From the marker close to the stone: End of 14th century Hamburg acquired some territory at the spout of river Elbe (Amt Ritzebüttel) which is today mostly located within Cuxhaven. Part of this where also 5 small villages including Arensch and Berensch.

The borderline to the neighbors in the south – county Wursten – was not clear. Important because of the rules which cover the beach piracy whenever ships where stranding.

In 1586 delegates from Hamburg and Bremen set the border. While in the souroundings, a small creek was part of a natural border, a man-made border should make the demand visible in the foreland and the wadden sea.

According to this, the following year 1587, the Berenscher Schedelstein (boundary stone) was set which included also a bearing appliance with direction Northwest to West.

The crest of both parties was engraved to the sides. The Hamburg crest, showing the Hamburg Castle to the North and the Bremen crest, showing the crossed keys to the South.

Berenscher Schedelstein

Even today this stone is showing the borderline between the communities Cuxhaven and Nordholz.

Big picture above shows the full stone with south located crest of Bremen. Picture 1 and 2 showing the crests of Hamburg and Bremen. Picture 3 and 4  showing the top and the part facing to the Northwest bearing.  Finally picture 5 is the view which the bearing appliance would have shown.

The other two pictures show the oak forest part which is also a speciality at the North Sea. Normally oaks do not prosper well close to the coast because of the salty breeze. Therefore these oaks are very small and look more like a shrubbery than normal big oaks. This sort of forest is called Kratteichenwald.

More information can be found here (German).