Berkach border monument
The border monument near Berkach is a free-standing, approximately eleven-meter-high observation tower of the former GDR border security.
location
The tower is located in the district of Berkach in the municipality of Grabfeld in Thuringia . It is on Sondheimer Straße, about 800 meters southwest of the Berkach locality and about 300 meters from the Thuringian-Bavarian border (near Mellrichstadt ). The border tower near Berkach is now in the immediate vicinity of the "Adventure Route of German Unity".
history
The observation tower was built in the mid-1970s, it was one of a total of eight border towers of the GDR border security in the former border section 44 and served to control and guard the village of Berkach until the political change in the GDR. In 1990 the extensive dismantling of the border barriers in the GDR began. At the request of the municipality of Berkach, this observation tower was preserved as a memorial and historical monument, was temporarily locked and thus also protected against vandalism . The observation tower near Berkach is now part of the German-German open air museum . In 2004 the state of Thuringia designated it as a monument .
Structural matters
It is a standardized square tower with four floors and an accessible roof. Eleven prefabricated concrete elements are placed on top of one another, the roof has a swiveling searchlight.
Current situation
In the course of their monument research and the founding of the German-German open air museum, the observation tower came into the care of the Elke family, Andreas and Manuel Erhard. They took over the renovation and maintenance of the tower, and extensive monument research was carried out by the Erhard family. Today the observation tower near Berkach is part of the German-German open air museum and can be used for weather observation. The non-profit sponsorship was taken over by the German Board of Trustees for the Promotion of Science, Education and Culture.
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 25 ′ 55.5 ″ N , 10 ° 23 ′ 25.7 ″ E