Shoe tossing

Have you ever seen anything like this before?
Every visitor who takes a stroll down the multicultural Norderstraße is familiar with them – all of those shoes strung over lines between the façades of houses. Hundreds of them dangle there, attracting the attention of passers-by. “What’s this all about?”, you may be asking yourself. It depends on who you ask. We’ll tell you one version of the story.

Legend has it that, long ago, there was a shoe store on Norderstraße. When the shopkeeper closed up, he would stretch a line from the house opposite the store, fix it to the upper level of his building, and throw his last pairs of shows onto the line from down below. This shopkeeper’s ritual became a tradition over time. Today you will find hundreds of pairs strung over lines. Want to find out more? Then go see them for yourself on Norderstraße. The people there will tell you all about the famous shoes of Flensburg.