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 The Scharhörnbake was the most important daymark on the German North Sea coast for several centuries. First erected in 1661 by the City of Hamburg on the sandbank Scharhörn and south side of the Elbe estuary, it was rebuilt over centuries and ...

, 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 Cuxhaven (; ) is a town and seat of the Cuxhaven district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town includes the northernmost point of Lower Saxony. It is situated on the shore of the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River. Cuxhaven has a footprint o ...

and northwest of the nearby island of

Neuwerk Neuwerk (; ; ''Archaic English'': New Werk or Newark) is a tidal island in the Wadden Sea ("Mudflat Sea") a marginal part of North Sea along the German coast. The population in 2023 was 21. Neuwerk is located northwest of Cuxhaven, between th ...

. It is a part of Zone 1 of the

Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park The Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park () is the smallest of the three German Wadden Sea National Parks which protect the single ecological entity of the Wadden Sea reaching from Den Helder to Esbjerg. It is an exclave of the city state of Hambur ...

. Aside from a nature reserve warden, the island has no permanent residents. Together with the artificial island of

Nigehörn Nigehörn () is an uninhabited artificial island in the North Sea belonging to the German city of Hamburg. Geography Located by the mouth of the Elbe, Nigehörn lies on the same sandbank as Scharhörn, about northwest of Neuwerk and northwes ...

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 ''Verein'' is a German word, sometimes translated as ''union'', ''club'' or ''association'', and may refer to: * ''Eingetragener Verein'' (e. V.), a registered voluntary association under German law * Swiss Verein, a voluntary association under Sw ...

''. 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 Greater Hamburg Act (), in full the Law Regarding Greater Hamburg and Other Territorial Readjustments (), was passed by the government of Nazi Germany on 26 January 1937, and mandated the exchange of territories between Hamburg and the Free S ...

. 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
/ref>

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