishing boats (beginning in around 1920) and small cargo sailing vessels with improved semi-diesel engines/ custom-built diesel/petrol engines; the development of specialized techniques for engine repair, and electrical installation and the use of electronics on board small vessels. Finally, as a means of tracing the individual-cultural urbanization process of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the development of fishing villages into harbour towns of the new type will be discussed on the basis of the example of Sassnitz on the island of Rügen.

On the basis of case examples of Pomerania and Southern Denmark, the article discusses the important role (established for the Baltic region since the Hanse era) played by the specialised trade of anchor or ship smithery in the motorisation of fishery and coastal shipping. This was a cultural upheaval with far-reaching consequences that got under way in the region in question around 1900. For the harbour smiths’ occupation it brought about an interesting development, as the members of this trade now became involved in the construction and repair of mechanical aids for operations on board, for example producing small boat engines and net winches, casting boat propellers and repairing steam engines and internal combustion engines.

As in Parts I-IV (appearing in DSA 1996-1999), the boat and ship engine production of a specific German region and period is described in this article. Here the author focuses on the territory of the Soviet Occupied Zone (1945-1949) and the German Democratic Republic that emerged from it (1949-1990). Particular attention is paid to the history of the factory locations Aken, Berlin, Böhlitz-Ehrenberg, Chemnitz, Cunewalde, Dessau, Kamenz, Ludwigsfelde, Magdeburg and Zittau. In addition, brief lexical passages are devoted to discussing the history of the Eastern German firms that manufactured large diesel engines for ships in Berlin, Görlitz, Halberstadt, Magdeburg (SKL), Nordhausen, Rosslau, Rostock (DMR) and Schönebeck.