TV tower Dresden

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TV tower Dresden
Image of the object
Basic data
Place: Dresden
Country: Saxony
Country: Germany
Altitude : 231  m above sea level NHN
Coordinates: 51 ° 2 ′ 24 ″  N , 13 ° 50 ′ 20 ″  E
Use: TV tower , telecommunications tower , radio transmitter
Accessibility: Transmission tower not open to the public
Owner : German radio tower
Tower data
Construction time : 1964-1969
Operating time: since 1969
Total height : 252  m
Viewing platforms: 145  m , 148 m
Restaurants: 145  m , 148 m
Total mass : 7,300  t
Closure of the viewing platform: 1991
Data on the transmission system
Waveband : FM transmitter
Radio : VHF broadcasting
Send types: DVB-T, DAB , directional radio
Position map
TV tower Dresden (Saxony)
TV tower Dresden
TV tower Dresden
Localization of Saxony in Germany

The Dresden television tower stands on the slopes of the Dresden Elbe in the Dresden district of Wachwitz and has served as a transmission tower for television, radio and mobile communications since 1969 . With a total height of 252 meters, it ranks ninth among all television and telecommunications towers in Germany . Because of its visibility over great distances and its distinctive shape, it has become a landmark of Dresden and the Elbe valley .

history

background

With the establishment of the German Television Broadcasting Corporation (DFF), the political leadership of the GDR wanted to establish a television station for all of Germany. On January 3, 1956, the DFF officially began its program. The terrestrial broadcasting was problematic in some areas, as a location in the valley made direct reception much more difficult. The Dresden metropolitan area is almost entirely in the Elbe valley . This made it difficult for the more than 600,000 residents of Pirna , Heidenau , Dresden , Radebeul and Coswig to have radio and television supplies without their own transmission tower or relay station . The Elbe valley was therefore also known in the GDR as the valley of the unsuspecting .

As early as 1953/54, a lattice tower for the decimeter radio link from Berlin had been built in Radebeul on the slope edge of the Lößnitzhöhen, directly next to the mouse tower, which replaced the telephone relay station set up in 1952 on the tower of the Boxdorf windmill . Next to the lattice tower stood a radio device on Dammweg, which after the opening of the DFF took over the supply of the Elbe valley with VHF radio, television and long-distance telephony and could still be received on the Landeskrone near Görlitz .

In 1959, a model of a 165-meter-high VHF and television transmission tower to be built in prestressed concrete was on view in the Post Museum of the GDR , which was to be built in Radebeul during the course of the seven-year plan .

construction

The building owner , the German post office of the GDR , was the Dresden tower under the auspices of the BMK coal and energy build. The foundation stone was laid in the summer of 1964. In December 1964, the tower had reached a height of 85 meters. When the tower had reached a height of approx. 100 meters, the construction management tried to keep the construction work going with an experimental balloon-like air dome at the top of the shaft. This protective roof from Dederon was destroyed on February 28, 1965 by a storm with wind force 12 when the internal pressure could no longer be maintained around noon. A second protective roof was later also destroyed by a storm.

The topping-out ceremony was celebrated on December 15, 1965. The concrete construction was thus completed and the tower had reached a height of 167.15 meters. While working on the interior of the tower, a fitter died in 1966 when he fell into the 120-meter-deep elevator shaft. After the 85 m high plastic cylinder antenna had been installed, the tower had reached its final height in June 1968. By February 1969, one of the television tower's high-speed elevators was already in trial operation. After the tower had been equipped with the necessary broadcasting equipment, the Dresden television tower was put into operation on September 18, 1969 in the presence of the GDR Minister for Post and Telecommunications, Rudolph Schulze . The opening to the public took place on the 20th anniversary of the republic on October 7, 1969. In order to give priority to the reports on the opening of the Berlin television tower , the official opening of the new television tower in Dresden, which had been completed weeks earlier, was postponed.

Discarded plans

A restaurant for 250 guests was to be built at the foot of the television tower. The foundation walls are now in ruins. The project was abandoned for cost reasons and because of the construction of the bobsleigh run in Altenberg . A cable car that would have led from the banks of the Elbe to the tower should also contribute to better transport connections. This plan was rejected again; the cable car was built in 1970 in the Bodetal (Thale / Harz).

Tourist use from 1969 to 1991

View from the observation terrace (1970)

In the visitor area, which can be reached with two passenger elevators, there was a two-story tower restaurant with 120 seats at a height of 145 meters, from the open viewing platform above at a height of 148 meters with a capacity of 40 to 50 visitors you could look down like a balcony. Every year around 200,000 guests visited the Turmcafé to enjoy the view over the Elbe Valley , until the renovation in 1991 by Deutsche Telekom and the bankruptcy of the last tenant of the Turmcafé ( HO restaurant ).

The kitchen of the tower restaurant had to be located in a round room with only 40 m². Since the television tower can sway back and forth by up to 1.60 m, the kitchen scales no longer worked properly either. Here, the cook had to compensate for the up to 30 g deviation through experience.

After closing in 1991

The café was closed to the public on June 30, 1991 and the tower at the end of 1991. After the renovation by Deutsche Telekom , however, it was no longer made accessible to the public. The former entrance area was walled up and the site was safely fenced off.

In June 2000 there was a light and sound event for the 10th Elbhangfest “Wachwitz shows the ten - 650 years of Wachwitz”, during which the television tower was illuminated in different colors at night and its ability to speak was demonstrated by loudspeakers. In 2003 there was a minor fire in the broadcasting rooms, which was quickly brought under control.

In February 2008 the city council met about a possible reopening. Since the renovation of the elevator system and the restaurant would cost around three to four million euros, no investor with a financially viable concept has yet been found. An economical operation is only possible with 500,000 visitors per year. The current operator, the Deutsche Funkturm , currently sees no need for renovation of its own.

In August 2009, the association was facing a possible dissolution, which could only be prevented for the time being.

On August 4, 2010, the Sächsische Zeitung reported on the interest of a potential investor who should submit a financing concept to the city by mid-August. The required investment costs for the tower are estimated at ten million euros.

In February 2012 there was water damage due to a pipeline bursting due to the frost, in which several cubic meters of water flowed into the basement.

An online petition ran from August 13, 2013 to February 14, 2014: “We want the Dresden TV tower as a tourist destination again!”.

In 2017 a feasibility study on the reopening was published. The simple renovation with a café and visitor platform would cost 15.5 million euros.

Attempts to reopen

On November 8, 2018, the budget committee of the German Bundestag decided to provide funds of € 12.8 million as part of the monument promotion and thus to share in the costs of the necessary construction work for the reopening of the Dresden TV tower. The funds will be available until 2025.

The Free State of Saxony and the City of Dresden also promised their support for the project and the associated financial resources of € 12.8 million (each in equal parts) on May 12, 2019. This secures the financing of 25.6 million euros. The project was presented at the Expo Real real estate fair in Munich in October 2019.

On October 12, 2019, 200 visitors were able to visit the viewing platform on the occasion of the 50th birthday. The city of Dresden is funding a traffic study that will be presented in June and approved by the city council in autumn 2020. The Lord Mayor Hilbert can z. B. imagine an autonomous shuttle bus. 250,000 visitors are expected annually. An operator of the tower should be found by the end of 2020, but he would have to get by without permanent municipal subsidies.

Architecture and construction technology

Location and surroundings

1985, interior photos of the restoration
Foot development with entrance area (1970)

The tower is located at Oberwachwitzer Weg 37, on the slopes of the Dresden Elbe in the Dresden district of Wachwitz in the Loschwitz district , about 7 kilometers from the center. The tower is around 231  m above sea level. NHN and about 120 meters above the Elbe Valley and can be seen from almost the entire urban area of ​​Dresden and large parts of the Upper Elbe region.

general structure

The architects Kurt Nowotny , Herrmann Rühle and Johannes Braune were inspired by a champagne glass to create the chalice-like shape. The world's first reinforced concrete television tower , the Stuttgart television tower , served as a model for the design , some architecture critics say without achieving its “aesthetic perfection”.

After the Berlin TV tower (368 meters), it was the second tallest building with tourist facilities in the GDR. Its top rises 373 meters above the level of the Elbe , and its base is 230 meters above sea ​​level . The tower shaft of reinforced concrete has a diameter of 21 meters and is six meters in depth in the Lausitzer granite anchored. Its total weight is 7300 tons. In the tower shaft approx. 750 steps lead to the tower cage . The vibrations of the tower are dampened by a damper pendulum mounted in oil . The built-in high-speed elevator travels at a speed of 6 m / s in around 25 s at the height of the café.

The Dresden TV tower is currently on the 57th position on the list of the tallest television towers in the world and is one of the tallest structures in Germany . Here it is the ninth highest television tower, when it was completed it was fourth in this comparison. In Saxony, only the chimney of the Chemnitz-Nord thermal power station, at 301.8 m, is almost 50 meters higher than the Dresden television tower.

Radio technology

It has transmitting and receiving facilities for directional radio , radio ( analog and digital ( DAB ) radio on ultra-short wave , digital ( DVB-T ) terrestrial television ) as well as mobile and data radio . According to the will of the Saxon state government , all analogue VHF transmitters are to be switched off and switched to digital reception in 2025.

It served or serves to distribute the following programs:

Broadcasting in the GDR and the turning point until 1992

frequency power Nov 1976 1989 Sept 1991 Jan. 1992 today
90.1 MHz Berlin radio Berlin radio Sachsenradio 2 MDR Life MDR Jump
92.2 MHz Radio DDR II Radio DDR II Sachsenradio 1 MDR 1 Radio Saxony MDR 1 Radio Saxony
95.4 MHz Radio DDR I Radio DDR I Current radio (midnight to 7 p.m.)
Sachsenradio 3 (7 p.m. to midnight)		 MDR culture MDR culture
97.3 MHz Voice of the GDR Voice of the GDR DS culture DS culture Deutschlandfunk
102.4 MHz - DT64 DT64 DT64 Radio PSR
  1. ↑ a b frequencies were in 1976: 92.25 MHz instead of 92.2 MHz and 97.25 MHz instead of 97.3 MHz

Analog radio (FM)

Frequency  
(MHz) 		program RDS PS RDS PI Regionalization ERP  
(kW) 		Antenna pattern
round (ND) / directional (D) 		Polarization
horizontal (H) / vertical (V)
89.2 R.SA __R.SA__ 14C2 - 2 D. H
90.1 MDR Jump MDR_JUMP D3C2 - 100 ND H
92.2 MDR Saxony MDR_SACH D4C1 Dresden 100 ND H
93.2 Deutschlandfunk culture Dlf_Kult D220 - 1 ND H
95.4 MDR culture MDR _____ / CULTURE__ D3C3 - 100 ND H
97.3 Deutschlandfunk __Dlf___ D210 - 100 ND H
100.2 Energy Saxony _ENERGY_ D3CE Dresden 5 D. H
102.4 Radio PSR RADIOPSR D3C8 Dresden 100 ND H
103.5 Radio Dresden _DRESDEN 15C1 - 2 D. H
105.2 Hitradio RTL Saxony Hitr.RTL D3C9 Dresden 100 ND H
106.1 MDR current MDR _____ / CURRENT_ D3D5 - 0.5 D. H

Digital radio ( DAB + )

DAB is broadcast in vertical polarization and in single-frequency mode with other transmitters.

block Programs ERP
(in kW) 		Antenna pattern
round (ND),
directional (D) 		Single frequency network (SFN)
5C
DR Germany
(D__00188) 		DAB + block of media broadcast 10

5 		D
(0 ° –140 ° / 170 ° –360 °)
(150 ° –160 °)
9A
MDR Saxony 		10 ND Chemnitz , Dresden , Freiberg , Geyer , Hoyerswerda , Leipzig , Löbau , Neustadt , Oschatz , Schöneck


Television (analog)

This last remaining analog television program was switched off on January 10, 2013.

channel Frequency  
(MHz) 		program ERP
(kW) 		Transmission diagram
round (ND) /
directional (D) 		Polarization
horizontal (H) /
vertical (V)
59 775.25 Dresden television 20th ND H
  1. ↑ since June 10, 1996

The following channels were switched off at the latest with the switch to DVB-T:

channel Frequency  
(MHz) 		program ERP
(kW) 		Transmission diagram
round (ND) /
directional (D) 		Polarization
horizontal (H) /
vertical (V)
10 210.25 First German Television / Das Erste (MDR) 100 ND V
29 535.25 MDR television (Saxony) 500 ND H
43 647.25 VOX 2 D. H
46 671.25 ZDF 470 ND H
48 687.25 Sat 1 2 D. H
  1. ↑ 1969 to December 15, 1990: DFF 1 / DDR 1; December 15, 1990 to July 22, 2007: First German Television / Das Erste (MDR)
  2. ↑ 1969 to December 14, 1990; DFF 2 / DDR 2; December 15, 1990 to December 31, 1991: DFF country chain; January 1, 1992 to July 22, 2007: MDR TV (Saxony)
  3. ↑ until December 31, 1995: RTL; January 1, 1996 to December 31, 2004: VOX
  4. ↑ December 1, 1990 to July 22, 2007: ZDF
  5. ↑ July 1, 1994 to May 17, 2002: Sat.1

Television (digital)

The switch to DVB-T was carried out on July 23, 2007; the shutdown (after conversion to DVB-T2 HD ) took place on November 8, 2017.

Channels 29 (538 MHz), 36 (594 MHz) and 39 (618 MHz) were each transmitted with 100 kW in vertical polarization:

channel Frequency  
(MHz) 		Multiplex Programs in multiplex Activation Single frequency network (SFN)
29 538 ARD Digital  (MDR) July 23, 2007 -
36 594 ZDFmobil July 23, 2007 Calau , Dresden-Wachwitz , Löbau
39 618 ARD digital July 23, 2007 Dresden-Wachwitz , Löbau

The switch to DVB-T2 HD was carried out on November 8, 2017. Thanks to the new HEVC / H.265 compression method, terrestrial programs are also broadcast in HD quality.

With this change, the program packages were assigned to new channels:

Channel 34: (Free to receive)

The First HD; MDR Saxony HD; RBB Brandenburg HD; NDR Lower Saxony HD (from 1900 to 1930 MDR Saxony-Anhalt); SWR Baden-Württemberg HD (from 1900 to 193o MDR Thuringia); Tagesschau 24 HD

Channel 39: (Free to receive)

ONE HD; PHOENIX HD; arte HD; BR North HD; hr HD; WDR HD

Channel 36: (Free to receive)

ZDF HD; 3sat HD; ZDFinfo HD; zdf_neo HD; KiKa HD

Channel 29: (encrypted)

Sat.1 HD; ProSieben HD; cable one HD; SIXX HD; Pro7 MAXX HD; Sat.1 Gold HD; Sport1 HD

Channel 46: (encrypted)

RTL HD; RTL II HD; VOX HD; SUPER RTL HD; RTL NITRO HD; n-tv HD; Tele 5 HD

Channel 42: (encrypted)

Disney Channel HD; N24 HD; DMAX HD; Eurosport 1 HD; nickelodeon HD; QVC HD; HSE24 HD; Bible TV HD

Movie

  • The Dresden TV tower , documentary by MDR TV , 28 minutes, 2013, director: Katrin Claußner.

literature

  • Bettina Klemm: The Dresden TV Tower . Bild und Heimat, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-95958-076-2 .
  • Gilbert Lupfer, Bernhard Sterra and Martin Wörner (eds.): Architecture guide Dresden. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1997, ISBN 978-3-496-01179-8 .
  • Braune, makers: TV and VHF tower Dresden. Structural engineering and construction . in: Bauplanung - Bautechnik , Issue 1, 1971.
  • Rühle, Macher: Implementation and results of a model test for the Dresden television tower . in: Bauplanung - Bautechnik , Issue 7, 1965.

See also

Web links

Commons : Fernsehturm Dresden  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reinhold Hollwitz: A slim tower on the Lößnitzhang ( memento from November 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), in: Herbert Schweiniger (Ed.): 100 Years of School Wahnsdorf 1858–1958 ( Memento from November 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), elementary school Radebeul-Wahnsdorf, Radebeul 1958, pp. 16-17, with a photo of the television lattice tower next to the mouse tower
  2. ^ Kei: TV towers in the Post Museum . In: New Germany . June 4, 1959, p. 6 ( staatsbibliothek-berlin.de ).
  3. ↑ a b c d Lars Kühl: Wachwitzer Nadel competes with Berlin Tower on Alex . In: Saxon newspaper . December 12, 2015 ( online [accessed December 13, 2015]).
  4. ^ New Germany from June 19, 1968: Dresden TV tower 252 meters high
  5. ^ Fritz Hoffmann: Proven "fast Vogtlander" in Neues Deutschland , February 12, 1969 edition
  6. ↑ a b c Tobias Winzer: The restaurant planner from the television tower. In: Sächsische Zeitung , April 24, 2014.
  7. ↑ Lars Kühl: The ideas for a television tower of the future. In: Saxon newspaper. July 7, 2016, accessed July 7, 2016 .
  8. ↑ The television tower should open to visitors again , on meindresden.info, February 22, 2008.
  9. ↑ Mourning instead of celebration: TV tower sponsors before the end , SZ-online, September 9, 2009
  10. ↑ New attempt to rescue the TV tower ( memento from September 13, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), SZ-online, September 26, 2009
  11. ↑ Hope for the TV tower. In: Sächsische Zeitung , August 4, 2010, p. 14
  12. ↑ City is negotiating with investor for television tower ( memento from September 11, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ). In: SZ-online, August 3, 2010
  13. ↑ Water disaster in the television tower: Frost bursts the line. In: Sächsische Zeitung , February 22, 2012, p. 14.
  14. ↑ Petition We want the Dresden TV tower as a tourist destination again!
  15. ^ Reopening Dresden - German radio tower. Retrieved March 4, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Dresden Latest News : The financing for the renovation of the TV tower is available , article from May 12, 2019, last accessed on May 15, 2019
  17. ↑ Lupfer et al. , No. 227 (TV tower)
  18. ↑ A “needle” weighs 7,300 tons . In: New Germany . July 16, 1964, p. 8 ( staatsbibliothek-berlin.de ).
  19. ↑ Florian Pötzsch: Saxony: VHF shutdown canceled , digital television , November 21, 2012
  20. ↑ Announcement at haufe.de: Saxony: Shutdown of analogue terrestrial TV broadcasting ( memento from December 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), December 21, 2012
  21. ↑ forum.digitalfernsehen.de: reception reports
  22. ↑ Steffen Eitner: Television from the Dresden television tower only digitally without Dresden television ( memento from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), on Sachsen1.com, January 11, 2013.
  23. ^ Sender table Saxony (VHF). In: ukwtv.de. Retrieved December 4, 2015 .