Bismarck Tower (Unna)

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Bismarck Tower (2009)

The Bismarck Tower is located south of the district town of Unna on Wilhelmshöhe (214 m above sea level) in the area of ​​the village of Strickherdicke, which belongs to Fröndenberg . The 19.4 m high tower consists of blocks from the medieval Unna city wall and Ruhr sandstone from the quarries of the nearby Frömern . It also served as a lookout tower and contained a fire basket at the top , in which a widely visible fire was lit on national holidays before 1919.

history

Following the call of the German student body shortly after the death of the first Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (1898) to erect Bismarckian columns all over the country , on February 21, 1899 in Unna there was a "Committee for the erection of a Bismarck flame column on the Friedrich-Wilhelms- Höhe ”, which began with the organizational preparatory work for the monument construction.

Built 1899–1900 according to a design by the architect Bruno Schmitz , who was famous for his monumental buildings, including the Völkerschlachtdenkmal , the Kyffhäuser monument and the Kaiser Wilhelm monument at Porta Westfalica , the tower was celebrated on October 18, 1900 inaugurated with great sympathy from the population of Unna and the surrounding communities. The united male choirs alone had a strength of 350 singers. The tower was the first of its kind in Westphalia. The costs, 33,000 marks (based on today's purchasing power and adjusted for inflation: 229,000 euros), had been kept relatively low because several participants had worked for free or offered their services at low cost (e.g. stone processing).

Three times a year the Bismarck Tower was the site of the patriotic sentiments of the time: on Bismarck's birthday (April 1), on Sedan Day (September 2) and on the founding day of the Reich (January 18).

After the end of the German Empire (1918), the tower lost its general political identification symbolism during the Weimar Republic (1919–1933). However, it remained popular with the population as a destination and observation tower. In the 1920s, on Bismarck's birthday, a fire was lit on or on the tower as before. On April 1, 1925, Bismarck's 110th birthday, several nationally minded associations met, e. B. Military associations, the Treubund , the Young German Order , at the Bismarck Tower.

Two official occasions for the use of the Bismarck Tower have been handed down from the year power was passed to the NSDAP (1933): According to newspaper reports, the Bismarck Tower was lit on “ Day of Potsdam ” (March 21, 1933) and April 1, 1933. On both days, however, the focus was on pageants and National Socialist marches in Unna. This corresponded to the National Socialist party line of constructing an alleged line of tradition between the German Empire and the so-called “ Third Reich ” in the course of the Gleichschaltung .

During the Second World War, the building was temporarily used as a location for air space observation against incoming Anglo-American bombers.

In the 1950s here several years celebrated throughout expellees from the eastern territories to St. John's and lit it in the fire basket a bonfire. In the mid-1960s, the tower had to be closed to visitors for security reasons. In 1989 the fire basket was removed and replaced by a tubular steel frame with a table cross ( trigonometric measuring point ).

Todays use

The tower in spring 2010

On the initiative of the Bismarck Tower Association Unna in Fröndenberg eV , the tower was renovated with funds from the NRW Foundation in 2008, after the immediate surroundings had previously been cleared of trees and overgrown undergrowth. Since March 28, 2009, the Bismarck Tower has been open to the public again on Sundays. In addition to the good view, thanks to two information boards from the Geological Service of North Rhine-Westphalia , the tower also enables a “look under the earth” with information about the geological past of the Sauerland, the Münsterland Bay and the north-eastern Ruhr area.

Web links

Commons : Bismarck Tower  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Cf. Willy Timm: The History of the Tower ( Memento of the original from July 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Bismarck Tower Association Unna in Fröndenberg e. V., 2009; last accessed on June 4, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bismarckturm-verein-unna.de
  2. ^ Klaus Basner: Unna. Historical portrait of a city. Vol. 2. Bönen 2013, p. 214.
  3. ↑ This figure was based on the template: Inflation determined, has been rounded to a full 1,000 euros and relates to last January.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Cf. Bismarck Tower Unna in Fröndenberg . In: Bismarck Towers , January 5, 2015; last accessed on January 26, 2016.
  5. ↑ Hellweger Anzeiger , April 6, 2010, p. 12.

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 1.4 ″  N , 7 ° 42 ′ 25.1 ″  E