Neuwerk

Neuwerk

Neuwerk
Location of Neuwerk, Scharhörn and Nigehörn in Hamburg-Mitte
Neuwerk
Geography
Location	North Sea, Elbe mouth
Coordinates	53°55′N 8°30′E / 53.917°N 8.500°E / 53.917; 8.500
Area	3 km2 (1.2 sq mi)
Administration
Germany
State	Hamburg
Borough	Hamburg-Mitte
Demographics
Population	21 (2023-12-31)[1]
Pop. density	7/km2 (18/sq mi)

Neuwerk (pronunciation^ⓘ; (Archaic English: New Werk^[2] or Newark^[3]) is a 3 km² (1.2 sq mi) 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 13 km (8 mi) northwest of Cuxhaven, between the Weser and Elbe estuaries. The distance to the centre of Hamburg is about 120 km (70 mi).

Administratively, Neuwerk forms a homonymous quarter of the city and state of Hamburg, Germany, and is part of the borough Hamburg-Mitte. This quarter includes the islands of Scharhörn and Nigehörn, which are bird sanctuaries and closed to the public. All three islands and the Wadden Sea around them form the Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park.

Dikes encircle the island, which is about 3 square kilometres (1.2 square miles), and one can walk around it in an hour. Salt marshes (the "Outland"), lie outside the dikes and provide a hatchery for birds such as oystercatchers, common terns, sandwich terns, black-headed gull, herring gulls, and others. During the summer farmers may pasture cows and horses on the northern Outland.

At low tide one can reach the island on foot or on a Wattwagen, a horse-drawn mud flat coach, from Cuxhaven. A row of poles on the mud flats marks the way. The path includes some elevated cages. These are rescue pods. Should high tide catch a walker far from shore, the walker can climb into the pod and wait for the tide to recede, or trigger a flare. Triggering the flare summons a rescue boat; rescue involves a fee and non-negligible fine.

During the summer the vessel MS Flipper makes a daily trip at high tide from the "Alte Liebe" port in Cuxhaven to the island. Because departure times depend on the tides, the times are variable. The trip takes about an hour and a half one-way.

One may, for a small fee, visit and ascend the lighthouse to a viewing platform. This provides a view of the coast and the entire island. There is a small hotel with seven guest rooms inside the lighthouse, and a hostel in a building next to the tower. Near the lighthouse there is the "graveyard of the nameless". This is a resting place for the dead bodies that in past years washed ashore. Today, bodies washed ashore are transferred to the continent.