Campener Leuchtturm

The Campen lighthouse is a so-called steel lattice tower. At 65.30 m high, it is the tallest lighthouse in Germany. It was built in 1889/90 and its beacon has been guiding ships safely past Borkum into the Ems estuary ever since. Its design is similar to that of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and, like the latter with its framework of riveted iron parts, was an architectural novelty at the time. The engine room still contains one of the diesel engines from 1906 that used to power the generator for the beacon and is still in working order today. Before that, it was steam engines that generated the necessary electricity. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, there was no electricity here. The engine room is to be converted into a museum of navigation signs. Even today, in the age of satellite-based navigation systems, the tower is not without function. "If everything fails," says the qualified engineer from the Waterways and Shipping Office in Emden, "we still have the tower, which is also used for radio relay links." Next to the tower are the engine house and the houses of the lighthouse and engine keepers. Those who make the effort to climb the 308 steps to the lower gallery of the tower are rewarded on a clear day with a view that stretches as far as Borkum and across the Krummhörn to Emden. It can also serve as an orientation aid for the large ships that have to find their way past Borkum into the Ems estuary. An information pavilion next to the tower provides information about the "East Frisian Eiffel Tower".