Roter Sand

As ships became larger and larger from 1800 onwards and shipping traffic on the Weser increased, the accuracy of the fairway also became more and more demanding. The initial plan was to construct a lightship for this purpose. But this was quickly discarded due to the running costs. So it was decided to build a lighthouse. The first attempt failed in 1881, but the second building was erected in 1883 and the fire was switched on 1 November 1885. It was the first real offshore lighthouse in the world with a height of 54 m, plus 22 m of the base below the water line. The ranges of the lights have been 20 nm for the white, 15 nm for the red and 13 nm for the green light. The new radar technology of the early 1960s could not be set up on the “Roter Sand”. So the lighthouse “Alte Weser” was built appr. 2 nm away and the “Roter Sand” was finally closed in 1986, after the auxiliary light was already switched off in 1964.