Gaarden

Vinetaplatz and market life

The heart of Gaarden beats around Vinetaplatz. Several times a week traders set up their market here, offering fruit, vegetables, fish and specialties from around the world. The neighboring Elisabethstraße and Vinetaplatz itself are busy shopping streets with shops, snack bars and eateries that mirror the quarter's cultural diversity. Anyone wanting to experience Kiel beyond the postcard idyll finds an honest, multicultural city life here. Initiatives, neighborhood offices and cultural projects also make Gaarden a place where community engagement is tangible.

Shipyards and industrial history

Gaarden's origins are inseparable from shipbuilding. When the east-bank shipyards employed thousands of workers in the 19th and 20th centuries, the district grew rapidly into a densely built workers' settlement. Workshops and cranes still shape the skyline toward the fjord, and submarine construction has a long tradition here. Brick buildings, courtyards and the typical period architecture tell of this industrial past. Walking up the stairways and streets uphill, you are repeatedly rewarded with views of the harbor, the fjord and the city center opposite.

Around the east bank

Gaarden lies on the east bank and is closely connected to the rest of Kiel. Several bus lines run through the quarter and across the Hörn bridge into the center, putting the city heart within quick reach. Especially appealing is arriving by fjord ferry, whose lines link the east bank with the city center and Laboe. On foot or by bike you reach the Holstenstraße in minutes via the Hörn. Within Gaarden much can be done comfortably on foot, as shops, market and eateries sit close together.