Timmy the humpback whale has been released into the open sea, the rescue team announced on Saturday morning.
Footage shows the whale swimming at the surface, exhaling water.
For the past few days, Timmy had been kept in a tank aboard a tugboat, which was transporting him to deeper waters.
Since 31 March, the whale had been stranded in shallow waters near Wismar Bay, close to the German Baltic Sea coast. Prior to that, he had been stuck several times in different locations along the Baltic coast.
A private rescue operation was organised, partly funded by the founder of electronics retailer MediaMarkt. On Tuesday, Timmy was successfully transferred to the tugboat using ropes.
The release was initially scheduled for Friday, but adverse weather conditions caused delays.
Timmy was finally released at around 09:00 on Saturday in open waters north of Denmark. Volunteers hope the whale will now swim through the North Sea back to his natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean.
However, marine scientists have cautioned over the past few weeks that Timmy might be too weakened to survive for long in open waters.
