Scharhörn is an uninhabited island in the

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

belonging to the city of

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The once most important daymark on the North Sea coast, the Scharhörnbake, was maintained here by the City of Hamburg from 1440 to 1979.

Geography

Scharhörn lies by the mouth of the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

, approximately northwest of Cuxhaven and northwest of the nearby island of Neuwerk. It is a part of Zone 1 of the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park. Aside from a nature reserve warden, the island has no permanent residents. Together with the artificial island of Nigehörn the island lies on a large sandbank. Historically the whole area including the reef was called Scharhörn and the sandbank Scharhörnplate. After the human supported formation of the island in the 1920s and finally with the creation of Nigehörn on the same sandbank, the name Scharhörn was only used for the island. Though Scharhörn is generally flood-safe, the banks of the island are not protected, so the island faces permanent loss of land on the western side as storm floods gradually shift the sandbank eastward. The sandbank on which Scharhörn and Nigehörn lie is a European Union

Natura 2000 Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectiv ...

-designated bird sanctuary, tended to by the environmental group '' Verein Jordsand''. The area, known as ''Scharhörnplate'', is around long and wide with an area of approximately . Public access to the island is forbidden, except on official tours or by prior arrangement with the warden.

History

In 1937, the island became part of the Prussian

Province of Hanover The Province of Hanover () was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Free State of Prussia from 1866 to 1946. During the Austro-Prussian War, the Kingdom of Hanover had attempted to maintain a neutral position, alo ...

as a result of the Greater Hamburg Act. The island changed hands again in 1947, when it became part of the newly-drawn state of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

, and again in 1969, when it was returned under a treaty to the control of Hamburg for the purpose of constructing a proposed

deepwater port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manche ...

on Scharhörn and nearby Neuwerk. The plans foresaw the construction of a mound of land built from dredged sand, which was to be safe from the storm floods of the North Sea and connected to the mainland via a causeway from Scharhörn to Neuwerk to Cuxhaven. The plan was never realised, plagued by protests, high costs, and low levels of public support, but nevertheless remains included in the land use plan of Hamburg.Informationen zum Flächennutzungsplan, hamburg.de
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Shipwrecks

The Elbe has been one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world for many centuries, and the waters around Scharhörn were very dangerous until the late 20th century. This has made the reefs a ''ship graveyard'' for hundreds of ships, their crews, passengers or cargo. For the people of Neuwerk and the nearby coastal villages, this was an important source of income, sometimes even legally acquired for rescue and salvage operations. But picking up cargo and freight from the coast and from the tidal flats was also common until not long ago.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scharhorn Frisian Islands Uninhabited islands of Germany Islands of Hamburg Nature reserves in Hamburg