Originally Arnis was a peninsula in the fjord-like
Schlei. During the conflicts with the
Counts of Schauenburg and Holstein and the
Hanseatic League about the status of
Schleswig the Danish king
Eric of Pomerania ordered in 1415 the construction of two primitive castles in the Schlei, Schwonsburg and the opposite height of the today cemetery of Arnis. For better defence the isthmus between Arnis and
Angeln was cut. Arnis became an island. In 1666 the nobleman Detlef von Rumohr tried to press the families of the nearby village
Kappeln into serfdom. They had fought before against this noble family and now asked the Duke
Christian Albrecht to help them. Because Detlef von Rumohr was an ally of the Danish King Duke Christian Albrecht responded positively – he hoped to debilitate a political enemy. Kappeln skippers were successful, so he also hoped to establish a new prosperous port on his land and offered the island of Arnis as the place for a new settlement. To support this project he granted a charter of twenty privileges („Arnisser Privileg“) to the families of Kappeln. On 11 May 1667 65 families from Kappeln gathered on the island Arnis to administer the oath to Duke Christian Albrecht. Detlef von Rumohr reacted with a dual strategy, he resigned the plan to force the Kappeln inhabitants into serfdom but put pressure on the emigrants. In the end only 30 houses were built in Arnis and the new settlement faced a crisis during the
Scanian War and the following conflicts between Holstein-Gottorp and Denmark. In Arnis for some years more people died than were born. When Christian Albrecht's son,
Frederick IV., offered a new 11 years tax exemption for new settlers Arnis began to grow and became in the late 18th and during the 19th century a prosperous skippers place with up to 1000 inhabitants and almost 90 sailing ships (1864). Arnis skippers and shipowners were together with those from Kappeln initiative to build a new estuary of the
Schlei which actually was the duty of the city of
Schleswig. Because state money was not sufficient for this ambitious project private money from both skipper communities led, after several setbacks, to a final success. Today „Schleimünde" is still based on the construction from the years 1794 to 1796. To push the project a skippers and shipowners society, the „Combinierte Schiffergesellschaft zu Kappeln und Arnis“ was founded. With having also a sailors association („Matrosengesellschaft“) Arnis stood out among German ports. For centuries shipyards were typical of the economy in Arnis. The first documented construction of a ship was the „Hoffnung“ in 1728. With four shipyards in the second half of the 20th century the peak was reached.
Matthiesen & Paulsen delivered sailing yachts to USA and Japan.
Schiffswerft Otto Eberhardt had more than 40 employees – this shipyard closed in 2013. It reopened 2017 with new owners Henning and Peter Eberhardt. == Arnis today ==