A Liebherr LR 11350 crawler crane from Schmidbauer has completed erection work on the world’s tallest wind turbine in Lusatia, Brandenburg, Germany, handling loads of up to 375 tonnes during the construction of the 365-metre-high GICON high-altitude wind turbine.

The prototype combines a large steel lattice tower with a 3.8 MW wind turbine and a rotor measuring approximately 126 metres in diameter. Following installation of the rotor blades, the inner section of the tower was telescoped upwards using an integrated system, taking the structure to its final height of 365 metres.

The LR 11350 had been working on the project since spring 2025. For much of the construction, the crawler crane operated with Liebherr’s PowerBoom parallel boom system.

Its heaviest lift involved a tower section measuring approximately 40 x 40 x 40 metres and weighing 375 tonnes gross. Working at a radius of around 44 metres, the crane placed the section onto the 50-metre-high base structure.

The operation also required the LR 11350 to travel along a specially constructed track using steel plates and bongossi timber.

During erection of the lattice structure, the crane worked with the PowerBoom and a jib tip of up to 84 metres, carrying total ballast of up to 850 tonnes across the crane and derrick ballast platform.

For installation of the rotor blades, Schmidbauer converted the crane from its PowerBoom configuration to a 104-metre lattice boom in just six days. Combined with an 84-metre luffing jib, this produced a roller-head height of 200 metres.

After several days waiting for a suitable low-wind weather window, the three rotor blades were installed at around 170 metres above ground within 12 hours, with part of the work carried out at night.

“During its approximately 18-month period of operation, my LR 11350 performed with absolute reliability and without any faults,” said Fabian Ueck, Crane Operator at Schmidbauer.

Several additional Liebherr mobile cranes were used for crawler crane assembly and ballasting, work on the base structure and pre-assembly of the lattice tower sections.

The GICON high-altitude wind turbine now stands as Germany’s second-tallest structure after the Berlin TV Tower.