Balje Lighthouse, Elbe Live Cam

This camera on the old Balje Lighthouse looks out over the Lower Elbe shipping lane between the Kehdingen marshes and Brunsbüttel. It follows passing vessels, from container ships and offshore supply boats to barges.

Balje lies on the Lower Saxony bank of the Elbe, in the Nordkehdingen area of the district of Stade. The lighthouse was built in 1903 in line with the Brunsbüttel locks of the Kiel Canal and was switched off in 1980. Today it is a listed monument, and the foreland outside the dike around it is a nature reserve.

The camera turns and zooms to keep a ship in frame. One view shows industrial chimneys and a high-rise on the Brunsbüttel side, another has wind turbines on the flat northern shore, and at low tide mudflats fill the foreground. A line at the bottom names the tracked vessel and gives its speed and destination.