Bismarck Column (Dresden-Räcknitz)
The Bismarck Column (also called Bismarck Tower ) in Dresden - Räcknitz is a 23 meter high column of fire . It is part of the Bismarck myth around 1900 and the related monument boom of that time.
Originally, a network of pillars of fire of the same type was to be created, which was to extend over the entire German Empire at that time . At least the actors at the time managed to have 47 Bismarckian columns of this type built. Their appearance varies in height, width and detail, as local adjustments have been made due to the financial resources, types of rock and architects available on site. Ten “Götterdämmerungen” have already been destroyed.
History until 1990
In Dresden, the student body suggested the construction of this Bismarck column on the Franzenshöhe (Räcknitz). The design "Götterdämmerung" by the architect Wilhelm Kreis was implemented . a. also architect of the Hygiene Museum Dresden . The construction manager of the project was city building officer Edmund Bräter , and Gräft from Dresden-Klotzsche was the master mason.
Posta sandstone was used as the material for the column with the fire bowl attached .
In addition to the students, many citizens of Dresden also took part in the inauguration ceremony on June 23, 1906 ( summer solstice ). The fire bowl was lit for the first time that day.
The wrought iron fire bowl (diameter 4.1 m, height 0.5 m, cost 750 marks), which stood on iron feet, warped after the first lighting. It was fired with gas oil from Wilhelmsburg, whereby a maximum flame height of five meters was reached with a burning time of three hours.
On the city side, a sandstone imperial eagle relief with the serpent of discord was attached to the tower shaft.
The book burning on May 10, 1933 in Dresden took place at the Bismarck Column. This misuse of the place and structure represents the lowest point in the history of the structure. Because of this, the tower was considered unsustainable during the GDR era, and attempts were made to force it to be demolished.
In 1954, the column, which had been renamed Peace Tower on September 1, 1946 , became the legal entity of what was then the Dresden University of Technology. Several attempts to use it for scientific institutes failed because of the increasing costs for the renovation work. Since the costs for maintenance and security measures were constantly rising, also due to ongoing vandalism, the idea arose to demolish the tower in an emergency. This initiative was stopped immediately by the office of the city architect of Dresden for reasons of monument protection.
After a large number of negotiations, the tower was handed over to the city of Dresden by another change of legal entity as part of the preparatory work for the development of the residential area on the Räcknitzhöhe. This in turn took the other necessary security measures.
History from 1990 and reopening
After the political change , the tower was renamed back to the Bismarck Column in the 1990s, following a decision by the city council .
However, in these years, especially from 2000 onwards, the substance suffered from the exterior mainly from constantly changing graffiti . In addition, both the tower parapet and the platform showed major frost damage. After the building shell had been left to its own devices for over 90 years, an almost completely rinsed joint pattern and numerous stones blasted through rusted iron anchors inside were presented. According to initial investigations, the interior was contaminated with pigeon droppings. A colony of around 30 street pigeons had found shelter here for many years. In addition, use of the popular tower hill was difficult because of the overgrown vegetation here. The city's green space department carried out an emergency security in 2001 and redesigned the green spaces with the approval of the monument authority . At the beginning of 2002 the local press was looking for sponsors for the renovation of the Bismarckian Column.
On December 27, 2003, the Bismarck Tower Dresden e. V. founded. Seven students from the TU Dresden , primarily from the architecture course , had set themselves the common goal of making the tower accessible again. On January 12, 2004, the non-profit association was entered in the Dresden Register of Associations. The city of Dresden as the owner (it was represented here by the Green Space Office) joined the association and GM Gebäudemanagement GmbH in a joint effort to renovate the tower. The mayor of the city, Ingolf Roßberg , was able to win over the former Stadtsparkasse Dresden for the renovation of the tower, whereby this was mainly the responsibility of their foundations and was mainly organized in the background. The aim was to return the tower to the public by 2006, Dresden's 800th anniversary.
The inside of the tower was cleaned of pigeon droppings in September 2004 by members of the association. On October 16, 2004, the association then organized a small Bismarck Tower festival and informed those interested about their project. The renovation work began in December 2004. The company Bau Dresden Gruna sponsored an indoor and outdoor scaffolding with more than 1000 m² of scaffolding area for the 23 meter high tower. All openings were closed against pigeons, the existing steel staircase was removed except for a museum piece that can now be viewed.
In June 2005 - with the support of the Sparkasse - the brochure The Bismarck Column in Dresden-Räcknitz was finally published as a lookout tower . Despite these and many other activities, the acquisition of sponsors and donors turned out to be considerably more time-consuming than originally intended. In 2006 the tower was part of the image concept for the 800th anniversary of the city due to extensive outdoor advertising, but public use was by no means possible at that time. In August 2006, however, the 100th anniversary of the Bismarck Tower was celebrated with a solemn ceremony.
The extensive renovation work on the tower was only completed in 2007. The installation of the new staircases - as the main part of the project - had also been carried out through contributions in kind from over 30 companies, with dozens of Dresden, former Dresden and various Dresden companies taking on step sponsorships , which are also comprehensively documented by name tags. In total, more than 170 companies and institutions as well as countless private individuals from all over Germany are participating in this joint venture.
On August 30, 2008, the renovated Bismarck Tower was inaugurated again with a small party and presented to the public. A 158-step staircase leads inside to a viewing platform, from which, when the weather is nice, a panoramic view of the entire Elbe Valley, Saxon Switzerland and the heights of the Eastern Ore Mountains is possible: the original Bismarckian column was not designed and maintained for this public use at the time thus a new and publicly accepted provision.
Not far from the Bismarck Tower is the monument to Jean-Victor Moreau , which was often confused with the Bismarck Column itself during the GDR, since only this was recorded in the city maps.
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 1 ′ 20 ″ N , 13 ° 44 ′ 7 ″ E