In this video, I fly over the German border (East Friesland) into the Netherlands. To the Nieuw Statenzijl lock complex, located on the Dollard (Wadden Sea World Heritage Site). You can reach it from the Netherlands, but also from Germany; there’s a parking lot right next to the Dutch border. From there, you can walk or cycle across the border to the lock. There’s also a footpath there that leads to a birdwatching hut (kiekkaaste)
Border dispute:
The long‑standing maritime boundary dispute in the Dollart/Ems region
The precise maritime boundary through the Dollart and the outer Ems has never been definitively delimited. Both states maintain conflicting legal positions but have preferred pragmatic cooperation to adjudication. On 8 April 1960 the Netherlands and the Federal Republic of Germany concluded the Ems-Dollart Treaty, which organised navigation, fisheries and administrative cooperation in the estuary while leaving sovereignty claims unaffected.
The Dollart lies south of the seaport city of Emden (Germany) and north‑east of Delfzijl and Eemshaven (Netherlands). Its mouth, the Dollartmond, opens to the north‑west between the Dutch headland Punt van Reide and the tidal flat known as the Geise that separates the Dollart’s channel system from the Emden fairway of the Ems.
In 2011 the issue gained practical prominence when Germany issued permits for the Riffgat offshore wind farm within the 12‑nautical‑mile zone, an area affected by the differing claims. A second bilateral agreement was signed on 24 October 2014 to regulate “use and management” of the territorial sea between 3 and 12 nautical miles by reference to a functional line; the treaty expressly states that it is not a boundary settlement and preserves both parties’ positions. Media reports at the time described the dispute as “ended”, but the agreement does not demarcate sovereignty.