Monthly Bulletin May/June 2005 - Vol 8 No. 3

How GPS is killing lighthouses - Lights out along the German Coast

by Gerald Traufetter in Hamburg

The popularity of the satellite-based global positioning system has led to the closure of lighthouses along the German coast. Many more may soon be extinguished. But critics question whether the new system is reliable and safe enough to warrant the closure of these historical beacons of safety.

Falshoeft is not the only lighthouse on Germany's North Sea and Baltic Coasts losing its light. Many more strobes are expected to soon be turned off, threatening to forever end an important part of the country's maritime history. Opposition to the plan among locals and among ship captains, however, is brewing.

With the high cost of maintaining lighthouses and the ubiquity of global positioning system (GPS)-based satellite navigation systems and highly sophisticated electronic sea maps that pin-point route information aboard virtually all major freighter ships and tankers, the physical need for lighthouses has greatly diminished in many areas. Along Germany's rivers, which are major shipping lanes in their own right, directional radio beacons now help to guide ships. But GPS, a service of the United States military with satellites that circumnavigate the globe, remains the only system available that covers the entire open sea. In addition to helping cars and cruise missiles find their destinations and targets, it also guides the ships of the world's merchant marines. And that, unfortunately, spells bad news for the fate of Germany's lighthouses.

The full text of the article is available at Spiegel Online at http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,340729,00.html.