STORY: Half curious, half afraid, the people of Bremerhaven looked at one of the city’s landmarks on Friday. The tower on the north pier has gotten dangerously crooked. The system collapsed on Thursday night. Now the sea mark, as it is officially called, is in danger of falling. Claus Lühmann from Bremerhaven speaks of a disgrace for the city and politics. “It started with the “Seuten Deern” (historic timber freighter and former restaurant ship, editor’s note), which was scrapped afterwards. It continues with the swing bridge in the port, which was broken at one point. And that works with other things too. Above all with the pier, the old landmark of Bremerhaven. It has been in the process of being renovated for seven or eight years. The money for it is ready, nothing is being done.” Bernd Vogel also has little understanding: “Well, I’ll say that for me it’s an expression, a symbol for the sloppy politics in Bremerhaven, for the handling of our tax money. Bremen, Bremerhaven is in last place in many respects, also in education policy and now here too, which gives the preservation of remarkable, even historical things.” The red dome of the mole tower in Bremerhaven is to be examined by experts according to preliminary planning on Saturday, according to the managing director of the port operator Bremenports, Robert Howe, on Friday. “We will set sail tomorrow morning, first of all inspect the tower in terms of health and safety considerations, how can we salvage as many original parts as possible? And if we find that the tower is actually more unstable than what we are looking at from here now then we will also start with dismantling measures.” The plans for redesigning the facility are already in the drawer. “The planning process has progressed so far that we are getting into the planning approval process. That was what we wanted from the start, so to speak, and the actual construction work should be completed in ’24, ’25, so to speak, so that we can deal with the misalignment, with the Average, unfortunately we were surprised for a year or two.” Many citizens would have an emotional view of the building. However, according to Howe, he is certain that the city will still have an equally beautiful tower after the redesign.