Eutin, town, Schleswig-Holstein Land (state), northeastern Germany. Surrounded by lakes, it lies about 30 miles (50 km) north of Lübeck. The town was founded as a border post during the frontier wars between the Germans and the Wends, and it was chartered in 1257. The official seat of the prince-bishops of Lübeck from 1309, it passed to Oldenburg in 1773 and to Schleswig-Holstein in 1937.
The gateway to the Holsteinische Schweiz lake region, Eutin is noted for the cultivation of roses and has substantial tourist traffic, facilitated by the establishment of spas. Electrical, paper, and metal products are also economically important. Notable buildings are the palace (built 1689 on the site of an earlier fortress destroyed by fire), with attractive gardens, and a 13th-century church. The composer Carl Maria von Weber was born in the town in 1786, and the poet Johann Heinrich Voss, known primarily for his translations of Homer, lived there from 1782 to 1802. Pop. (2003 est.) 17,011.