Bismarck Tower (Burg (Spreewald))
The Bismarck Tower is a Bismarck monument on the Schlossberg north of the municipality of Burg (Spreewald) in the Brandenburg district of Spree-Neisse . The structure, which is 28 m high today, was built between 1915 and 1917.
Architecture and design
The tower consists of 1.5 million red clinker bricks from the Calauer Ottilienhütte and was 27 meters high when it was completed.
The square base of the tower is one meter high and has an edge length of 13.77 meters. Two outside staircases with seven and six steps lead to the arched portal on the southwest side of the tower.
The first floor is also square with an edge length of 9.35 meters. Inside there is a memorial hall surrounded by 28 pillars , with an octagonal dome above the central space . The hall is clad with green majolica panels by Ernst Teichert from Meißen .
A viewing platform is located above the hall at a height of 5 and 21 meters . Two stone spiral staircases are available for ascent and descent . The first platform is reached via 26 steps. From here 15 steps lead to a smaller platform located between the four pillars of the tower and another 70 steps lead to the second viewing level. From there, a metal spiral staircase with 26 steps and a last stone step lead to the octagonal tower head, which used to carry a fire bowl and today offers a good view from around 26 meters high. A total of 138 steps have to be mastered for the ascent.
In 1999, a glass-steel outlet was installed on the tower, increasing its total height to 28 meters.
history
The first plans to build a lookout tower near Burg were made around 1900 under the direction of Medical Councilor Dr. Robert Behla . The Schlossberg was already chosen as the location.
In 1910, the Spreewaldverein suggested building a Bismarck tower at this point and on May 10th appealed to the population for donations. Donations were mainly received from the population of Cottbus and Burg. The donors also included landowners in the vicinity. At the suggestion of District Administrator Oskar von Wackerbarth , the district gradually acquired the approximately 5 hectare area.
The architect Professor Bruno Möhring from Berlin was commissioned to create a design. The Cottbus architect of the Dümpert & Hauke office , Hermann Hauke , was commissioned to carry out this design .
The beginning of the First World War delayed the construction work, which could finally begin in spring 1915 and dragged on for two years. The tower has now also been prepared as a memorial for the soldiers who died in the war.
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In the central memorial hall, opposite the entrance, an iron bust of Otto von Bismarck by the Berlin sculptor Hermann Hosaeus was placed in a semicircular niche on the north side . These inscriptions were worked into the granite base :
- HIM / WHO FOUNDED OUT OF POPULAR NIGHT / AND EMERGENCY / REICH and IMPERIAL POWER / and /
- YOU / YOUR HEROOD DEATH / HIS GIANT WORK / FULLY COMPLETE
In the side niches, donation boards designed by the sculptors Georg Roch and Hermann Feuerhahn were installed.
During the Nazi era from 1933, midsummer celebrations were held on the site . During the Second World War , a military observation point was set up on the tower in 1944. The tower also served as a radio control center for the German Wehrmacht . In 1945 the tower was planned to be blown up . Although the explosives were already attached, the project could still be prevented.
After 1945 the “ideological components” of the interior were “erased”. Before about 1960, the inscriptions on the granite base, a Bismarck coat of arms originally attached to the lower parapet and the bust were removed, as was a fire bowl originally located on the tower head. The donation boards also disappeared. Her whereabouts are unknown. In the summer of 1951, the Bismarck Tower was renamed the Tower of Youth .
The tower remained closed to the public from 1950 to 1990 for strategic military reasons. Even before 1960, the parapet of the first viewing platform was replaced by a railing.
After the democratic change in the GDR , the tower was then renovated . The first platform got its parapet back; however, the reassembly of the Bismarck coat of arms was dispensed with. The original inscription in the memorial hall has been restored on a new plaque. As part of a folk festival , the tower was renamed the Bismarck Tower on October 3, 1990 and made accessible to the public.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the tower, a new Bismarck bust was placed in the interior niche in 2017.
Tourist information
In 2006, the Bismarckschänke was opened to the southwest of the tower, and the Gurkenradweg runs not far to the northwest of the tower .
Web links
- Entry in the monument database of the State of Brandenburg
- Bismarckturm Burg / Spreewald on www.bismarcktuerme.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bismarck Tower Burg / Spreewald | bismarcktuerme.de | The Bismarck Tower Portal. Retrieved January 23, 2018 .
Coordinates: 51 ° 50 ′ 45.8 " N , 14 ° 9 ′ 25.3" E