between
Großenbrode and Fehmarn Earlier names of the island are Femera, Fimbria, Cimbria parva, and Imbra. As a part of
Wagria, it was settled by the Slavic
Lechitic tribe of
Wagri in the
Early Middle Ages. Fehmarn is one of the westernmost places of the former contiguous settlement area of the
Slavs, and the westernmost island with a former Slavic settlement. The name of the island itself derives from the
Polabian fe more (
in the sea), modern
v more, and has the same etymological background as
Pomerania, deriving from
po more,
at the sea.
Puttgarden is also a Slavic name, deriving from
pod gard, which means
under the castle (on
Rügen there is a village with the same etymological background, evolving into the modern form
Putgarten). Other Slavic-founded villages on Fehmarn are Bannesdorf, Dänschendorf, Gahlendorf, Gammendorf-Siedendorf, Gollendorf, Hinrichsdorf, Klausdorf, Kopendorf, Lemkendorf, Meeschendorf, Püttsee, Sahrensdorf, Schlagsdorf, Sulsdorf and Vitzdorf. The villages of Bisdorf, Presen and Staberdorf are either Slavic-founded or founded by Germanic colonists from
Holstein,
Dithmarschen,
Frisia,
Lower Saxony and
Denmark, who settled the island from around 1200 onwards. The Slavs inhabiting the island were gradually
Christianized and
Germanized. From the Middle Ages till 1864 Fehmarn formed part of the Danish
Duchy of Schleswig. When the duchy was partitioned in 1544, it formed part of the duchy of
John the Elder. Upon his death without heirs in 1580, Fehmarn became part of the
Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp. After the
Great Northern War, Fehmarn, along with the rest of Schleswig was united with the Danish crown. In 1864, Schleswig passed to
Prussia as a result of the
Second Schleswig War. On 26 July 1932, the German Navy's training ship
Niobe sank off the island during a sudden squall, with the loss of 69 lives. At Gammendorfer Strand on Fehmarn, within view of the site of the sinking, the Niobe-Denkmal monument was erected. Since 1963, Fehmarn has been connected to the German mainland by a road and rail bridge crossing the
Fehmarn Sound Bridge. It is 963.40 m (3160.76 ft.) long and 69 m high. In the future, it will be connected to the Danish island of
Lolland by the
Fehmarnbelt Tunnel; this connection will form a series of fixed links from the European mainland to Scandinavia through Fehmarn, Lolland,
Falster, and
Zealand. ==Geography==