About 50 guests and staff members celebrated the 15th anniversary of the ICBM Time Series Station (TSS) in a commemorative event near the island of Spiekeroog and in Wilhelmshaven on Thursday 7th September. In the afternoon head of the institute Prof. Dr. Oliver Zielinski welcomed the guests in the conference room of the Wadden Sea Visitors‘ Centre. Amongst other things, he explained the motivation for celebrating such an event already now: Firstly, it was a remarkable lifetime under the conditions the TSS had to withstand up to now and secondly, it would be wise to make up ones mind early where the journey was to go. Concept development as well as gaining poltical support would take years.

A short videoclip attuned the audience to the lectures to come. Prof. Jürgen Rullkötter, former director of the ICBM, explained to the attendees the quondam plans for installing a Special Research Field of the German Research Foundation while the institute still was in its “labour pains“. Although those plans were declined, the planners eventually succeded in establishing a Research Group on Tidal Flats. In these plans, the erection of a time series station still was budgeted. Finally, its construction was finished by the end of 2002.

The further speakers Prof. Burkhard Bascheck (Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht), Dr. Thomas Badewien and Dr. Melanie Beck (ICBM) as well as Prof. Hans Burchard (Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research) emphasized the high scientific value of the long-term and dense time-series data, which can be generated due to the particular design of the station. In a final wrap-up, Prof. Zielinski summarised the lectures, also raising questions on future developments. These questions were discussed instantly as well as later on, in the lobby, in front of scientific posters and exhibits.