Bismarck Tower (Porta Westfalica)
The Bismarck Tower Porta Westfalica was a Bismarck Tower built in 1902 on the Jakobsberg near today's city of Porta Westfalica in North Rhine-Westphalia . He was in East Westphalia on the westernmost mountain in Wesergebirge the Weser breakthrough Porta Westfalica , through which the river Weser in the North German lowland leads. In 1952, the tower was demolished in favor of the (old) Jakobsberg telecommunications tower built by the Deutsche Bundespost at the same location .
history
At the highest point of Jakobsberg ( 235.2 m ), the Bismarck tower Porta Westfalica was built by Bismarck fans in 1902 to commemorate former Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) . Several newspaper advertisements were published to finance the project in order to raise the necessary capital from the population. 6,020 marks were initially collected, with additional donations. The tower was built on the site of a wooden observation tower on the Jakobsberg according to a design by the architect Heinrich Hutze from Porta sandstone . The tower was inaugurated on October 18, 1902. The total cost was 28,000 marks. Until 1939, the brazier was lit regularly on Bismarck's birthday on April 1st and at the solstice . In 1952 the Bismarck Tower was demolished in favor of a telecommunications tower built by the Deutsche Bundespost at the same location. This (old) telecommunications tower was demolished in 1979 after the completion of the new telecommunications tower . The sandstone blocks of the Bismarck Tower were used to rebuild the town hall of Minden, which was destroyed in World War II . At the request of the Bismarck Association, as the owner of the site, a viewing gallery on the television tower and a Bismarck memorial room on the television tower were set up.
Dimensions
The tower was 22.5 meters high. At a height of 16 meters, the tower had a square viewing platform of 7.2 by 7.2 meters, which could be reached via an internal staircase. The building material porta sandstone was mined in a nearby quarry. Above the entrance there was a Bismarck coat of arms , and above it was the Bismarck relief made of bronze and designed by the artist Heinrich Wefing .
See also
literature
- Thomas Gräfe: Promotion of tourism or nationalistic places of worship? The Bismarck Towers in Vlotho and Porta Westfalica 1902-1952 , in: Historisches Jahrbuch für den Kreis Herford 26 (2019), pp. 212–237.
- Sieglinde Seele: Lexicon of the Bismarck Monuments. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2005, ISBN 3-86568-019-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c The Bismarck Tower in Porta Westfalica Homepage, accessed July 4, 2011
Coordinates: 52 ° 14 ′ 30.6 ″ N , 8 ° 56 ′ 9.2 ″ E