Bismarck Tower (Coburg)
The Bismarck Tower in Coburg is one of the many Bismarck monuments in Germany that have survived to this day . The 16-meter-high sandstone Bismarck tower, built in 1901, is located in the western part of the city at Himmelsacker 63.
Building history
In order to advance the construction of the tower, a Bismarck tower committee was founded, of which Gebhardt was chairman. The committee selected the award-winning Götterdämmerung design by the architect Wilhelm Kreis . Duke Alfred von Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha provided the building site for the tower . The location at the highest point of the Himmelsack was chosen with the intention of creating a tower rectangle on the hills around the city center of Coburg with mutual line of sight together with the three existing landmarks Veste Coburg , Schloss Callenberg and Eckardtsturm . The construction planning and execution took over Carl Kleemann ; the construction costs amounted to 16,000 marks. Gray-white sandstone from a quarry in the nearby village of Weißenbrunn am Forst was used as building material . After the foundation stone was laid on September 2, 1900, the tower was inaugurated on June 30, 1901.
Building description
The base of the tower is a square, two-story platform . Both platform steps are 80 centimeters high; the lower one measures 11.5 meters × 11.5 meters, the upper 8.9 meters × 8.9 meters. Above this is the actual 1.60 meter high tower base with a floor plan of 6.35 meters × 6.35 meters. On the west side, a twelve-step access staircase leads through the platform and base to the door on the tower pylon.
The masonry of the tower pylon consists of 14 rows of picked, 60 centimeter high, gray-white sandstone blocks. The four edges of the square tower pylon are provided with massive three-quarter columns . The east side of the tower facing downtown Coburg is adorned with a bronze coat of arms of the German Empire created by the sculptor Max Beyersdorf in a yellow sandstone panel. The north and south sides are each provided with a light slot. On the west side, the year 1901 is written on a sandstone block above the metal door. At the upper end of the tower pylon, a smooth all-round entablature is adorned by two accompanying ribbons; an echinus sits above it . The monument is crowned by a three-tier superstructure. Inside the tower pylon, a wooden staircase, illuminated by the slits of light, leads to a viewing platform. There was a fire bowl (wire basket) in which 75 kg of rosin , 37.5 kg of kerosene and cotton wicks were previously ignited, which resulted in a fire with a flame height of 4 to 5 meters and a burning time of two hours. From 1964 to 2008 there was a television conversion system on the tower . When the stairs and the roof were renewed in 1996, the sandstone was also restored.
Others
The interior of the Bismarck Tower is not open to the public (as of April 2012). In the immediate vicinity of the tower there is a neo-classical waterworks , which, like the Bismarck tower itself, is a listed building.
literature
- Peter Morsbach, Otto Titz: Monuments in Bavaria. Volume IV.48. City of Coburg . Karl M. Lipp Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-87490-590-X .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Site inspection and survey by JFKCom , Bücherfresser und Malfieber on February 21, 2009.
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 15 '24.5 " N , 10 ° 56" 37.7 " E