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NorderneyLighthouse with changed identification

Jill Grigoleit

 · 14.04.2026

Norderney: Lighthouse with changed identificationPhoto: Matthias Balk/dpa/picture alliance
The large Norderney lighthouse has served as an orientation light for shipping since 1874.
The lighthouse on the East Frisian island of Norderney is currently sending out unusual signals. The ageing gearbox of the optical system is now turning more slowly than before. The result is an altered light signal of 14 seconds instead of the previous 12 seconds.

According to a notice to mariners (BfS) of the WSA Ems-Nordsee, the return of the lighthouse Norderney LFV No. 320400 (INT B 1054) has been changed from 12 to 14 seconds. The changed identification Fl (3) W.14s is expected to apply until 20 May. Shipping is warned and asked to pay attention.

Lighthouse with signs of fatigue

According to the WSA, the cause lies in the lighthouse's drive unit. This is serviced regularly. However, over the decades, the gearbox has worn out and become sluggish, causing the optics to turn more slowly. Until the special spare parts have been purchased and the repair work has been carried out, the official identification has been adjusted.

The Norderney lighthouse has the only left-turning beacon on the German North Sea coast. It was equipped with a 3.5 tonne Fresnel lens from France. The complicated optics consist of 1018 ground prisms and 24 lens fields. The light can still be seen at a distance of 20 nautical miles from the island under normal visibility conditions. As part of the general modernisation of beacons on the German coast, the identification of the lighthouse was changed in 1976 following the installation of a metal halide lamp. Since then, a group of three white flashes have been emitted every 12 seconds from dusk until dawn. Now they only return after 14 seconds.

Every now and then there are malfunctions and failures of beacons. What this means for shipping:

Why physical navigation marks remain important

The listed Norderney lighthouse was completely renovated in 2004. Around 40,000 visitors a year come to see the island's tallest structure, which is almost 60 metres high and has 252 steps. The lighthouse stands on a 10 metre high dune in the centre of the island. However, it is not only a tourist attraction, but above all still an important sea mark for shipping. As the GPS signal (on which the Automatic Identification System (AIS) is also based) is repeatedly subject to considerable, possibly deliberate, interference, the maintenance of physical sea markers is once again being prioritised.

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Jill Grigoleit

Jill Grigoleit

Editor Travel

Jill Grigoleit was born in Hanover in 1985. An early childhood memory is the large collection of YACHT and SURF magazines from her sailing and surfing enthusiast father. However, growing up in a small Swabian village on the Neckar, she had less to do with water sports in her childhood, apart from a few trips to the Baltic Sea with her family. After studying journalism in Bremen and Hanover, she went into television for a few years. Through a few lucky coincidences, she ended up on the water in 2011 and then returned to the written word professionally. For over ten years, she lived with her family on a houseboat in their own harbor south of Hamburg and wrote a book about houseboat building and life with children on the water. Since 2020, she has mainly been writing travel reports and features about people who live and work on and near the water for BOOTE. She has been a permanent member of the Delius Klasing water sports editorial team since January 2024.

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