Thuringian Control Center
The Thüringer Warte is a 26.5 meter high observation tower at 678 m above sea level. NHN high Ratzenberg near the Lauenstein district of the Upper Franconian city of Ludwigsstadt .
Geographical location
The tower is located on the Ratzenberg, part of the Thuringian Slate Mountains , near the town of Ludwigsstadt in the north of the Upper Franconian district of Kronach . The state border between Bavaria and Thuringia is only about 200 meters from the tower. The inner German border strip is still clearly recognizable in this area.
The following mountains and communities can be seen from the Thuringian observation point:
- Kirchberg (785 m) near Oberweißbach with Fröbelturm
- Graefenthal (420 m)
- Hoenkuppe (720 m) near Lichtenhain
- Leuchtenburg (Thuringia) (392 m) near Seitenroda
- Ludwigsstadt (581 m)
- Neuhaus am Rennweg (830 m)
- Probstzella (465 m)
- Rauhhügel (802 m) with the Leipzig tower
- Reichmannsdorf (682 m)
- Schmiedefeld (750 m)
- Saalfeld / Saale ( Hoheneiche , Kleingeschwenda )
- Thuringian Oberland with the Hohenwarte reservoir
- Wetzstein (793 m) near Lehesten with Altvaterturm
history
On July 13, 1962, the municipal council of the then still independent municipality of Lauenstein - a district of Ludwigsstadt since 1978 - decided to build an observation tower on the Ratzenberg in order to stimulate tourism. The draft of the tower, for which construction costs were estimated at 75,000 DM, was presented in October 1962. The foundation stone was laid on April 22nd, 1963 by the then Kronach District Administrator Edgar Emmert. The 34.2 ton square steel structure was built by the company of industrial pioneer Franz Itting, which came from Probstzella and has been based in Ludwigsstadt since the end of World War II . The actual construction costs - without the interior work that was carried out later - amounted to 113,000 DM.
The inauguration of the tower took place on June 17, 1963, the then day of German unity , which was to commemorate the popular uprising in the GDR on June 17, 1953. The keynote speaker at the event was Rainer Barzel , then Federal Minister for All-German Issues .
The tower was a visitor magnet for many who wanted to look into the Thuringian countryside, including former residents of the Thuringian towns in the area. The visitors included Federal President Heinrich Lübke (October 1964), Herbert Wehner (June 17, 1965), Vice Chancellor Erich Mende and the Federal Minister for Internal German Relations, Heinrich Windelen (1983).
From the spring of 1993 to March 1994, the tower was subjected to extensive renovation work, during which the cladding, which originally consisted of asbestos-containing fiber cement panels, was replaced by a sheet metal construction. The costs for this amounted to around 300,000 DM. The reopening for visitors took place on April 1, 1994, and the Thuringian Control Center was officially presented to the public with a ceremony on May 14, 1994. Further renovation work took place in 2012: The dilapidated wooden floor of the viewing platform was replaced by a sheet metal and steel construction. The costs for this amounted to 16,500 euros.
Inside the tower there is a permanent exhibition about the inner-German border .
Web links
- City of Ludwigsstadt: On the heights of the Franconian Forest - Thüringer Warte
swell
- The observation tower "Thüringer Warte" ( PDF file; 838 KB )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation ( information )
- ↑ The story of Lauenstein. City of Ludwigsstadt, accessed on March 21, 2011 .
- ^ Karl-Heinz Hofmann: Visitors are now standing on solid ground. inFranken.de, May 25, 2012, accessed on May 25, 2012 .
- ↑ Ludwigsstadt and Probstzella - exhibition on border history. Bayerischer Rundfunk, June 23, 2009, archived from the original on September 19, 2011 ; Retrieved March 21, 2011 .
- ↑ New permanent exhibition in the Thüringer Warte. City of Ludwigsstadt, June 19, 2009, accessed on March 21, 2011 .
Coordinates: 50 ° 31 '7 " N , 11 ° 21' 5" E