Bismarck Tower (Vacha)
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The Bismarck Tower Vacha was a lookout tower built in 1902 on the Öchsenberg near Vacha in today's Wartburg district in Thuringia .
history
The first ideas for the construction of a Bismarck tower in Vacha date back to 1898. In 1901 the local Rhönklub branch club took the initiative; a building committee was formed and the architectural services were put out to tender . The design by the Eisenach architect and master bricklayer Walter Heerwagen, who also took on the construction, was finally accepted . The foundation stone was laid on May 20, 1902.
The construction costs, estimated in advance at 5900 marks , actually amounted to 7736 marks. The tower was inaugurated on September 2, 1902 and the fire at its top was lit for the first time. It was visible to the Wartburg near Eisenach. In 1904, the first repair work on the tower was necessary. During the First World War and in the years after, the facility was damaged and fell into disrepair.
It was not until 1924 that a renovation took place in which the tower was given a new roof in place of the fire bowl, which brought its height to 17 meters. In 1937 the Rhönklub branch association acquired the property on which it had built the tower. In 1948 ownership fell to the city of Vacha.
The tower lost its importance as an excursion destination after 1950 due to its location near the inner-German border and due to the neighboring basalt open-cast mine. Last used as a trigonometric point , the tower was blown up on November 11, 1978 by VEB Rhönbasalt Vacha, as it was to make way for the expansion of the opencast mine. As a result, the upper mountain area was no longer accessible to the public.
architecture
The tower was 12 meters high, had a square footprint of four meters by four meters, was massive and three storeys high. The front bay window served as a balcony on the first floor. The fire bowl with a diameter of two meters was originally on the flat roof , which also served as a viewing platform . In 1924 the shell was removed and the viewing platform covered.
Web links
- Bismarck Tower Vacha on bismarcktuerme.de
literature
- Rhönklub Zweigverein Vacha eV (Ed.): Festschrift for the 120th anniversary of the Rhönklub Vacha association. Vacha 1997.
Coordinates: 50 ° 47 '59.6 " N , 10 ° 1' 37.9" E