Although Schönkirchen has access to the Schwentine river, passenger traffic (to Gothenburg and Oslo) and freight transport have to use the port of Kiel.

Following the death of king Frederick I of Denmark several partitions of Schleswig-Holstein occurred - in the one of 9 August 1544 Kiel and its surrounding villages were ceded to the dukes of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf, but duke Adolf I could make the Kiel city council comply with the distribution rules for the income derived from Schönkirchen only after an intervention of emperor Maximilian II.

Better to cope with the damages of frequent fires the Fire- and Church Guild of 1560 for mutual assistance and support amongst the villagers was founded.

Shortly after Adolf Hitler seized power on 31 January 1933 the factories in Kiel started to produce arms again quickly and were in need of workers.

The defence companies also put up industrial residential centres for its workforce in Schönkirchen such as the Anschützwerke (Anschützsiedlung) or Deutsche Werke shipyards (Kalkstein, Kemmecken).

At the beginning these camps were inhabited by Reichsarbeitsdienst members but after the start of World War II increasingly foreign workers (Fremdarbeiter) were placed in there.

To prevent Schönkirchen to become a sheer dormitory village - in 1951 70% of all the resident working inhabitants did so at the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft shipyard - in 1967 the development of Söhren business park started.