In 1630 a lighthouse was established for the first time on Heligoland by the Duke of Schleswig; in return for maintaining the coal-fired light he claimed 'fire money'(German: Feuergeldern) of one Lübeck shilling per Last from ship owners in Hamburg, Bremen, Stade and the Ducal ports.

High-quality coal was imported from Scotland as fuel for the light, which initially operated only during the winter months (though from 1761 onwards it would be lit all the year round).

In 1705 an agreement was made between the Danish government and the City of Hamburg, which saw the latter take responsibility for maintaining the building, supplying it with coal and paying the keeper's salary (all to be financed by the levying of dues on vessels navigating the Elbe).

[2] According to the same description, the lighthouse was said to have consumed 'upwards of four thousand pounds weight of coals a night, during the dark and stormy winter season'.

It constituted an important aid to navigation in the German Bight because its light was visible roughly twice as far as that of Cuxhaven Lighthouse, which had been established a few years before.

[7] Later a radar sensor, Marine and mobile radio telephony devices and an electric beacon were added on top of the lantern house.

The English lighthouse of 1811 was equipped with 24 Argand lamps and reflectors, which displayed a fixed white light visible at a distance of up to 20 nautical miles (37 km; 23 mi).

[3] In 1876 these were replaced by Trinity House with a fixed first order Fresnel lens array, designed and manufactured by John Hopkinson of Chance Brothers in Birmingham, UK.

In an unusual arrangement arc lights were combined with silvered glass parabolic reflectors to form a rotating array of three searchlights, which produced a flash once every five seconds.