In 1935 around one hundred merchants from Flensburg founded this company with the aim to continue services on the Flensburg Fjord after the shipping company Flensburg-Ekensunder Dampfschiffsgesellschaft (FEDG), which had been operating since 1866, ran into difficulties.

Several of FEDG's ships were taken over, including the ship "Alexandra" which is still being used today as a museum ship.

In the 50s, services on the Flensburg Fjord were extended to include trips to Denmark with shopping facilities on board. These trips were also known as "Butter Trips". 

In the 60s, several new ships were commissioned for these services and in the 70s additional large passenger ships were acquired with capacities of up to 950 passengers. With at times up to 22 ships, shopping trips were offered between Germany and Denmark which allowed passengers to buy the so-called small and large duty rations. 

Against the backdrop of the impending abolition of duty-free sales on board, the Förde-Reederei GmbH and the Flensburg shipping company Flensburger Reederei, KG Seetouristik GmbH & Co., which had been operating in the same business since 1958, founded the joint company Förde Reederei Seetouristik GmbH & Co. KG (FRS). In "FRS" the "Butter Trips" were bundled and carried out until their abolition 1999.

Following German reunification and almost simultaneously with the founding of FRS in 1991, FRS acquired the right to buy the company Weiße Flotte based in Stralsund. To this day, Weiße Flotte runs the ferry and boat trip business to and from Hiddensee Island, the Rügen area and on the river Warnow.

In 1998, against the backdrop of the final EU-wide abolition of duty free sales, both FRS parent companies decided to bundle their shipping services, which to that date had been independent from each other, under the umbrella of the FRS.

These include the services to Helgoland and Sylt which are being offered to this day. 

Between May and September the ship "Atlantis" operates daily between Cuxhaven and Helgoland as part of the FRS Helgoland services, while from April to October the high-speed catamaran "Halunder Jet" connects Hamburg, Wedel and Cuxhaven with the "Red Cliff" (Helgoland). 

Since 2005, the newly built double-ended ferry "Sylt Express" has been in year-round operation connecting Havneby (Rømø) with List (Sylt) as part of the Rømø-Sylt service – better known as the Sylt Ferry.

Over the years, additional ferry services have been added. Since the beginning of 2000, the FRS group has been operating with five high-speed catamarans on the Strait of Gibraltar offering ferry services between Spain and Morocco as well as from and to Ceuta. Within a few years the group has established itself as the market leader.

The FRS group was also able to position itself successfully in the field of maritime services. As a specialist operator of high-speed ferries, the FRS group has been operating by order of the Sultanate of Oman the fastest catamarans in the world over the last two years.

Supplemented by non-shipping subsidiaries or affiliates, which include the ÖPNV bus services offered by AFAG, Förde Bus and Verkehrsgesellschaft Schleswig-Flensburg (VSF), FRS has developed from a regional passenger ship operator into a globally operating company in the field of passenger and vehicle transportation and related services with a focus on ferry and bus operations.

Today, the group employs approximately one thousand employees and in 2009 transported a total of 5.6 million passengers and 1.6 million vehicles with the help of 26 ships.

With the three bus services mentioned above, 9.7 million passengers have been transported.

Thus, as a result of the services of Förde Reederei Seetouristik, the shipping company is today involved in international shipping lines.

The anniversary of Förde-Reederei GmbH will be celebrated by its shareholders on the steamer "Alexandra" as part of the next general meeting.

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