Light tower

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Light tower in Solingen-Gräfrath (2010)

The light tower in Solingen , North Rhine-Westphalia, is a converted, former water tower . It is located in the Gräfrath district near the highest point in the city of Solingen at approximately 276 meters above sea ​​level . Due to its previous function, it still bears the unofficial name of the Graefrath Water Tower . The tower was built in 1904, shut down in 1983 and rebuilt in the mid-1990s.

location

The light tower is located in the north of Gräfrath near the city limits of Wuppertal and has the address Lützowstraße 340 . The Schieten estate is located nearby . The building stands on the edge of a forest area on a hill above the river Wupper and can be seen from afar.

history

The Gräfrath water tower was built in 1904 with an iron water tank based on the Intze principle , which enabled a smaller diameter and thus lower construction costs for the massive tower shaft. It is 38 meters high and has a dome diameter of eleven meters. It was one of many water towers that were built in Germany from the middle of the 19th century to take account of increasing urbanization and the growing need for drinking water of the population. The provision of fresh drinking water to the residents served primarily to prevent epidemics .

For the first three decades, the water that fed the Gräfrath Tower came from the Elberfeld district of Wuppertal . It was not until the 1930s that the water came from the Sengbach reservoir near the Wupper. This was in connection with the merger of the formerly independent municipalities of Gräfrath, Ohligs , Wald , Höhscheid and Solingen to form the new city of Solingen, all places now obtained their water from the shared so-called Solingen dam .

In 1983 the water tower was shut down. Originally the demolition of the already dilapidated tower was planned before it was placed under monument protection due to its importance . The water tower then remained unused and without maintenance for around ten years. It was not until 1993 that the lighting designer Johannes Dinnebier drew up plans for redesigning the tower into a "light tower". In the mid-1990s, the monument protection was lifted in close coordination with the authorities, the tower shaft was renovated and the rust-damaged water tank with its damaged thin cladding was replaced by a transparent dome made of glass and steel. Since then, the light tower has been the setting for all kinds of light productions.

Today the light tower is on the one hand a showroom for the current lighting collection of the company Licht im Raum Dinnebier GmbH and on the other hand a conference location for professional events and diverse cultural projects.

Web links

Commons : Lichtturm (Solingen)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ a b Overview of the history of the light tower ( memento from June 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) on lichtturm-solingen.de , accessed on January 20, 2015
  2. ↑ Background information on vaillant.de , accessed on June 4, 2015
  3. ↑ Light in space - design lights and lighting planning from Düsseldorf. Retrieved January 26, 2018 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 12 '47.8 "  N , 7 ° 5' 5.4"  E