DEUTSCHLAND | GERMANY |
Bundesland: Niedersachsen | Lower Saxony |
Landkreis: Friesland |
Horumersiel-Schillig is part of the municipality Wangerland and is situated at the northeastern tip of the East Frisian penninsula about 20 km north of Wilhelmshaven.
Horumersiel [left, no. 3243: right picture] was founded round 1542 as a small port village. The port was used for the transport of goods, but due to the vicinity of the fishing ports at Carolinensiel and Hooksiel no fishing boats were stationed here. The port lost most of its importance in the mid-18th century because other ports became more attractive when the river Weser was deepened. Transport by ships also suffered from the opening of railway lines: the line to Carolinensiel opened in 1889, the line to Schillig, bypassing Horumersiel, opened in 1914. During both World Wars, Horumersiel was used as a naval base in order to defend the navigation channel to Wilhelmshaven. After the destruction by a storm surg in 1856 of Wangerooge, part of the island's population settled in Horumersiel and subsequently founded Horumersiel's tradition as a bathing resort. Since 1985, Horumersiel is officially recognised as a North Sea spa ('Nordseebad'), the predicate 'Nordseebad' was added to the name Horumersiel in 1990.
Schillig [left, no. 3243: left picture] is located at the extreme northeastern tip of the east Frisian penninsula and thus always had been a strategically important site for thr protection of the navigation route leading south tothe Imperial naval port at Wilhelmshaven. Parts of the Imperial navy were stationed at Schillig-Reede during the Franco-Prussian War (1870/1871) and during both World Wars. In the night of 29th to 30th of October 1918, a mutiny began on some of these ships, leading a few days later to the Kiel mutiny, the November Revolution and finally the proclamation of the German Republic on 9 November 1918 in Berlin. Summer tourism started in 1856 (see above).
The lighthouse Schillig [left] was built in 1875/1877. Its height was
23 metres. It was replaced in 1961 by a concrete column, which served as a lighthouse until 1987 and today is
used as a radar and antenna tower.
[https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horumersiel, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schillig;
http://www.deutsche-leuchtfeuer.de/nordsee/schillig-oberfeuer.html]