Robert Kolb Tower

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Robert Kolb Tower 2011 after renovation
Robert Kolb Tower 2006

The Robert-Kolb-Turm is an observation tower in the Ebbe Mountains in the Sauerland ( North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany ).

The tower stands in the municipality of Herscheid on the 663.3 meter high Nordhelle , on which towers have been built again and again since the beginning of the 19th century. Emperor Napoleon I had a first stone tower built as a carrier station for a mirror telegraph line, which fell into disrepair after a few years.

In the 1880s, citizens of Herscheid built a wooden tower there, but it only withstood the weather for a short time. In 1890, the army administration built a trigonometric scaffolding in its place, which was also open to visitors as a lookout tower and was later acquired by the Herscheid department of the Sauerland Mountain Association (SGV). This tower only lasted a few years and fell victim to storms in December 1904.

The Herscheid department soon began to consider a new tower. The SGV-Hauptverein promised financial support if this new stone tower was built and it was allowed to influence the construction. The deliberations were still going on in 1909, when Robert Kolb , who was the SGV's main road operator at the time and the initiator of the first large network of hiking trails, suddenly died of a serious illness. It was quickly suggested that the planned tower should be named Robert Kolb Tower in his honor.

A planning committee consisting of Karl Ewald (Hagen), Hugo Kracht (Essen), Hermann Großjohann (Lüdenscheid), Amtmann Steinhoff (Herscheid) and Dr. med. Hohl (Herscheid), took over the planning for the tower in 1910. Since Robert Kolb, to be honored, had positioned himself during his lifetime as the " enemy of tower rage, the addiction to erect a tower on every third hill " and strictly rejected the massive construction of wooden observation towers, which soon became dilapidated, only received one massive stone structure in question. On September 21, 1913, after a year of construction, the 18 meter high observation tower was inaugurated. More than 4,000 people came to the inauguration ceremony hosted by Dr. Hohl was opened. Then he ceremoniously handed over the key to the tower to Karl Ewald, who then gave the consecration speech and officially took possession of the tower for the SGV main association.

A first thorough renovation was necessary before the end of a decade, but the tower had to be closed in 1927, despite a renovation grant of 500 marks from the Altena district, due to its dilapidation. By then, 10,000 marks from the SGV's treasury had already been spent on receipt. It reopened in 1929. A porter now collected an entrance fee and sold non-alcoholic drinks to cover maintenance costs.

During the Second World War , the tower was used for military purposes and was so badly destroyed that reconstruction was initially ruled out. However, this took place in 1951 when the NWDR needed an ultra-short wave transmission station on the Nordhelle and wanted to use the Robert Kolb Tower for this. The SGV department Herscheid, which owned the tower site, signed over 55% of the property to the SGV main association, which was then able to conclude a heritable building contract with the NWDR . After the reconstruction, financed by the NWDR, the tower was made accessible again to hikers. In 1953, representatives of the broadcasting corporation handed the tower keys back to the SGV district chairman Rudolf Grüber.

In 2010 and 2011 the Robert Kolb Tower was extensively renovated for 198,000 euros and reopened on June 26, 2011. In the course of the renovation work, the completely overgrown view from the tower was partially exposed again. Today, the glazed viewing platform allows wide views to the north and south-west, whereas the trees to the east, south and west continue to limit the view. The observation tower can be climbed every day except Mondays during the opening times of the restaurant, which has been located next to the tower since the 1960s.

There is an antenna for amateur radio on the roof of the Robert Kolb Tower . This is a relay radio station of the DARC local association O31 with the callsign DB0MKV .

Not far from the tower - also on the summit of the Nordhelle - is the WDR transmission tower Nordhelle .

Individual evidence

  1. www.derwesten.de , accessed on July 23, 2011
  2. www.nrw-stiftung.de , accessed on July 23, 2011
  3. Amateur radio relay DB0MKV ( Memento of the original from December 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 24, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.db0mkv.de

Web links

Commons : Robert-Kolb-Turm  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 8 ′ 54 ″  N , 7 ° 45 ′ 23 ″  E