Bismarck Tower (Altenkirchen)
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The Bismarck Tower in Altenkirchen in the Westerwald in Rhineland-Palatinate was built in honor of the first German Chancellor, Prince Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898). The observation tower with a lighting option is 14 meters high and was built in just five months in 1914, although it was not officially inaugurated until 1922.
Geographical location
The Bismarck tower is located on the south of the Altenkirchener core city and beyond Wied located Johannisberg ( 289.3 m above sea level. NHN ). On its western elevations, it is slightly below the 282.5 m height line ; its altitude is usually given as about 282 m . A little northeast of the tower is the Westerwaldheim with a transmission tower to the west .
history
Planning time
After Bismarck's death in 1898 there was a broad movement in the German Empire that erected monuments for the former Chancellor. According to an idea of the German student body, a network of so-called pillars of fire was to be set up throughout Germany in order to ignite large braziers on certain days in honor of Bismarck.
In Altenkirchen, at a meeting of the Westerwald Association there in October 1909, it was suggested that a Bismarck tower with a lighting facility should also be built in this location. As a result, on April 1, 1910, the 95th birthday of Bismarck, ten local associations (including the local groups of the Pan-German Association , the German Fleet Association , the German Navy Association and the German Ostmarkenverein as well as the Warrior Association ) founded a Bismarck Tower Association, to start building the tower.
Money was quickly collected through association contributions and donations from the population, but the start of construction was delayed. It was not until 1913 that a piece of land was purchased on the "Auf dem Dorn" (282 meters above sea level ) south of the center of Altenkirchen and the local builder Jakob Becker was commissioned to build the tower. He first had a model of the planned Bismarck Tower made of wood in original size set up on the property , which was found to be good by those responsible. The construction costs were estimated at 14,000 gold marks and the Bismarck Tower Association could not fully pay for it until 1922 with the help of donations.
construction time
On April 1, 1914, Bismarck's 99th birthday, the foundation stone for the Bismarck Tower in Altenkirchen was laid. The construction work progressed rapidly, so that the tower was completed in just five months. The main building material used was sandstone and basalt , which came from quarries in the region. The builder Becker immortalized himself in a stone walled up on the north side with the following engraving: “Dev. J. Becker ”.
On the evening of September 1, 1914, the eve of Sedan Day, the campfire pool on the tower was lit for the first time. However, the official inauguration of the tower planned for April 1, 1915, the 100th birthday of Bismarck, did not take place due to the start of the First World War and was postponed indefinitely. On the east side of the tower one was above the entrance medallion of bronze with a relief image of Bismarck attached.
First decades
The official inauguration ceremony for the Bismarck tower in Altenkirchen did not take place until May 21, 1922. On this occasion, the building passed from the Bismarck Tower Association into the ownership of the City of Altenkirchen, and the association dissolved itself shortly afterwards. It is not known to what extent the fire basin on the tower was lit during or after the end of the First World War and the occupation of the Rhineland .
The Bismarck Tower survived the following decades and the Second World War largely unscathed. However, the Bismarck relief above the tower entrance was removed by 1945. It is unclear whether the bronze plaque for a metal collection was melted down during the war or was only dismantled afterwards by the French occupation forces .
Time after World War II
After the Second World War, the Bismarck Tower was further maintained and in June 1963 a new Bismarck relief was placed above the entrance on the east side of the tower. The city of Altenkirchen commissioned the medallion from the sculptor Helmut Otto Hoffmann-Schlöndorf (born November 12, 1906) from neighboring Mammelzen . However, from 1970 the tower was mostly closed due to vandalism and pollution and was only opened occasionally. In 2006 the Bismarck Tower had to be closed completely due to dilapidation .
On August 6, 2008, the Bismarck Tower Association Altenkirchen was founded, which is committed to the renovation and maintenance of the building. In fact, the tower was completely renovated in 2009/2010 (thanks in part to a grant from the State of Rhineland-Palatinate) and reopened on August 28, 2010. The fire basin on the top of the tower has also been renewed and can be fired again - a test firing was successfully carried out on August 20, 2010.
The Bismarck Tower is a listed building and is open every first Sunday of the month from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Every second Saturday in June there is a Bismarck Tower festival at the tower.
architecture
Altenkirchen's Bismarck Tower is built on a square floor plan . The tower itself is designed in a similar way and laid out in a square. The massive effect of the tower is softened by the fact that the tower body tapers slightly upwards. Light and dark sandstone and dark basalt from the region were mainly used as building materials.
terrace
The tower consists of three parts: the lowest part is a one-and-a-half to two-meter-high terrace on slightly sloping terrain . It has a square footprint of a good eleven by eleven meters and has three or four levels, depending on the terrain.
The terrace is accessed via a nine-step staircase on the east side of the tower that is almost two meters wide and two and a half meters long. It is bordered on both sides by a railing 50 centimeters wide . The terrace itself is surrounded by a basalt balustrade three quarters of a meter high . At their corners there are pillars with studs that support small campfires in the form of square, truncated pyramids .
Tower body
The roughly nine-meter-high, square tower with a side length of five by five meters rises above the terrace. It tapers slightly towards the top and consists of embossed sandstone. A dark sandstone was chosen up to a height of around three meters, a light sandstone for the rest of the tower body. Simple brick was used as the back wall . Up to a height of three meters, large bosses made of gray basalt are interlocked with the dark sandstone bosses at the tower corners.
A step on the east side of the tower body leads to the entrance door, which is around one meter wide and a good two meters high. The lintel was made from raw basalt. Above the entrance door there is a bronze medallion with a Bismarck relief, and above it, again at a height of around five meters, is a narrow, loopholed opening. Also on the south, west and north sides of the tower body there is a loop-hole-like window at a height of about three and seven meters.
Viewing platform and tower lantern
Above the tower body follows a four by four meter viewing platform , which with its balustrade made of black basalt stone protrudes slightly over the tower body. In the middle of the platform is the octagonal tower lantern , which is covered at a height of a good three meters with an octagonal sheet steel tub on which a large steel campfire is attached.
The lantern has a doorway on the south side through which you can reach the stairs inside the tower. On the west, north and east sides, the lantern has an open window with horizontal wooden slats as rain deflectors. On the south-western outer wall of the lantern there are iron rungs through which the fire basin at the top of the tower can be reached. The Bismarck Tower in Altenkirchen has a total height of around 14 meters with the terrace.
Staircase and lighting
From the entrance door in the east side of the tower leads to a spiral staircase of concrete , the total of 46 levels and 7, paragraphs winds around a brick pillar in the tower interior to the top. The top four steps of the stairs are made of metal and lead to the double-leaf door opening in the south side of the tower lantern and to the viewing platform. From there, iron rungs on the outside of the lantern lead to the fire basin at the tower head.
The fire basin is filled with wood and kerosene and lit for the fire . During the renovation of the Bismarck Tower, the fire basin on the top of the tower, which is fired on the occasion of the annual tower festival, was also renewed.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Map service of the landscape information system of the Rhineland-Palatinate nature conservation administration (LANIS map) ( notes )
See also
literature
- Günter Kloss, Sieglinde Seele: Bismarck Towers and Bismarck Columns. An inventory. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 1997, ISBN 3-932526-10-4 .
- Sieglinde Seele: Lexicon of the Bismarck Monuments. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2005, ISBN 3-86568-019-4 .
Web links
- Website of the Friends of the Bismarck Tower in Altenkirchen.
- The Bismarck Tower from Altenkirchen on bismarcktuerme.de.
- The Bismarck Tower of Altenkirchen in the directory of cultural monuments in the Altenkirchen district. (PDF; 1.4 MB)
Coordinates: 50 ° 40 ′ 46.9 " N , 7 ° 38 ′ 54.3" E