Heligoland Lighthouse () is located on Germany's only offshore island,
Heligoland
Heligoland (; , ; Heligolandic Frisian: , , Mooring Frisian: , ) is a small archipelago in the North Sea. The islands were historically possessions of Denmark, then became possessions of the United Kingdom from 1807 to 1890. Since 1890, the ...
. Constructed during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
as an
anti-aircraft tower, it was turned into a lighthouse in 1952. It features the strongest light on the German North Sea coast with a range of so that it can be seen as far as on the
East Frisian or the
North Frisian islands
The North Frisian Islands (, ; ''Öömrang'' and ''Fering'' ; ''Söl'ring'' ; ) are the Frisian Islands off the coast of North Frisia.
The term covers both the North Frisian Islands in the narrow sense (in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany) and the Dan ...
and
Halligen
The ''Halligen'' (German, singular ''Hallig'', ) or the ''halliger'' (Danish, singular ''hallig'') are small islands without protective levee, dikes. They are variously pluralized in English as the Halligen, Halligs, Hallig islands, or Halligen i ...
. The lighthouse is operated by the
Tönning
Tönning ( German; Low German ''Tünn'', ''Tönn'' or ''Tönnen''; Danish: ''Tønning''; North Frisian: ''Taning'') is a town in the district of Nordfriesland in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.
History
Tönning was destroyed in the ...
water and shipping authority.
History
17th century
In 1630 a lighthouse was established for the first time on Heligoland by the
Duke of Schleswig
The following is a list of earl, jarls and dukes, who ruled over Schleswig respectively Southern Jutland (Sønderjylland).
First jarls/dukes
House of Estridsen (1080–1375)
House of Schauenburg (1325-1459)
Under domain of Oldenburg
In ...
; in return for maintaining the coal-fired light he claimed 'fire money'() of one
Lübeck
Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...
shilling per
Last
A last is a mechanical form shaped like a human foot. It is used by shoemakers and cordwainers in the manufacture and repair of shoes. Lasts come in many styles and sizes, depending on the exact job they are designed for. Common variations ...
from ship owners in
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
,
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...
,
Stade
Stade (; ), officially the Hanseatic City of Stade (, ) is a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. First mentioned in records in 934, it is the seat of the Stade (district), district () which bears its name. It is located roughly to the wes ...
and the Ducal ports. The lighthouse ran at a loss for several years, and it ceased operating in 1637.
In 1676 a new Heligoland lighthouse was established by the City of Hamburg. High-quality coal was imported from Scotland as fuel for the light, which initially operated only during the winter months (though from 1761 onwards it would be lit all the year round).
18th century
The coal-fired lighthouse was maintained on Heligoland through 1700s. In 1705 an agreement was made between the Danish government and the City of Hamburg, which saw the latter take responsibility for maintaining the building, supplying it with coal and paying the keeper's salary (all to be financed by the levying of
dues on vessels navigating the
Elbe
The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...
).
It was described as follows, shortly before its decommissioning:
On a small eminence, about two hundred yards from the houses, stands the light house, in which a large coal fire is constantly kept both summer and winter. The beacon is not high of itself, but as the rising ground on which it stands is two hundred and sixteen feet above the level of the sea, the light house may be distinguished at an immense distance, and according to the report of sea-faring men, it surpasses in this respect, most of the light-houses in the European seas.
According to the same description, the lighthouse was said to have consumed 'upwards of four thousand pounds weight of coals a night, during the dark and stormy winter season'.
19th century
Not long after the
British Administration of Heligoland
Heligoland (; , ; Heligolandic dialect, Heligolandic Frisian: , , Mooring (North Frisian dialect), Mooring Frisian: , ) is a small archipelago in the North Sea. The islands were historically possessions of Denmark, then became possessions of ...
came into effect, the British Government ordered that the lighthouse be rebuilt and converted to oil illumination. The new lighthouse was designed by
Daniel Alexander to stand on the highest point of the island: construction began in 1810 and it was first lit in February, 1811.
The cost of the lighthouse, including adjacent dwelling houses for the keepers, was £8,618 14s 6d. Once the new lighthouse was operational the old lighthouse was decommissioned, but its tower was left standing and it went on to serve as a signal tower, until 1916 (when it was demolished as it obstructed the line of fire of the island's
coastal artillery
Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications.
From the Middle Ages until World War II, coastal artillery and naval artillery in the form of ...
).
The so-called "English lighthouse" (''englischer Leuchtturm'') was above mean sea level. It constituted an important aid to navigation in the
German Bight
The German Bight ( ; ; ); ; ; sometimes also the German Bay) is the southeastern bight of the North Sea bounded by the Netherlands and Germany to the south, and Denmark and Germany to the east (the Jutland peninsula). To the north and west i ...
because its light was visible roughly twice as far as that of Cuxhaven Lighthouse, which had been established a few years before. As well as signalling the position of the island, it served to aid ships entering or departing from the rivers Elbe and
Weser
The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports o ...
.
By an Act of Parliament of 1836, the ownership and management of the lighthouse was transferred from the British
Crown
A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...
to the
Corporation of Trinity House
The Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond, also known as Trinity House (and formally as The Master, Wardens and Assistants of the Guild Fraternity or Brotherhood of the most glorious and undivided Trinity and of St Clement in the ...
.
The English lighthouse was torn down soon after the inauguration of a new building in 1902.
20th century
The construction of the new lighthouse was ordered by the
Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
n administration in 1902. This lighthouse was in service from 1902 until its war-time destruction in 1945. It was built as a round brick tower from the same plans as the
Cape Arkona light on
Rügen
Rügen (; Rani: ''Rȯjana'', ''Rāna''; , ) is Germany's largest island. It is located off the Pomeranian coast in the Baltic Sea and belongs to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
The "gateway" to Rügen island is the Hanseatic ci ...
in the Baltic Sea. During a bombing raid on Heligoland on 18 April 1945 by the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
, this lighthouse was destroyed and the keeper was killed.
In 1941 a square-shaped anti-aircraft tower made of heavily
reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...
had been built on Heligoland.
It was the only building to survive the
detonation of 6,700 tonnes of explosives by the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
on the island on 18 April 1947 which was meant to destroy the military facilities and bunkers inside the rock of the island.
In 1952 this tower was modified to serve as a makeshift lighthouse. The current shape with a brick veneer was formed in a 1965 renovation.
Later a radar sensor,
Marine and mobile radio telephony devices and an
electric beacon
In navigation, a radio beacon or radiobeacon is a kind of beacon, a device that marks a fixed location and allows direction-finding equipment to find relative bearing. But instead of employing visible light, radio beacons transmit electromagne ...
were added on top of the lantern house.
Optics and characteristic
The
light characteristic
A light characteristic is all of the properties that make a particular somewhat navigational light identifiable. Graphical and textual descriptions of navigational light sequences and colours are displayed on nautical charts and in Light Lists ...
of the current Heligoland Lighthouse is one flash every 5 seconds (FL 5s). The range is 28 nautical miles
and is comparably high for the lighthouses of the German North Sea coast.
The English lighthouse of 1811 was equipped with 24
Argand lamp
The Argand lamp is a type of oil lamp invented in 1780 by Aimé Argand. Its output is 6 to 10 candelas, brighter than that of earlier lamps. Its more complete combustion of the candle wick and oil than in other lamps required much less frequen ...
s and reflectors, which displayed a fixed white light visible at a distance of up to .
In 1876 these were replaced by Trinity House with a fixed
first order Fresnel lens array, designed and manufactured by
John Hopkinson
John Hopkinson, FRS, (27 July 1849 – 27 August 1898) was a British physicist, electrical engineer, Fellow of the Royal Society and President of the IEE (now the IET) twice in 1890 and 1896. He invented the three-wire (three-phase) system for ...
of
Chance Brothers
Chance Brothers and Company was an English glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands (county), West Midlands (formerly in Staffordshire), in England. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassma ...
in
Birmingham, UK
Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands region, in England. It is the largest local authority district in England by population and the second-largest cit ...
. After decommissioning, the lantern and optics of the English lighthouse were moved to
Fehmarn
Fehmarn (; ; from Old Wagrian Slavic languages, Slavic "''Fe More''", meaning "''In the Sea''") is an island in the Baltic Sea, off the eastern coast of Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is Germany's third-largest island, afte ...
island in the Baltic Sea where they were mounted at Staberhuk Lighthouse and are still in use today.
The 1902 lighthouse was lit by electricity. In an unusual arrangement
arc lights were combined with
silvered glass parabolic reflectors to form a rotating array of three
searchlights
A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular dire ...
, which produced a flash once every five seconds. In addition a fourth searchlight, mounted above the other three, revolved at three times the speed of the others to produce an intervening flash. Each beam of light had an intensity of 30,000,000 candlepower. The equipment was designed and built by
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...
in
Nuremberg
Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...
.
The optics of the current lighthouse were modernised in 1963. The device is made up of three
converging lenses in two planes which are mounted with an angular separation of 120° on an electric rotator. These lenses have a focus of and are lit by a 2,000
Watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...
s
xenon arc lamp
A xenon arc lamp is a highly specialized type of gas discharge lamp, an electric light that produces light by passing electricity through ionized xenon gas at high pressure. It produces a bright white light to simulate sunlight, with applications ...
.
With a light intensity of 35 million
candela
The candela (symbol: cd) is the unit of luminous intensity in the International System of Units (SI). It measures luminous power per unit solid angle emitted by a light source in a particular direction. Luminous intensity is analogous to radi ...
Heligoland is the strongest light along the German North Sea coast.
Since 1982 the smaller lighthouse on Düne Island, off the main island of Heligoland, is remotely operated from Heligoland Lighthouse.
The
Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsha ...
water and shipping authority uses Heligoland Lighthouse as a relay radio station to regulate ship traffic in the eastern German Bight.
See also
*
List of lighthouses and lightvessels in Germany
This is a list of lighthouses in Germany.
List
See also
* Lists of lighthouses and lightvessels
References
External links
*
{{Lighthouses in Europe
Lighthouses in Germany,
Lists of lighthouses, Germany
Germany transport-r ...
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control , additional=Q109605478,Q109605761,Q28375642,Q28375641
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Ligh ...
Lighthouses completed in 1811
Lighthouses completed in 1902
Lighthouses in Schleswig-Holstein
Buildings and structures in Pinneberg (district)
1811 establishments in the United Kingdom