Pilot Station Seemannshöft) is a 1914 built brick building with dominant signal and observation tower on the sailor's lodge at the entrance of the port of Hamburg. There, the Hamburg harbor pilots, the ship reporting service, the working group Hamburg ship keeper and the nautical center of the port are housed.
The Seemannshöft is the tip of a narrow promontory in the northwest of Hamburg's district Waltershof between the Köhlfleet, a navigable tributary (→ Fleet) of the Elbe, and the Elbe main stream. At the very tip of the promontory is the beacon Seemannshöft.
The pilot house was built during the extension of the Port of Hamburg to the west. It was designed by the building director and head of structural engineering Fritz Schumacher and built according to his plans by the Office of Power and Harbor Construction. The building was the first landmark in the city to impressively mark the entrance to the harbor. At the same time, it had to provide the necessary premises to ensure round-the-clock pilot service.
The Grade II listed building was built entirely in brick construction. Fritz Schumacher considered a dark-skinned brick building particularly suitable for giving the Port of Hamburg a special character full of strength and northern German nature. He was of the opinion that the pilot house expresses this character very well. [2] Schumacher identified with his life throughout his life.
"Then, when individual lights flared up between the ships, the twilight began to dissolve all the dissonances, and the whole grew more and more into a breathing technical miracle, the desire awakened in me to be able to put a solid mass into this indefinitely surging structure. which towered like an unwavering guardian in it. "(Fritz Schumacher: Stages of Life.).