The Lübeck–Puttgarden railway is part of the international Vogelfluglinie (Bird Flight Line) between Germany and Denmark and connects Lübeck with Puttgarden on the Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Until the Puttgarden–Rødby rail ferry connection was discontinued in 2019, the route was used by international long-distance trains between Hamburg and Copenhagen.

The state of Schleswig Holstein and DB want to close the present coastal line and send trains via a new route inland.

The connection to the seaside resorts on the Bay of Lübeck will be significantly worsened when the route is closed and is legally controversial.

Already in the 1920s, Deutsche Reichsbahn (DRG) and the Danish State Railways (DSB) had adopted the idea of the engineer Gustav Kröhnke (1826–1904) to establish a rail ferry link across the Fehmarn Belt between Puttgarden and Rødby.

A formal intergovernmental agreement was signed between Deutsche Reichsbahn and the occupied Kingdom of Denmark on 8 April 1941.

On 15 July 1951, Deutsche Bundesbahn and the DSB opened with a train ferry service between the Großenbrode Quay and Gedser on the Danish island of Falster.

On 14 May 1963, the Fehmarn Sound Bridge was opened in the presence of German President Heinrich Lübke and the Danish King Frederik IX.

Also from 1963 to 1983 during the summer months, when the Baltic Sea was mainly used by tourists, the Fehmarn-Express ran from Cologne via the Ruhr, Westphalia, Hanover, Lauenburg and some of the resorts on the Bay of Lübeck to Puttgarden or Burg on Fehmarn.

Because of the heavy traffic on the single track line, it was equipped in 1971 with train radio, initially for experimental purposes.

International freight traffic between Germany and Sweden or the Copenhagen area now runs via Flensburg and Odense.

Construction was completed by the Easter of 2010 and the new station was finally opened at the timetable change in late July 2010.

The Regional-Express trains from Lübeck have since branched off the main line at Burg-West and run to the new Fehmarn-Burg station.

Since 2019, international passenger trains have gone through Flensburg, Odense and the Great Belt Fixed Link, not through Puttgarden, to enable the rebuilding of the connecting railway on the Danish side as double track.

In the Federal Transport Infrastructure Plan (Bundesverkehrswegeplan) 2030, Germany ear-marked 1.518 billion Euros for the electrification of the Lübeck–Puttgarden railway.

Construction cost of duplicating tracks will be less if there is no traffic, so it's decided to finish it in time for the Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link, instead of waiting the seven years the treaty allows.