Together with the other beacons and the Great Tower Neuwerk, which was just a fortification at the time, it was the first lighthouse in the Elbe estuary and, after the Blüse Helgoland (1630) and Wangerooge (1631), the third on the German North Sea coast.

When its position was threatened by erosion of the shoreline at the beginning of the 19th century, it was replaced by a wooden lighthouse behind the dyke in 1814.

The bearing together with the 1310 erected Great Tower Neuwerk (lighthouse since 1814) led sailors to the Schartonne near Scharhörn.

Olaus Magnus already depicted a lighthouse in 1539 on Neuwerk in his Carta Marina, however such a mark is still missing on Melchior Lorck's much more detailed map of the Elbe from 1568.

[4][5] The operation was suspended from 1807 to 1813, but there were further interruptions due ice drift and when the wooden structure caught fire in 1724 and 1794, despite having extinguishing water on the platform all the time.