Bismarck Column (Itzehoe)
Coordinates: 53 ° 56 ′ 9.9 ″ N , 9 ° 32 ′ 37.6 ″ E
The Bismarck Column of Itzehoe (also known as the Bismarck Tower ) is in the Steinburg district in Schleswig-Holstein . It is one of the monuments erected in honor of Otto von Bismarck and one of the eight Bismarck towers in Schleswig-Holstein.
The Bismarck Column is one of Itzehoe's landmarks and stands as a cultural monument with a height of 18 meters as a viewing tower in the Lübschen wood (city forest) on a Bronze Age barrow, which was built on the top of a terminal moraine from the Ice Age (76 m above sea level).
history
Planning and construction time
After Bismarck's death in 1898 there was a broad movement in the German Empire that erected monuments for the former Chancellor. In Itzehoe, too, a group of Bismarck supporters suggested building a Bismarck tower in the city in 1899.
After a committee to erect a Bismarck Column was convened on May 28, 1900, the "Bismarck Column Itzehoe eV" association was founded for this purpose under the royal Prussian District Administrator Hermann Jungé. The foundation stone of the Itzehoer pillar was laid on Bismarck's birthday, April 1st, in 1901 and when the association was granted the right to build a 51 ares and 16 m² area in the Lübschen woods on July 15th, 1903 by the city council the same year construction began. The association decided in favor of the Götterdämmerung model by the architect Wilhelm Kreis .
In 1899, Kreis won a German student union competition with his design . According to an idea of the student body, a network of so-called pillars of fire should be set up throughout Germany in order to light large braziers on certain days in honor of Bismarck. The Bismarckian column from the Götterdämmerung model was built as a so-called type construction a total of 47 times in the German Empire until 1911 .
After the financial resources of the association were exhausted in 1905 (the total cost was 35,000 marks ), the district council decided at a meeting on March 28, 1905 to buy the building rights from the association and to complete the construction. The inauguration ceremony finally took place on October 18, 1905 with the participation of dignitaries from the entire region. The speeches were held by Privy Councilor Count von Reventlow and the royal Prussian District Administrator Reinhard Pahlke. The fire bowl was lit for the first time that day.
use
After its completion, the Steinburg district first became the owner of the Bismarck Column and the city advertised it as an important excursion destination in the region until at least 1926. In this context, it was recommended as a lookout tower with a distant view of the ship traffic on the Elbe and Stör .
During the Second World War, the tower was used by the Wehrmacht as an observation tower. After the war, the fire bowl was finally removed from the building, so the column only served as a lookout tower.
In 1958 the city of Itzehoe took over ownership of the district. This employed a tower guard who operated a kiosk and opened the column to visitors until around 1970. After the beech trees around the tower impaired the view over the years, the interest in Bismarck subsided and the city neglected the maintenance as a result, the interior of the column was in dire need of renovation. In the mid-1980s, the entrance to the Bismarck Tower was finally bricked up due to the dilapidated condition.
In 1999 the pillar was recognized by the Schleswig-Holstein State Office for Monument Preservation as a cultural monument of particular importance because of its historical and artistic value .
The city is still the owner, but today the tower is looked after on a voluntary basis by the "Bismarck Column Itzehoe eV - Association for the Preservation and Preservation of the Bismarck Column", founded in 2004. He symbolically sold the 100 steps of the staircase to the viewing platform of the Bismarck Column for a donation of 250 euros each and was able to extensively renovate the tower so that it is now accessible again to the interested public.
Today the tower can be climbed every Sunday afternoon from April to October. Access is free. It is also possible to use the tower on other days, e.g. B. in the context of school visits to open.
architecture
The Bismarckian Column from Itzehoe was erected on a square ground plan on an old barn . The area of the building is 8.5 m × 8.5 m. The tower itself is also square, but the massive effect is softened by three-quarter columns at the corners of the tower body. Roughly hewn black and gray granite blocks from Sweden were mainly used as building material.
Podium and basement
The column is divided into four parts: The lowest part was a two-tier, square platform . An axial granite free staircase from the foot of the hill leads with 16 steps to the entrance door (1.90 m × 1.20 m) on the podium in the south. The inscription BISMARCK is on the lintel above the entrance.
Tower body and upper floor
The actual tower body rises above the basement. It is set back from the basement and rounded off at the corners by three-quarter columns. Above the tower body follows the upper floor, which consists of an architrave and a superstructure. The tower has a total height of 18 meters.
Staircase and lighting
Inside the tower there is a staircase that can be used to reach a viewing platform that provides a view of the surroundings. At its top there is a viewing platform; originally there was also a cast iron fire bowl (3 m × 0.45 m) there. A mixture of beech logs, kerosene, gasoline and kieselguhr was burned in this fire bowl. The flame height ranged from 3 to 5 m.
entrance
Before the restoration
Side view
Side view
swell
literature
- Sieglinde Seele: Lexicon of the Bismarck Monuments. Imhof-Verlag Petersberg, 2005, p. 210.
- Valentin von Bismarck: Bismarck columns of fire u. Towers. (unpublished manuscript); No. 121 "Bismarck column of fire in Itzehoe", 1900–1915, 1937 (in the archive of the Alemannia fraternity, Bonn)
- Journal of the Bismarck Federation. 2nd year 1904 (No. 6, p. 2); 3rd year 1905 (No. 8, p. 9; No. 11, p. 10; No. 12, p. 10), 4th year 1906 (No. 1, p. 12), 5th year 1907 (supplement : The Bismarck Pillar of Fire)
- The Bismarck column (architect circle) in Itzehoe. In: Max Ehrhardt: Bismarck in the monument at home and abroad. Thuringian Publishing House Eisenach-Leipzig 1903.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Map sheet 4, parcel 2 according to the cadastre of March 17, 1903; Building permit entered in the land register on July 31, 1903, Volume 29, Sheet 1407
- ↑ Itzehoer Bismarck Column is opened again. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Segeberger Zeitung . October 15, 2009.
- ↑ Hidden in the forest. In: Norddeutsche Rundschau . May 17, 2009.
- ↑ Itzehoer Bismarck Column is opened again. In: Bild (newspaper) . October 15, 2009.
