Discover Lüdersdorf: Nature and Local History

When looking for a hotel in Lüdersdorf, it helps to have a clear sense of the geography: bicycle stands and parking spaces are available at Lüdersdorf (Meckl) station. Many of the natural and cultural attractions described here are located elsewhere in the municipality of Lüdersdorf. You can therefore consider the station as an arrival point, and the municipality’s landscapes and townscapes as separate travel interests.

Getting here and finding your way around

Bicycle stands and parking spaces are available at Lüdersdorf (Meckl) station. Check the information about the parking facilities before your journey, as station facilities may change. There is also an entrance to the A 20 motorway in the municipality of Lüdersdorf. These are separate reference points for planning: the station with the facilities mentioned above, and the motorway entrance at the municipal level.

Palinger Heide: Landscape and border history

Palinger Heide is characterised by sandy soils and inland dunes, and is mostly forested. Its bogs and lakes include Möwenmoor in the southwest, Hoppenmoor in the northwest, and Kiebitzmoor. The heath has many kilometres of cycling and hiking trails; in summer, small, secluded forest lakes invite visitors to swim. Swimming is a seasonal activity.

The history of the landscape is also closely connected to how it was shaped: decades of isolation during the restricted-area period helped preserve flora and fauna in Palinger Heide untouched by humans. The heath was designated a nature reserve in 1992. It is also part of the “Palinger Heide and Teschow Peninsula” landscape conservation area and the protected landscape corridor of the Green Belt.

Bog and protected area

Duvennester Moor is an isolated section of the “Herrnburger Binnendüne and Duvennester Moor” FFH site. It is located in a forest south of Herrnburg. As of May 2017, the standard data form for the FFH site recorded nine habitat types listed in Annex I and the Eurasian otter as a protected species listed in Annex II of the Habitats Directive. These details reflect the data form’s status at that time.

Townscapes and traces of history

In Palingen, a district of the municipality of Lüdersdorf, the village lay within the restricted area until 1989; it was also the site of a border company. Palingen was originally a spear-shaped green village. Another district, Boitin-Resdorf, is a compact circular village on the Lübeck–Rehna road. It was first mentioned in a document in 1257 as “Rastorpe”. A tumulus on Jittbarg points to traces of earlier settlement.

Duvennest lies on the former Lübeck–Gadebusch trade route. Since 1466, a stone of atonement in the Duvennester Tannen has commemorated a merchant who was murdered while travelling. The historic villages and routes can thus be explored at several different places in the municipality.

Village Church and Old Customs House in Herrnburg

Herrnburg Village Church was first mentioned in a document in 1319. It is a single-nave Brick Gothic church; its oldest part is a square box-shaped chancel with three east windows, dating to the mid-13th century. A visit to the church can be arranged by appointment.

Features include a 15th-century bronze baptismal font with late Gothic ornamentation, standing on three lion’s feet, and a pulpit in the so-called auricular style dating from 1675, a work by the Lübeck master G. Fick. The Gothic winged altar has oak carvings from the first half of the 15th century. The altar of the Virgin Mary comes from Lübeck Castle Church and is the work of a Lübeck master. Friedrich Albert Mehmel’s organ was brought into the church in 1884, along with the gallery and pews. A whale rib in the nave commemorates the men who went out to sea to hunt whales.

The Old Customs House stands next to the village church. The present building was erected in 1783 on the foundations of an earlier chapel, as a two-storey half-timbered structure, and was initially used again as a chapel. It is the oldest surviving residence in the Mecklenburg border town of Lübeck.

Discover more destinations: Grieben, Groß Siemz, Lockwisch, Menzendorf, Selmsdorf, Papenhusen, Dassow, Niendorf.

Back to the regional travel overview: Amt Schönberger Land.