Kleiner Leuchtturm (Borkum)

The small lighthouse stands on a ten-metre dune on Borkum’s south-west coast. It is one of three lighthouses on the island and was built in 1888–89 to guide ships into the Ems estuary. Officially lit in 1891, it served the Hubertgat and Westerems channels until 2003. The tower is made of cast-iron rings, each 27 millimetres thick, bolted together. A narrow-gauge railway once delivered coal to its own small power plant, the first in Germany built for electric lighting. Its light directed vessels through a German-Dutch project that placed five leading lights along the Lower Ems. A telegraph station opened in 1894 let ships exchange messages by flags relayed to shore. In 1900 the world’s first official coastal radio station began here, run by the lighthouse keepers. A water-level signal system followed in 1925, and from 1970 the tower carried antennas for the Ems traffic-control system. Visitors climb the iron tower to see the lantern room and sweeping views over dunes and sea. The red-and-white stripes remain clear against the horizon. Nearby, the old railway siding still marks where coal once arrived. A 2012 German postage stamp honoured the lighthouse, printed in millions of copies.