It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Bay of Kiel and lies in the southeast of the Jutland Peninsula, on the mouth of the Schwentine River, approximately 90 kilometres (56 mi) northeast of Hamburg.

[5] Kiel has also been one of the traditional homes of the German Navy's Baltic fleet, and continues to be a major high-tech shipbuilding centre.

Kiel is an important sea transport hub, with passenger ferries to Sweden, Norway, Lithuania and other countries.

As a part of Holstein, Kiel belonged to the Holy Roman Empire and was situated only a few kilometres south of the Danish border.

[8] The capital of the county (later duchy) of Holstein, Kiel was a member of the Hanseatic League from 1284 until it was expelled in 1518 for harbouring pirates.

A number of important scholars, including Theodor Mommsen, Felix Jacoby, Hans Geiger and Max Planck, studied or taught there.

However, because the king ruled Holstein as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire only through a personal union, the town was not incorporated as part of Denmark proper.

Even though the empire was abolished in 1806, the Danish king continued to rule Kiel only through his position as Duke of Holstein, which became a member of the German Confederation in 1815.

On 24 March 1865 King William I based Prussia's Baltic Sea fleet in Kiel instead of Danzig (Gdańsk).

[citation needed] Because of its new role as Germany's main naval base, Kiel very quickly increased in size in the following years, from 18,770 in 1864 to about 200,000 in 1910.

The Kiel tramway network, opened in 1881, had been enlarged to 10 lines, with a total route length of 40 km (25 mi), before the end of the First World War.

Just before the end of the First World War, the German fleet stationed at Kiel was ordered to sail out for a last great battle with the Royal Navy.

The sailors, who thought of it as a suicide mission which would have no effect on the outcome of the war, decided they had nothing to lose and refused to obey orders.

They took over Kiel and then spread out to other north German ports, sparking the revolution which led to the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of the Weimar Republic.

[10] During the Second World War, Kiel remained one of the major naval bases and shipbuilding centres of the German Reich.

[11] Owing to its status as a naval port and production site for submarines, Kiel was heavily bombed by the Allies during this period.

[14] There were several bombing raids of the port area during the period 20 February – 20 April 1945 which successfully eliminated many U-boats, and the few large warships (cruisers Hipper, Scheer, and Köln) still afloat at that time.

[citation needed] Today, Kiel is once again an important maritime centre of Germany, with high-tech shipbuilding, submarine construction and one of the world's largest ocean research centers, the GEOMAR.

Located on the Baltic Sea coast, the temperature fluctuates less than inland, with warm winters and cool summers throughout the year.

[22] Gaarden, located at the southern end of the fjord, is a traditional working-class district that used to be home to mainly shipyard workers.

There are plans for large-scale improvement and building efforts for the inner city, providing better pavements, better access to and view of the waterfront, and a generally more attractive feel to the place.

These plans, most notably the "Kleiner Kiel Kanal", a restoration of a historic canal that was filled in to make place for road infrastructure, are to be implemented in the next few years.

[23] The oldest building in the city is the 13th century Church of St. Nicholas, which has a sculpture by Ernst Barlach in front of it called Geistkämpfer.

Notable is the Stadt- und Schifffahrtsmuseum Warleberger Hof (City and Maritime Museum), which belongs to the association Museen am Meer.

[clarification needed] The Wirtschaftsakademie Schleswig-Holstein offers besides advanced training at the Berufsakademie dual study courses for economists, business information specialists and industrial engineers.

[7] Some of the most notable companies having branches or their headquarters in Kiel are: Ferry operators Military contractors Engineering and industrial machinery Others Kiel is also home to several insurances and banks, most notably the HSH Nordbank, Provinzial NordWest, Förde Sparkasse, Kieler Volksbank eG and Evangelischen Bank eG.

The central railway station, Kiel Hauptbahnhof, has hourly trains to Hamburg, Lübeck, Flensburg, and Husum.

There is a shuttle bus service (KIELIUS) operating between Hamburg Airport and Kiel central railway station.