Top 10 Lighthouses in Germany
Lights of the German Coasts
Germany's navigable coastline is divided between two entirely different seas. The North Sea coast — the Nordseeküste — is a tidal landscape of extraordinary flatness: the Wadden Sea, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, stretches for miles at low water, a vast expanse of mud and sand channels behind a chain of barrier islands, the Nordfriesische Inseln from Sylt to Borkum. The Baltic coast — the Ostseeküste — runs east from the Flensburg Fjord along a landscape of bays, lagoons and sandy headlands to the Polish border. These two coasts produced different lighthouse traditions: the North Sea demanded powerful offshore towers to mark the channels through the Wadden Sea and the major river mouths at the Weser and Elbe, while the Baltic coast required a denser network of modest lights for its shallower, calmer passages. The German lighthouse authority, now the Wasserstraßen- und Schifffahrtsamt (WSA), maintains both networks, and several of Germany's most celebrated towers are among the most architecturally striking in Europe.
1. Roter Sand Lighthouse, Weser Estuary
Roter Sand is the most famous lighthouse in Germany and one of the most significant in European maritime history: the first offshore lighthouse in the world to be built on an open-sea sandbank using a pneumatic caisson foundation, completed in 1885 to the design of engineer Friedrich August Schwerd. The red iron tower rises 38 metres from a red sandbank in the mouth of the Weser Estuary, 45 kilometres from Bremerhaven. At the time of construction the pneumatic caisson technique — boring into the seabed under compressed air — was new to lighthouse building, and Roter Sand's construction was followed with international attention. The light guided ships into the Weser and toward Bremen, at the time Germany's most important port. The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1986 and has since been preserved as a cultural monument; it functions as a floating museum ship, moored in the Neustädter Hafen in Bremen, and can be visited. The sandbank tower itself is occasionally offered for overnight accommodation.
2. Westerheversand Lighthouse, Schleswig-Holstein
Westerheversand is the most photographed lighthouse in Germany: an elegant white tapering cylinder 41 metres tall, standing on the tidal flats of the Eiderstedt Peninsula on two massive curved legs that raise the tower above the marsh level. It was built in 1906 to mark the outer approach to the Eider mouth and the navigation route through the North Frisian shallows. The light character is a white flash every ten seconds with a range of 19 nautical miles. Two bright-red keeper's cottages sit beside the tower, giving the whole composition a striking graphic quality against the flat green marshes and the wide North Sea sky. The lighthouse was automated in 1979; the cottages are let as holiday accommodation. Access is along a raised dyke path from the village of Westerhever, a walk of about 2.5 kilometres each way across the open marsh, and the journey itself is part of the experience.
3. Pilsum Lighthouse, East Frisia
The Pilsum lighthouse, on the Ems Estuary coast of East Frisia near Emden, is one of the most idiosyncratic in Germany: a squat, round tower only 11 metres tall, painted entirely red with a white band and a conical roof, standing alone in the flat polderland behind the sea dyke. It was built in 1889 and served as a leading mark for vessels on the Ems approaches. The lighthouse became nationally famous as the setting for a series of Merci chocolate television advertisements filmed in the 1990s, which gave it a domestic celebrity that bears no relation to its modest navigational importance. Since then it has attracted visitors from across Germany and become one of the most recognisable lighthouse silhouettes in the country. The surrounding East Frisian landscape — utterly flat, windy, with vast skies — is both austere and beautiful. The lighthouse is accessible at the Pilsum sea dyke and is open seasonally.
4. Leuchtturm Kampen, Sylt
The Kampen lighthouse, on the highest dune ridge of Sylt — Germany's most fashionable North Sea island — has served as the principal navigation mark for the island since its construction in 1855. The red brick tower is 38 metres tall, and its light — a white flash every five seconds visible at 21 nautical miles — marks the outer approach to the Lister Tief, the northern passage into the Wadden Sea between Sylt and the Danish island of Rømø. Kampen village, famous for its thatched houses and the German celebrity crowd that summers here, provides a notably comfortable base for the lighthouse visit. The tower stands in heath and dune landscape and is open to visitors; the view from the top encompasses the full width of Sylt from the North Sea to the Wadden Sea tidal flats. The combination of fashionable resort and working lighthouse gives Kampen an unusual double character.
5. Alte Liebe Lighthouse, Cuxhaven
The Alte Liebe (Old Love) is one of the most unusual lighthouse constructions in Germany: not a traditional tower but a wooden jetty platform extending into the Elbe Estuary at Cuxhaven, topped by an iron lantern post that has served as a lighthouse since 1814. The name derives from an old Dutch vessel, the 'Olive Branch' (corrupted over centuries to 'Alte Liebe'), that was sunk as a pier base. The current structure dates to the early twentieth century and the lantern marks the beginning of the Hamburg fairway — arguably the most intensively used shipping lane in Germany, carrying the container traffic of the world's third-busiest port at the time of the lighthouse's construction. The jetty is a popular promenade for Cuxhaven residents watching the giant container ships pass within a few hundred metres. The Alte Liebe is freely accessible at all times and is an excellent place to observe Elbe traffic.
6. Harriersand Oberfeuer, Weser
The Harriersand Oberfeuer is the upper mark of a pair of leading lights on a river bend of the Weser above Bremen, guiding the river vessels that carried the trade of the Hanseatic port system. Harriersand is an island in the Weser, notable as the longest river island in Germany, and its lighthouse — a white tower of modest height — provides the upper light that, when aligned with the lower mark, gives ships their safe heading through the river bend. The Weser is an extensively marked navigation river, and the leading-light pairs like Harriersand represent the practical infrastructure of German inland and estuarial navigation. The island is accessible by ferry from Brake and is popular with cyclists.
7. Leuchtturm Pelzerhaken, Lübeck Bay
Pelzerhaken stands on the Baltic coast east of Fehmarn Belt, near the mouth of Lübeck Bay, marking the approach to Neustadt in Holstein harbour. The lighthouse is a round white tower of about 19 metres, its light character a white flash every four seconds visible at 14 nautical miles. This section of the Baltic coast was historically the entry zone for ships bound for Lübeck, the queen of the Hanseatic League and the dominant trading city of medieval northern Europe. The Neustadt coast is now primarily a leisure sailing and beach holiday area. The lighthouse at Pelzerhaken is accessible at the harbour breakwater and is one of the Baltic coast lights with the most directly visible maritime traffic, with ferries crossing to Denmark and Sweden in view from the headland.
8. Leuchtfeuer Fedderwardersiel, Jade Estuary
The Fedderwardersiel lighthouse marks the outer approach to the Jade Bay and the port of Wilhelmshaven, Germany's only deepwater North Sea port, on the flat East Frisian coast south of the Weser mouth. The tower is a red-painted iron structure on the sea dyke, its light character covering the approach channel across the tidal flats. Wilhelmshaven was built as Germany's primary naval base by Bismarck in the 1860s, and the approach to the port has been critical to both commercial and naval operations since then. The surrounding North Sea mudflat landscape is one of the finest sections of the Wadden Sea National Park; birdwatching at the dyke foot during migratory periods is exceptional.
9. Petersdorf Oberfeuer, Fehmarn
The Petersdorf Oberfeuer is the upper leading light for the approach to the ferry port at Puttgarden on Fehmarn, the Baltic island connected to the Jutland mainland by the Fehmarnsund Bridge and to Denmark by the Rødby ferry. The lighthouse is a yellow-and-white tower of modest height, its directional beam aligned with the lower leading light to guide ferries and cargo vessels through the approach channel. The Fehmarnbelt ferry crossing between Puttgarden and Rødby is one of the busiest in the Baltic. The Fehmarn coast is popular for kitesurfing in the strong westerly winds, and the lighthouse area is accessible near the ferry terminal.
10. Schwarzer Leuchtturm (Black Lighthouse), Kiel Fjord
The Schwarzer Leuchtturm — the Black Lighthouse — stands at the mouth of the Kiel Fjord, marking the western approach to Kiel harbour and the entry from Kiel Bay for vessels coming from the Kattegat. A distinctive cast-iron tower painted black, approximately 19 metres tall, it was erected in the late nineteenth century to serve the expanding naval base that Kiel became after German unification. Kiel is the home of the German navy and the terminus of the Kiel Canal — the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal — which links the North Sea to the Baltic. The light character is a white flash with a red sector visible at approximately 15 nautical miles. The lighthouse is accessible in the harbour area near the Kiel–Oslo ferry terminal and offers views over the fjord and the constant traffic of ferries and naval vessels.
Visiting German Lighthouses
Germany's lighthouse coast is divided naturally into North Sea and Baltic tours. The North Sea tour — Pilsum, Westerheversand, Kampen, Alte Liebe, Roter Sand — runs along the dyke roads of East Frisia, the Eiderstedt Peninsula and Sylt, ideally covered in three to four days by car. The Baltic coast from Kiel to the island of Rügen covers the remaining significant towers. Summer (June to August) is the busiest period; the tidal flats of the Wadden Sea require careful timing around low water. For the full picture of Germany's navigational light network from the Ems to the Oder, Open the map and explore both coasts.