The Fehmarnbelt Lightship (german: Feuerschiff Fehmarnbelt) was built in 1906–1908 at Brake on the

River Weser The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports of B ...

and entered service in 1908 as the lightship Außeneider. Until 1945 it was moored at the position known as ''Außeneider'' guarding the estuary of the river

Eider Eiders () are large seaducks in the genus ''Somateria''. The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The down feathers of eider ducks, and some other ducks and geese, are used to fill pillows and quil ...

on the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

coast. In the years from 1956 to 1965 it was a reserve lighthouse in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and ...

and then from 1965 to 1984 it was positioned under its present name in the

Fehmarn Belt Fehmarn Belt (), (, former spelling ''Femer Bælt''; ) is a strait connecting the Bay of Kiel and the Bay of Mecklenburg in the western part of the Baltic Sea between the German island of Fehmarn and the Danish island of Lolland. Ferries ...

. Today it belongs to a charitable society and its home port is the in the

Hanseatic city The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German t ...

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the state ...

, where it spends the winter months at least. The ship is preserved in working condition and during the summer it is taken to sea in order to test all facilities under sea conditions. Visits on board the lightship are permitted. File:Lightvessel Fehrmarnbelt.jpg, Fehmarnbelt Museum port, Lübeck File:Feuerschiff Fehmmarnbelt.jpg, The Fehmarnbelt Lightship in July 2006 visiting the Heiligenhafen port

References

External links

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Page of the Lightships of Lübeck Society
Museum ships in Germany Lübeck Lightships 20th century in Schleswig-Holstein Port of Lübeck {{Europe-lighthouse-stub