In the Low German dialect of the Middle Ages, the term bake referred to all navigational aids – including lighthouses.

About 30 meters (100 feet) high and built of wood, the Kugelbake is the principal landmark of Cuxhaven; since 1913, it has been depicted on the city's coat of arms.

[1][2] The Kugelbake stands at a busy shipping lane in the Cuxhaven borough of Döse and was once a vital nautical landmark.

[3] The first navigational aid was built on this spot around 1703 at the instigation of the Pilot Inspector Paul Allers after an existing bearing, a group of trees, was swept away by a fierce storm surge.

[7] In 2001 the Wasser- und Schifffahrtsverwaltung (English: Water and Shipping Administration) transferred the Kugelbake to the federal historic properties agency, since the beacon had lost its nautical importance.