Norderney lighthouse

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Norderney lighthouse
Great Norderneyer lighthouse in 2007
Great Norderneyer lighthouse in 2007
Place: Norderney
Location: Dune in the middle of the East Frisian island of Norderney
Geographical location: 53 ° 42 '33.2 "  N , 7 ° 13' 46.7"  E Coordinates: 53 ° 42 '33.2 "  N , 7 ° 13' 46.7"  E
Height of tower base: 6  m above sea level NHN
Fire carrier height : 59.6 m
Fire height : 54.6 m
Norderney lighthouse (Lower Saxony)
Norderney lighthouse
Identifier : Blz. (3) 12 s
0.2s- (2.8s) -0.2s- (2.8s) -0.2s- (5.8s)
faint 67 ° –77 ° & 270 ° –280 °
Scope knows: 23 nm (42.6 km )
Optics: Fresnel lens
Operating mode: from 1874 kerosene lamp
from 1910 kerosene
incandescent light from 1930 electric incandescent lamp 1000 W
from 1938 incandescent lamp 2000 W
from 1976 flash fire
since March 2004 vapor discharge lamp 400 W
Function: Lighthouse
visual navigation sign
Construction time: 1871 to 1874
Operating time: since October 1, 1874
International ordinal number: B 1054

The Norderney lighthouse (official name: Großer Norderneyer lighthouse ) is a listed, active sea ​​mark serving as a navigation point, landmark and signpost for shipping in front of the Lower Saxony mainland coast . It was built between 1871 and 1874 on a 10  m high dune roughly in the middle of the East Frisian island of Norderney . With its octagonal cross-section in the upper part (average thickness 6.45 meters), it is architecturally noteworthy and with its height of almost 60  m above sea level. NN ( 54.6  m without lantern ) at the same time the highest structure on the island. Below the lantern there is a circumferential spectator gallery, which can be reached via 253 steps. The tower with the international serial number B 1054 belongs to the Waterways and Shipping Administration of the Federal Republic of Germany (WSV) , (WSA) outskirts of Emden . The lighthouse also has a two-storey , seven-axis , red-tile-roofed keeper's and machine house, which was also built between 1871 and 1874 and which housed a telegraph station until the 1950s .

history

prehistory

Sounding of the island of Norderney ("Nynorderoge"). The island church is clearly recognizable in a Danish sailing manual from 1568 on the right (west).
Overview of the lighthouses on the East Frisian Islands
Overview map of Norderneys with the lighthouse in the center of the island
The lighthouse around 1900
The former guard and machine house (right) photographed from the base of the lighthouse. On the left the former telegraph station.

Landmarks in the form of beacons were set up on the East Frisian coast as early as 1410 . In the 17th century these were also built on prominent points on the East Frisian Islands. As early as 1576, a flower was built on the island of Borkum to secure shipping. From 1602 onwards there was a beacon with the west tower on the island of Wangerooge and since 1624 a cape as a daytime visibility mark. Since the rest of the coast between the islands of Juist and Spiekeroog was completely or only insufficiently provided with fixed beacons in 1780, merchants from Emden and the Bremen merchants, who saw the safety of their ships threatened, pushed for the construction of another structure on one of the East Frisian Islands.

“The English, French and Dutch coasts are magnificently illuminated at night with Fresnel devices, as if strung together. The Hanoverian island of Borkum, as the first German one, is connected to this lighting line, but the light is still provided with concave mirrors in the old way. Meanwhile the government has already turned its attention to this and intends to improve this light thoroughly. As far as Borkum, the ships coming out of the canal are said to have reached the North Sea and continue to head for the mouths of the Ems, Jahde and Weser Elbe, which are filled with many sandbanks. But from here on there is complete darkness and only after a distance of 48 to 50 nautical miles is the light at Wangerooge the first to be seen again. No wonder, then, that many a ship fails on the islands lying in complete darkness between Borkum and Wangeroog. The skippers know this very well and, in order to avoid this danger, steer in the approximate direction of Heligoland. From all considerations it can be seen that there is still one point missing in the lighting chain on the sea coast and this can be around Norderney, as evidenced roughly in the middle between Borkum and Wangerooge, but then there should be a stretch of around 24 nautical miles to both sides very intense, a 1st order designated light to be used there as well as in Wangerooge "

- Jacobus Johannes van Ronzelen , Bremerhaven Harbor Construction Directorate

This shows that the ships in the direction of Hamburg and Bremen chose the (safe) detour past Heligoland for safety. The cape, built on Norderney in 1849, did not meet the safety requirements, especially at night.

Planning, construction and commissioning

The construction of a lighthouse on Norderney was approved through numerous reports and submissions to the Royal General Directorate of Hydraulic Engineering, founded in 1823 and based in Hanover . The Ostfriesischer Kurier of May 12, 1874 reports:

“The beacon in the German bay is recognized to be very poor and incomplete, despite the fact that shipping traffic in this difficult and dangerous bay is as important as the two world trading centers of Bremen and Hamburg by nature. At a decisive point, the urgent need for remedial action could no longer be ignored and it was decided to build a beacon tower on Norderney to fill in the large gaps in the coastal lighting between Borkum and Wangeroog. "

The construction plans for the construction of the Norderneyer lighthouse and the outbuildings were designed by the Royal Prussian Waterways and Shipping Administration in Norden together with the designer Ernst Schumacher from Leer , who built the new lighthouse on the island of Borkum , which was built in 1879 . The Norderneyer lighthouse was in between 1871 and 1874 General Directorate by the Royal hydraulic engineering in the massive construction of red bricks masonry . The end stones of the tower head are made of sandstone. The tower stands on a 10  m high dune in the middle of the island. This location was chosen for logistical reasons, as the building material had to be transported to the island in horse-drawn carriages from Hilgenriedersiel at low tide and the distance from the island to the mainland at this point is around three kilometers. The lighthouse has a 13.27  m high base with a square cross-section and a main shaft with a cross-section in the shape of a regular octagon. The total construction costs amounted to 198,000 gold marks . Since its construction, the tower has been the only active sea fire on the island and serves as an orientation light for shipping. During the construction phase the tower was not shown on any map, which led to confusion with the towers erected on Borkum and Wangerooge:

“The tower has been completed, and it should hardly be considered conceivable, and not the slightest news has been given to the public about the fire to be lit. All the varied questions about the kind of fire, about the time it was ignited, etc. must be answered with a shrug. What is worse, however, is that the tower could be a well-positioned mark of the day if reliable information was known about its position, but that it can now only make one puzzled and confused, as many examples have shown. A German ship destined for the Weser orients itself near Norderney after bad, invisible weather. There one sees a tower of which nothing can be found in any map, in any book or in any memory, and one is forced to turn around so as not to expose oneself to unconscious dangers which, as is well known, are the most difficult to face. A ship destined for the Ems is delighted to believe that it recognizes the two fire towers on Schiermonikoog after bad weather and bad air and sets its course. But the thing is getting scary, the brands, which can hardly be seen in the haunted air, appear different from the familiar ones; the weather is becoming more threatening. There, right ahead, a loot cutter is sighted, it must know. But the weather is becoming more threatening and the skipper runs into the jade looking for protection, where he may have heard of the construction of the lighthouse on Norderney. It can be inferred from a quite harmless view of seafaring conditions at a relevant point, if one believes such an announcement. come early enough to light a lightship. In England such notices are often made available to interested parties many years in advance in thousands of free copies, from the decision taken and the start of work with the progress of the same up to completion in often repeated notices. "

- Ostfriesischer Kurier of May 18, 1874, No. 56

The lighthouse was on 1 October 1874 after the ignition of its light source, which initially from a kerosene lamp with five concentric to each other wicks , officially existed as solid Schifffahrtszeichen dedicated to the island of Norderney. This closed the gap of around 80 kilometers between beacons on the East Frisian Islands and the southern German Bight . The erection and commissioning of the Norderneyer lighthouse reduced the distance between the beacons, which increased the safety of shipping off the German coast. The lighthouse replaced the cape , which was built in 1849, as the island's official symbol for seafaring.

In the notice for seafarers , which was published after the completion of the tower by the building inspector Adolf Tolle on August 4, 1874, it says:

“Norderney, on the northern end of the great dune, southeast of the so-called white dunes. A white twinkling fire with flashes of 10 to 10 seconds illuminating the whole horizon. Fresnel lens apparatus 1st order, 24 parts, burner No. 5 with 5 wicks. Mineral oil, combustion 1150 g / h, 4500 kg per year. Fire height 59.6 m, height of the beacon building 53.75 m above the ground. Tower of red bricks under construction with sandstone cornice coverings. The square substructure is 13.27 m, the octagonal main part 30.41 m. The round drum wall 3.0 m high, the whole building 4.7 m above the ground. Iron railing around the gallery on the coronation cornice. Above the drum wall with a diameter of 5 m is the 5.3 m high lantern, 16 sides of which are white glazed and hemispherical to close off the tower. Above it a ball 0.75 m in diameter with a point, together 1.75 m high. To the southwest of the tower, a residential building made of red bricks in the shell is covered with red bricks. The same includes a basement and 2 floors. To the east of the residential building is a shell made of red bricks. Height of the fire above HW 59.4 m, height of the tower above the ground 53.75 m. There are 3 guards. A telegraph station will be set up in the keeper's house next to the lighthouse. "

- Notice for seafarers, the shipping signs on the German coast

The lighthouse since the 20th century

  • Aerial photos

  • The lighthouse from the seaside

  • Position of the tower (watt side up)

Since it was ignited, the beacon has emitted six flashes per minute (time: two-second flash, eight-second pause, return after ten seconds) over 21  nautical miles . When the fire went into operation in 1874, a five-wick kerosene lamp with a light intensity of 21,500 Hefner candles (HK) was used, which consumed 25 pounds of kerosene per day. This type of lamp, also known as Faquhar's lamp , was often used as a light source for lighthouses at that time. After the kerosene fire was exchanged for a kerosene incandescent light as a light source in 1910, the light intensity of the fire increased to 45,000 HK. The petroleum incandescent light was extinguished as early as 1930 and the light source was switched to an electric incandescent lamp with an output of 1000  watts / 220  volts , 45,000 HK (from 1938 2000 watts / 220 volt, 170,000 HK) after the tower was connected to the island's power grid had been. Until 1958, a mantle operated with liquid gas served as a replacement light source, which came to 49,000 HK. During the Second World War , the beacons of the lighthouses and lightships off the German coast were switched off. The Norderneyer lighthouse was not destroyed by the allied bomber associations during the bombing raids on the East Frisian Islands, as it served as a daytime marker and navigation point. Before the electrification of the rotating mechanism, the optics were rotated until 1959 using a weight of 3.5 to 4 centners (175 to 200  kilograms ) suspended in the tower shaft  , which the up to three employed lighthouse keepers pulled up by hand every day using a winch had to become. In the course of the general modernization of the beacons on the German coasts, the identifier of the lighthouse was changed on July 19, 1976 after the installation of a halogen vapor lamp. Since then, a group of three flashes has been sent out every 12 seconds. The flash identification is (Blz. (3) 12 s). This results in 15 flashes per minute based on the time measure of three flashes of 0.2 seconds each, followed by a short pause of 2.8 seconds each. After this flash sequence there is a longer pause of 5.8 seconds. The next lightning bolt will return after 12 seconds. Since 1981 the operation of the tower is no longer ensured by lighthouse keepers. Since then, it has been fully automatically remote-controlled and monitored from the traffic control center Ems an der Knock near Emden .

Modernization and renovation

  • Renovation phase

  • The lighthouse during the renovation in 2005

  • The base of the lighthouse in June 2005. A total of 12,000 bricks in the masonry were replaced.

Due to the prevailing weather conditions, the tower was re-impregnated with exterior paints in 1936, 1951 and 1957 before the first thorough restoration was required in 1975. After the tower was connected to the local power grid in 1930 to replace the kerosene lamp with an incandescent lamp, an emergency power generator was installed in 1958.

Repair work from 2003 to 2006

Another structural inspection at the beginning of the 21st century revealed serious damage that was due to moisture. The damage was so severe that it resulted in a fundamental maintenance of the building structure. From 2003 the lighthouse was then extensively restored in five stages from March to October with a total investment volume of 600,000  euros until 2006. First of all, a start was made on renovating the outer masonry, consisting of bricks and hard mortar, which had been weathered by wind and weather and destroyed by cracks after 129 years , especially in the area of ​​the plinth, and to impregnate it against moisture damage. The further stages were the subsequent grouting of the outer masonry with new mortar , the renovation of the windows and the entrance door as well as the renovation and grouting of the inner masonry. In addition, the roof and the tower head were restored and the fire protection measures brought up to date.

In the course of the general renovation and modernization, the lighting device was fitted with a 400 watt halogen vapor lamp on March 23, 2004 . Among other things, this halogen vapor lamp increases the maintenance intervals as it is also built into an automatic lamp changer. If one lamp fails, the second switches on automatically. The bundled light intensity of the halogen vapor lamp is 496,000  cd , the light beam can be seen 20.7 nautical miles.

Repair work 2019

In October and November 2019, the attached antennas were modernized over a period of five weeks. In addition, the tower is scaffolded up to a height of 30 meters to make repairs to the masonry.

Technical Equipment

Lantern and optics

  • Lens apparatus and the lantern

  • Storage of the optics on the turntable. The diameter of the balls is 25 millimeters each. On the left the new drive.

  • Sectional drawing of the lantern

A 2.5  m high and 3.5 ton heavy Fresnel lens apparatus , designed according to the plans of the French engineer Augustin Jean Fresnel , was installed in the 5.3  m high lantern house of the lighthouse. The lantern house forms the tower head and is fully glazed on its 16 glass surfaces. On its outer side, it is provided with a protective metal grille, which is intended to prevent damage to the glass surfaces or the lens apparatus behind them from bird strikes . A copper domed roof with a spherical tip is placed on the lantern house. This ball point is to be understood with holes that were used for air circulation when there was still a kerosene lamp in the lantern house. The lens apparatus, worth 67,050 gold marks, is mounted on a ball-bearing table and rotates  to the left. It is used to amplify and focus the light from the light source installed in the center of the optics. The rotating lens optics rotates around itself within 72 seconds. This means that the rotation speed of the rotating lens is 5  degrees per second ( ).

The light beams, which are strongly bundled by the optics, have a nominal range of 23 nautical miles (42.6  kilometers ). The entire lens apparatus has a diameter of 1.85 meters. The 24 lens fields, of which every fourth is covered, consist of 1008  prisms and 24 planoconvex lenses. Each lens field has a planoconvex lens and eight dioptric (only refractive) prisms above and below it. In addition, there are eight catadioptric (refractive and reflective) prisms below and 18 catadioptric prisms above the diopter in the field.

With a focal length of 920 millimeters, the lens apparatus belongs to the 1st order. The ordinal number indicates the distance between the lens and the lamp. The lens construction, which weighs 3.5 tons and is known as headlight optics due to its shape , consists of 1032 prisms and lenses. The entire beacon equipment was provided by the Paris- based company Sautter - Lemonier & Cie. manufactured and delivered as a reparation for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71.

Antenna technology

  • Antenna technology

  • The antenna technology installed in May 2012

  • View of the lighthouse from about one kilometer to the west

Since the renovation work in 2006, the lighthouse has been provided with two north-facing antennas, which were attached to the north side of the lantern at the top of the tower. These antennas enable both reception and transmission of AIS data. Other installed antenna, transmitting and receiving devices are a data transmitter mounted above the lamp room for radio level data transmission for remote water level data transmission (WDFÜ) and an omnidirectional antenna for communication between DGzRS - rescue cruisers . In addition to the work on the tower itself, the forecourt and ramp were repaved.

From 2006 to October 2019, several circularly arranged GSM antennas for the D-Netz were installed at around half the height of the tower at around 30 meters . These were exchanged for LTE antennas. The client was Deutsche Telekom .

In May 2012, two additional radio relay systems for broadband data transmission were installed. The parabolic mirror mounted to the east is responsible for the data connection between Norderney and Wangerooge and the two parabolic antennas mounted to the west work in the spatial diversity process to build up the radio link between Norderney and Borkum. These antennas are designed twice to compensate for failures.

Others

The tower can be climbed for an admission fee and, when the weather is good, can be used as a vantage point from April to October. The annual number of visitors is around 40,000. On clear days with good visibility, the islands of Juist and Borkum as well as the mouth of the Ems with Eemshaven in Groningen in the Netherlands and in the east the islands of Langeoog with its water tower and Spiekeroog can be made out from the fenced gallery below the spire in the west .

The painter Ole West , who himself lived on Norderney until the end of 2008, has often chosen the lighthouse and its surroundings as a motif for his pictures, which he mainly paints on nautical charts .

philately

On July 2, 2009, the Post issued a special postage stamp with a picture of the Norderneyer lighthouse worth 45  cents in the lighthouses series . The total circulation of the stamp is 12.3 million copies. The design for the postage stamp comes from Professor Johannes Graf from Dortmund . The first day postmarks of the Berlin and Bonn and Norderney stamp offices were available.

See also

literature

  • Otto Franzius: 100 years of Norderney lighthouse 1874 - 1974 . Ed .: Wasser- und Schiffahrtsamt Emden [WSA]. Self-published, 1974.
  • Birgit Toussaint, Frank Toussaint, Matthias Hünsch: Lighthouses on the German North Sea coast . Edition Maritim, Hamburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-89225-606-9 .
  • Birgit Toussaint, Frank Toussaint, Matthias Hünsch: German beacons: All the lighthouses on our coasts . Edition Maritim, Bielefeld 2005, ISBN 3-89225-530-X .
Illustrated books
  • Reinhard Scheiblich, Hans Helge Staack: Lighthouse Lexicon . Ellert & Richter Verlag, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-8319-0038-8 .
  • Uwe Schnall: Lighthouses on German coasts. A picture journey . Ellert & Richter Verlag, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-89234-521-X .

Web links

Commons : Leuchtturm Norderney  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Inquiry via online form to the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV) - Emden Waterways and Shipping Office (WSA outskirts of Emden)
  2. ↑ a b c Norderney lighthouse. (No longer available online.) Wasser- und Schifffahrtsamt Emden (Emden suburb), January 25, 2011, archived from the original on May 1, 2013 ; Retrieved June 22, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wsd-nordwest.de
  3. ↑ Experience nature in Lower Saxony - national natural landscapes. Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment and Climate Protection, accessed on September 5, 2009 .
  4. ^ Arend Wilhelm Lang: History of the sea mark system . Development, establishment and administration of the navigation system on the German North Sea coast until the middle of the 19th century. Ed .: Federal Ministry of Transport. Bonn 1965, The Sea Marks, p. 23 .
  5. ↑ a b c d Manfred pupil: German beacons - Norderney. In: German beacons. July 20, 2007, accessed September 5, 2009 .
  6. ↑ Thorsten Solmecke and Ulrich Sengebusch: Lighthouse Norderney. (No longer available online.) September 1, 2009, archived from the original on August 13, 2010 ; Retrieved September 5, 2009 .
  7. ↑ a b Otto Franzius: 100 Years of Norderney Lighthouse 1874 - 1974 . Ed .: Wasser- und Schiffahrtsamt Emden [WSA]. Self-published, 1974, p. 5 .
  8. ^ Arend Wilhelm Lang: History of the sea mark system . Development, establishment and administration of the navigation system on the German North Sea coast until the middle of the 19th century. Ed .: Federal Ministry of Transport. Bonn 1965, p. 108 .
  9. ↑ a b Werner Strüp: The trip to the lighthouse. Verkehrsverein Norderney eV, May 23, 2008, accessed on September 13, 2009 .
  10. ↑ a b Norderney lighthouse. Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV) - Emden Waterways and Shipping Office (WSA outskirts of Emden), accessed on January 10, 2009 .
  11. ↑ Otto Franzius: 100 Years of the Norderney Lighthouse 1874 - 1974 . Ed .: Wasser- und Schiffahrtsamt Emden [WSA]. Self-published, 1974, p. 9 ff .
  12. ↑ Manfred Bätje: Discovering Norderney . In: Stadt Norderney (Hrsg.): The historical shop window - A foray through the history and culture of the island and the North Sea spa Norderney . 2nd Edition. Self-published, Norderney 2004.
  13. ↑ Otto Franzius: 100 Years of the Norderney Lighthouse 1874 - 1974 . Ed .: Wasser- und Schiffahrtsamt Emden [WSA]. Self-published, 1974, p. 12 ff .
  14. ↑ a b c Hans-Helmut Barty: Christmas edition spa courier 1976. September 10, 2014, accessed on October 17, 2014 .
  15. ↑ Otto Franzius: 100 Years of the Norderney Lighthouse 1874 - 1974 . Ed .: Wasser- und Schiffahrtsamt Emden [WSA]. Self-published, 1974, p. 18 .
  16. ↑ Data from the Norderneyer lighthouse. In: Leuchtturm-atlas.de. Retrieved September 23, 2012 .
  17. ↑ Electronic Waterway Information Service (ELWIS) - Annex 8 - Designation of the waterway. Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV), accessed on March 30, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Heino Comien: The island bell . Ed .: Heimatverein Baltrum. tape 04/2005 . Baltrum 2005, The Norderneyer Lighthouse, p. 8–9 ( online [PDF; 1.8 MB ; accessed on October 19, 2014]). Online ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.inselglocke.de
  19. ^ Friedrich-Karl Zemke: German lighthouses then and now . 3. Edition. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-7822-0769-6 , p. 78 .
  20. ↑ Modernization of the beacon equipment of the Norderney lighthouse (WSA Emden). Federal Water and Shipping Administration (WSV) in the division of the Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, accessed on October 17, 2014 .
  21. ↑ Erich Hartmann: Norderney lighthouse. Erich Hartmann, April 13, 2014, accessed June 2, 2014 .
  22. ↑ Information on modernizing the lamp apparatus. Specialized agency of the Federal Shipping Administration (WSV) for transport technology (FVT), accessed on January 10, 2009 .
  23. ↑ Information on lighthouse technology. (No longer available online.) In: luechthuus.de. Archived from the original on November 3, 2013 ; Retrieved January 10, 2009 .
  24. ↑ Data and images on the Norderney lighthouse. In: Leuchtturm-welt.de. Retrieved January 10, 2009 .
  25. ↑ Worth seeing, The lighthouse. (No longer available online.) City of Norderney, archived from the original on April 6, 2013 ; Retrieved April 7, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.norderney.de
  26. ↑ Working at a height of 30 meters . In: Norderneyer morning . No. 231 , October 12, 2019, p. 1 ( norderneyer-morgen.de [PDF; 5.0 MB ; accessed on October 13, 2019]).
  27. ↑ Safety for Shipping. Norderneyer Morgen Online, May 23, 2012, accessed on July 21, 2015 .
  28. ↑ Reinhard de Boer, Martin Boekhoff: first issue of the lighthouse stamp Norderney . January 11, 2010 ( wsd-nordwest.wsv.de [PDF; 224 kB ]). wsd-nordwest.wsv.de ( Memento of the original from October 21, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wsd-nordwest.wsv.de
  29. ^ Lighthouse Norderney as a special postage stamp . In: Ostfriesischer Kurier . July 3, 2009, p. 9 ( wsa-emden.wsv.de [JPEG-GRAPHIC; 947 kB ]).
  30. ^ Deutsche Post Philatelie (Ed.): Mint never hinged - Das Philatelie Journal . (July / August), 2009.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on September 7, 2009 .