Bismarck Tower (Bad Godesberg)

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Bismarck Tower
The east side of the tower (2017)

The east side of the tower (2017)

Data
place Elisabethstrasse,
Bad Godesberg ,
North Rhine-Westphalia ,
Germany
architect Ernst Spindler
Architectural style Art Nouveau
Construction year 1901-1902
height 20.4 m
Coordinates 50 ° 40 '30 "  N , 7 ° 9' 2.1"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 40 '30 "  N , 7 ° 9' 2.1"  E
particularities
Observation tower with lighting option
Bismarck Tower, aerial photo (2014)

The Bismarck Tower in Bad Godesberg was built as the third Bismarck Tower in what is now the city ​​of Bonn . The still existing Bismarck column in the Rheinaue in Bonn-Gronau was completed in 1901, and the wooden Bismarck tower on the Venusberg in Bonn-Kessenich was inaugurated in 1894; the wooden tower had to be demolished in 1912 and was not rebuilt later. The Godesberg Bismarck Tower is located on the Wacholderhöhe on Elisabethstrasse in the Alt-Godesberg district . The tower is a listed building, the entry was made in 1988 with the comment that the building was clearly influenced by the Art Nouveau architecture of Henry van de Velde .

history

In 1899 the Bismarck Memorial Committee was founded in Godesberg am Rhein . The chairmanship of the committee lay with the chairman of the Godesberg National Liberal Association founded in 1898, the secret medical councilor Brandis; another member was the mayor of Godesberg, Anton Dengler . The juniper height was set as the location ; the required, around 600 square meter building plot was provided by the community of Godesberg and the banker Karl von der Heydt , whose villa was only around 120 meters northwest of the desired building site and was surrounded by a large park at the time. The construction costs (21,000 marks ) were financed through donations. The design of the building came from the government master builder Ernst Spindler from Berlin, who also took over the construction management . The construction in 1901/1902 was carried out by the Godesberg company Theodor Wilhelm Düren .

The tower was inaugurated on March 31, 1902. To this end, a pageant had marched from the Godesberg spa gardens to the newly built structure. The fire was lit for the first time on the top of the tower. The first renovation had to be carried out in 1908 because the upper platform and the base were damaged. In 1912, in addition to replacing the wooden door with a steel door, a new fire basket weighing 372 kilograms was installed. A planned demolition of the tower in 1952 was waived due to the high demolition costs. In 1956, access was blocked for security reasons. In 2004 the tower was refurbished, the fire bowl no longer exists and unauthorized access is not possible.

architecture

The 20.4 meter high Bismarck tower was built on an octagonal floor plan made of coarse-grained, brownish-yellow sandstone for the column and basalt lava for the approximately two meter high base. The base of the tower is 122 square meters, at ground level there are twelve 2.60 meter high buttress walls against the shaft. In the base there are stairs on the west side, which lead to the tower entrance and thus to an internal, stone spiral staircase with 60 steps to the mezzanine. From there a metal ladder leads to the rectangular exit of the viewing platform.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ No. 1346, according to List of acc. § 3 DSchG NW registered monuments, ground monuments, movable monuments and monument areas of the city of Bonn , city of Bonn, lower monument authority p. 18
  2. ↑ a b Walter Haentjes: From the spa gardens to the Wacholderhöhe, 3rd walk through Bad Godesberg. In: Godesberger Heimatblätter. Association for Homeland Care and Local History Bad Godesberg , No. 15, 1977, p. 56 ff.
  3. ↑ a b c On the trail of the Bismarck myth in Bonn , information on an excursion organized by the Bonner Heimat- und Geschichtsverein on August 5, 2015
  4. ↑ Baedeker's Rhine , Baedeker's travel guides , Karl Baedeker , 1926, p. 118
  5. ↑ Today the entrance gate to the access to the villa is on the opposite side of the street from the tower.

Web links

Commons : Bismarck Tower (Bad Godesberg)  - Collection of images