Bismarck Tower (Eisenach)

The Bismarck Tower on the Wartenberg in 1902

View from the north of the Wartenberg, the monument was located immediately to the left of the aisle at the edge of the forest.

Fragments of the monument on the Wartenberg

The Bismarck Tower or the Bismarck Column was a memorial to honor the German Chancellor Prince Otto von Bismarck and was located on the Wartenberg in the north of the city of Eisenach in Thuringia .

In place of the fraternity memorial already planned here, the Eisenach Bismarck memorial was built in 1902 on the still bare summit of the Wartenberg .

The building design was put out to tender as an architectural competition, and on April 21, 1899, Wilhelm Kreis from Blasewitz near Dresden won a copy of his “Götterdämmerung” design, which was awarded by the German student body in 1899 . The Eisenach construction company Gustav Stein was entrusted with the construction of the 18 meter high tower . The foundation stone was ceremoniously laid on September 2, 1901. Contractor Stein laid a small quarry just below the construction site in order to break the required limestone. The aim was to cause the lowest possible transport costs, but the quality of the stone was poor, and after 40 years the tower was in need of renovation, which was not done due to the Second World War . When the Bismarckian Column was inaugurated on October 19, 1902, only 20,000 marks in construction costs were incurred. The fire basin and the fire altar in front of the tower were lit for the first time on the opening day.

The monument was decorated with a monumental relief on the south side, the front side facing the Wartburg and the city, it showed an imperial eagle in the upper part and in the lower part a group of demonstrating boys who took part in the Wartburg Festival in 1817 . On the tower there was a viewing platform with the fireplace. The tower gave its visitors a 360 ° panoramic view of the landscape around Eisenach with the Wartburg .

A little below, the so-called “Bismarck Hut” was built soon after, it was a popular excursion restaurant with a zoo. The construction of the Reichsautobahn over the southern slope of the mountain made access to the Wartenberg from the city more difficult (tunnel).

During the Second World War the building was used for aerial observation. It received several hits from attacking enemy planes, but remained intact as a structure. After the war, the state refrained from maintaining the monument, referring to Bismarck's importance as a politician and large landowner . At the beginning of the 1950s the building was renamed "Tower of Youth". In 1959 the city building authority determined that the "restoration of the tower was justified".

The building, which had already been attacked by weather damage, was nevertheless closed by the authorities, and the tower was finally blown up in 1963 by pioneers of the GDR border troop garrison in Eisenach. The area around the tower was used as a military training area. Fragments of the facade are still scattered in the forest on the southern slope of the Wartenberg and have also been gradually cleared by the residents of an emerging garden.

Bismarck Monument Eisenach

The Bismarck monument on Wartburgallee around 1905

In 1903, one year after the inauguration of the Bismarck Tower, a monument in honor of Bismarck was consecrated in Eisenach in Wartburgallee at the entrance to the city park . This memorial was also completely demolished by 1963.

Web links

Commons : Bismarck Tower - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Private website on the topic of «Bismarck Towers» - it shows several historical documentary photos from the 1920s

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Festkomitee (ed.): The consecration of the Bismarckian column on the Wartenberg near Eisenach on October 19, 1902 . Hofbuchdruckerei Kahle, Eisenach 1902, p. 26 .
↑ Horst Zimmermann: 100 Years of the Burschenschaftsdenkmal (May 22, 2002) . Ed .: Monument Preservation Association. Harrer printing works, Völklingen and Eisenach 2002, p. 48 .
^ Lower Saxony yearbook for regional history. Volume 82, Hannover 2010, p. 182.
↑ A total of 47 Bismarck towers of this design were built in the German Empire, see main article Bismarck tower
↑ Reinhold Brunner, That was the 20th century in Eisenach, Wartberg Verlag 2000, ISBN 9783861349709 , page 7
↑ Reinhold Brunner, That was the 20th century in Eisenach, Wartberg Verlag 2000, ISBN 9783861349709 , page 65

50.991138888889 10.329277777778Coordinates: 50 ° 59 ′ 28.1 ″ N , 10 ° 19 ′ 45.4 ″ E

[Festschrift_1902-1] Festkomitee (ed.): The consecration of the Bismarckian column on the Wartenberg near Eisenach on October 19, 1902 . Hofbuchdruckerei Kahle, Eisenach 1902, p. 26 .

[Burschenschdkm-2] Horst Zimmermann: 100 Years of the Burschenschaftsdenkmal (May 22, 2002) . Ed .: Monument Preservation Association. Harrer printing works, Völklingen and Eisenach 2002, p. 48 .

[3] Lower Saxony yearbook for regional history. Volume 82, Hannover 2010, p. 182.

[4] A total of 47 Bismarck towers of this design were built in the German Empire, see main article Bismarck tower

[5] Reinhold Brunner, That was the 20th century in Eisenach, Wartberg Verlag 2000, ISBN 9783861349709 , page 7

[6] Reinhold Brunner, That was the 20th century in Eisenach, Wartberg Verlag 2000, ISBN 9783861349709 , page 65