Bismarck Tower (Castle near Magdeburg)

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Bismarck tower in castle
door
Bismarck Tower3.JPG

The Bismarck Tower is a listed Bismarck Tower in Burg (near Magdeburg) in Saxony-Anhalt .

It stands east of the Burger locality north of the street Neuenzinnen on the Flämingberg .

history

In the Burger Hotel Lachsmund at Bahnhofstrasse 8 , a meeting took place on January 29, 1906 under the direction of the city council August Paasche to found a working committee for the construction of a Bismarck tower in honor of the former Chancellor Otto von Bismarck . The committee consisted of six people and when it was formed it had donations of 1,000 marks. A call for the construction of a Bismarck tower was written and further donations began to be collected. Among other things, benefit events and door-to-door collections took place. The activities were coordinated by Captain Wangemann. At this inaugural meeting, the hill known at that time as Haug'sche Windmühlenberg was determined as the future location of the tower. The purchase of the property was financed by a 15-year-old, accumulated building fund. In May 1906, the city of Burg approved the free supply of water required for the construction.

The burger Hermann Eggert worked as an architect . He made a first draft of a more compact and massive tower, for which the master bricklayer Gustav Ortloff made an execution drawing. The draft was published on postcards, but ultimately not implemented.

The association Bismarck Tower in Burg an der Ihle eV was founded as a support association in the summer of 1906. It was supposed to promote the construction and ensure the maintenance of the tower after completion. It was founded by Wangemann, who also became second chairman. City councilor Paasche became the first chairman. Well-known members of the association were the manufacturer Carl Steinle, the businessman Franz Adler and the judiciary Kessler. On the day the tower was inaugurated, the association had 250 members.

The first work began in April 1906 when stone wagons were brought to the construction site. The committee asked for a donation of stones. The construction of the excavation started on May 24, 1906, the foundation stone was laid on June 3, 1906, although an official ceremony was waived.

The construction work was carried out by the burger master mason Heinrich Pieper and the foreman Mücke. Clinker, bricks and granite stones were used as building materials. The actual construction of the tower began on June 25, 1906. The work was carried out by craftsmen and guilds at cost or even free of charge and ended with the ceremonial setting of the keystone in the center of the entrance hall on October 18, 1906 at 11.00 a.m. At the beginning of 1907 a fire bowl was placed in the middle of the tower. It was designed by the engineer Paatz and had grates and a pull. The tower cost a total of 15,000 marks, other figures assume 29,000 marks.

A club room was set up on the upper floor of the tower. Burger carpenters made paneling for the club room and the hall of honor from donated five solid meters of oak from the Sachsenwald .

The inauguration took place on March 22, 1907. It was originally planned for April 1, 1907, but that would have fallen on Easter. With the inauguration, the working committee dissolved and the tower was handed over to the friends' association. However, invoices for tower construction were still open. There were also further benefit events in favor of the tower.

On April 1, 1907, at 7.45 p.m., a fire was lit for the first time in the brazier. Until 1918 this took place on April 1st.

A bronze bust of Bismarck created by the sculptor Görling was on the ground floor of the tower. The bust was donated by Albert Fordermann, the production was carried out by the company Gladenbeck & Sohn from Berlin-Friedrichshagen . On the side of the bust were medallions that showed the Minister of War Albrecht von Roon and the Chief of Staff Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke . During the First World War , the bronze bust was presumably melted down and replaced in 1927 by a plaster bust donated by the football club Prussia Burg . The paneling of the club room was already partially missing at this point. In May 1927 the city of Burg rejected an application for a subsidy for repair work in the amount of 500 marks. During the National Socialist era , busts of Adolf Hitler and Paul von Hindenburg were placed next to the Bismarck bust .

During the Second World War the tower was used as a flak observation post. Fire engines were collected in front of the tower so that they could move into Burg from here in the event of a bomb attack.

After the end of the war the tower stood empty and was broken into several times. In the 1950s the tower was renamed Flämingturm . In the 1960s the tower was used as a changing room for the neighboring sports field. The fire bowl and the inner staircase had not been there at least since 1970. The arched windows, the lower slots and the tower entrance were bricked up in the early 1970s.

At the end of 2004, a Bismarck Tower interest group was founded with the aim of initiating a renovation of the tower and making it usable again. Between February 21 and 25, 2005, the entrance to the Stad Burg building yard was reopened and the condition of the tower was first examined. From the beginning of September 2006, the tower was scaffolded to carry out the renovation. The walled-up windows were also opened again. On the occasion of the Open Monument Day in 2006, the tower was reopened for the first time - albeit only up to the first floor.

To finance the work, the Burg Heimatverein collected € 20,000 in donations. Further payments were made by the state of Saxony-Anhalt in the amount of € 40,000 and by Lotto-Toto with € 30,000. On the occasion of the Bismarck anniversary, a folk festival took place on June 16 and 17, 2007. The external renovation of the Bismarck Tower was completed by this time. The complete reopening with the possibility of climbing up to the viewing platform took place on September 14, 2008. In October 2009 the tower received a new entrance door made of oak, and in June 2011 a path around the tower plateau was paved.

architecture

The tower is 27 meters high and had a fire bowl. The floor plan of the plateau on which the tower is located is rectangular with 20.8 by 19.35 meters. The tower itself has a square floor plan of 9.05 by 9.05 meters. From the south side a 5.25 meter wide staircase with six steps leads in the middle to the tower.

The base of the tower as well as the protruding corners of the tower shaft are provided with roughly hewn or uncut granite boulders. The protruding corners merge into the tower shaft at a height of five meters. The remaining parts of the tower consist of irregularly hewn boulders.

The tower received a two-winged wooden door that originally had wrought iron fittings. A small three-step staircase leads to the door, which is bordered by small retaining walls. The door leads into a vaulted hallway, on the left of which there is a room for a tower keeper. A spiral staircase begins on the right . It leads to a celebration hall. A staircase that was originally made of wood can be used to climb to the tower's viewing platform.

On the north side of the tower was a plaque with the inscription Erected 1906 , on the south side a three by two meter copper Bismarck coat of arms was attached. The coat of arms showed a three-leaf clover lying on oak leaves.

In the local register of monuments , the observation tower is listed as a monument under registration number 094 76133 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Short question and answer Olaf Meister (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Prof. Dr. Claudia Dalbert (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Ministry of Culture March 19, 2015 Printed matter 6/3905 (KA 6/8670) List of monuments Saxony-Anhalt , Magdeburg.pdf, page 2436.

Coordinates: 52 ° 16 ′ 32.4 "  N , 11 ° 52 ′ 21.4"  E