From the Beginning to the Present
The Wadden Sea Station on Sylt – Germany’s northernmost research facility – can look back on a 100-year history and a long tradition as part of the Biological Institute Helgoland (BAH), which itself was founded in 1892. The station’s roots are closely intertwined with the European flat oyster: in the early 20th century, intensive fishing had seriously depleted oyster stocks in the North Sea. To gain a better understanding of the endangered species’ living conditions and explore options for effectively breeding it, in 1912 the German marine biologist and BAH staff member Prof Arthur Hagmeier began pursuing research into oysters and other bivalves. The oyster-breeding facilities already in place in List on Sylt offered the ideal location for his studies. Today, Hagmeier is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of Wadden Sea research in Germany.
In 1924, the BAH concluded a contract with the oyster fishing company Austernfischerei-Aktiengesellschaft to make part of a building in List available for research purposes – and what would become the Wadden Sea Station was born. According to Hagmeier, the most important tasks for the new BAH branch laboratory were to conduct scientific and fishery-relevant research into the current state of the commercially important oyster beds and devise new methods for artificial oyster breeding. In 1934, Arthur Hagmeier succeeded Wilhelm Mielck as Director of the BAH. When List Harbour was closed in 1935, both the oyster facilities and the BAH branch lab followed suit, only to reopen in 1937 at the Sylt Elbow.
In the course of the Second World War, the BAH on Helgoland was completely destroyed. Since the buildings at the Elbow were still intact, much of the research conducted on Helgoland was transferred to Sylt. At the same time, new research efforts began in Cuxhaven and Hamburg. However, not only were the requisite tools (delivery trucks, research ships, typewriters, etc.) hard to come by in the first years after the war; even food was in short supply. As such, Hagmeier wrote to a colleague on 3 February 1946: “As I said before, I would like to plant a vegetable garden at the Elbow. Above all, potato and carrot production would be important. Can you tell me […] which types of potato are best suited for the sand between the dunes?”.
Despite the adverse conditions, research soon resumed, and it wasn’t long before guest researchers began visiting the station and academic courses were taught there. Due to the steady flow of guest researchers and students, the station soon became overcrowded – a problem that was solved by acquiring the harbour laboratory in 1951. Arthur Hagmeier retired in 1953 and passed away in Kiel in 1957.
In 1959, the rebuilt BAH was opened on Helgoland. Consequently, the majority of researchers working on Sylt transferred to Helgoland. The buildings at the Elbow were cleared out and the remaining staff moved to the harbour lab, effectively returning the station on Sylt to its original status as a branch of the BAH. Consequently, the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry, which the BAH answered to, considered closing the station. Thanks to the efforts of then-BAH Director Prof Otto Kinne, these plans were abandoned, and the continued operations of the Wadden Sea Station on Sylt were secured. This was followed by the construction of a new institute building, which was completed in 1972 and offered a range of laboratory spaces for permanent staff and guests alike. In 1978, the station received a research ship suited for the mudflats: the catamaran Mya. In 1998, the BAH was integrated into the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research. In 2008, the institute building was extensively renovated and enlarged, making it now spacious enough to relocate teaching activities there from the harbour lab. The lab was then closed, and research and education have been combined under one roof ever since. In 2013, the cutting-edge, environmentally friendly research ship Mya II was commissioned, replacing the now-outdated catamaran Mya.
Today, the research conducted in List especially focuses on the effects of climate change on the Wadden Sea ecosystem. And those effects are already substantial: the water is rapidly warming. For the past several years, both the effects of climate change and the new food webs they have produced have been simulated and investigated in a one-of-a-kind mudflat and tidal experimentation facility equipped with large seawater tanks, referred to as the mesocosmos system. Data and analyses generated by the Wadden Sea Station represent valuable contributions to future planning for Germany’s coastal waters.
