Kugelbake, Maritime landmark in Cuxhaven, Germany
The Kugelbake is a wooden day beacon in Cuxhaven-Döse, at the northernmost point of Lower Saxony where the Elbe meets the North Sea. Four long dark beams splay inward at its base, with a fifth vertical timber rising through the centre; above them an open lattice of vertical slats widens near the middle and narrows toward the top, crossed by diagonal braces. A narrow metal ladder climbs the central timber to a dark sphere on a short stem. It stands on a round platform of granite blocks.
The first beacon was erected in December 1703 on the order of pilot inspector Paul Allers, after a storm surge had washed away the group of trees previously used as a bearing point. Built of wood, it decayed quickly in wind and flood and was renewed roughly every 30 years, the first time around 1737. In 1867 Hugo Lentz placed it on a round platform of granite blocks; the present structure dates from after 1945.
The name comes from Low German: in the Middle Ages a bake meant any navigational aid, including lighthouses, and the ball on top gave the Kugelbake its name. Since 1913 it has appeared on Cuxhaven's coat of arms. At night the beacon is lit for visitors, and shipspotters gather here to watch traffic on the busy lane.
The Kugelbake stands in the Cuxhaven borough of Döse, not at a harbour, on a round platform of granite blocks laid in 1867. It has been reachable on foot via a causeway since 1782. The site lies at the northernmost point of Lower Saxony, where the Elbe meets the North Sea and the estuary is about 18 km wide; expect strong wind and changeable weather.
In the winter of 1899–1900, radio pioneer Jonathan Zenneck set up a wooden hut inside the Kugelbake with antennas and equipment for Germany's first coastal radio station. The first transmissions reached the steamship Silvana 32 km away; by autumn 1900 signals carried to Heligoland, 63 km off.
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