Skærbæk

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The title of this article contains the character æ. Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as Skaerbaek.

Skærbæk (German: Scherrebek) is a municipality (Danish, kommune) on the coast of South Jutland County on the Jutland peninsula in south Denmark. The municipality covers an area of 360 km², and has a total population of 7,294 (2005). Its mayor is Svend Ole Gammelgaard, a member of the Venstre (Liberal Party) political party.

The main town and the site of its municipal council is the town of Skærbæk.

Neighboring municipalities are Løgumkloster, Nørre-Rangstrup, and Gram to the east, and Bredebro to the south. To the north and west is the Wadden Sea.

The municipaliy includes the island of Rømø, the southernmost of Denmark's part of the North Frisian Islands. The island, which lies in the Wadden Sea ca. 6.5 km from the mainland, is a popular beach area in the summer, and is linked to the mainland by a road— Rømøvej— running across a causeway. There is ferry service from the harbour on Rømø to another popular summer island, the German island of Sylt, less than 4 km south of Rømø.

The municipality was created in 1970 as the result of a kommunalreform ("Municipality Reform") that merged a number of existing parishes:

Brøns Parish
Døstrup Parish
Mjolden Parish
Rejsby Parish
Rømø Parish
Skærbæk Parish
Vodder Parish

By January 1, 2007 Skærbæk municipality will cease to exist as the result of Kommunalreformen ("The Municipality Reform" of 2007). It will be merged with existing Bredebro, Højer, Løgumkloster, Nørre-Rangstrup, and Tønder municipalities to form the new Tønder municipality. This will create a municipality with an area of 1,352 km² and a total population of 42,645 (2005).