Water tower (north)

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The water tower in the north

The water tower is a listed building in the East Frisian city ​​of Norden ( district of Aurich , Lower Saxony ). It has the address Alleestraße 18. The building is still used today for the city's water supply and is therefore not open to the public.

description

The property on which the water tower stands is 1066  square meters and around 7.5 kilometers from the waterworks in Hage . The water tower is a clearly structured brick building with a flat roof from 1939. The functional structure is only provided with decorative elements in the base area and at the entrance. Above the entrance door, which can be reached via a staircase decorated with a large ball on both sides, there is a relief on which the North city coat of arms, two gargoyles in the form of a person and a fish as well as the year 1939 are depicted. The tower is 32 meters high and covers an area of ​​9 m × 9 m. The 225  cubic meter water tank is about 5.4 meters high, 7.4 meters in diameter and made of steel. At its highest point, it is 31 meters above the site and 35.44 meters above sea ​​level . A staircase in the center of the tower leads over four floors, each 6.4 meters high, to the drip floor. In addition to the base area, there are five windows on top of each other in the outer walls. In the area of ​​the water tank there are two narrow openings on each side in which translucent glass blocks have been walled up.

history

Up until the 1930s, the city of Norden was supplied with an extensive network of wells. It is known from 1898 that there were around 540 private wells in addition to the five public ones. From 1905 onwards, the Stadtwerke took up plans for a central water supply. However, this failed due to funding and resistance from many citizens. In the 1930s, the municipal utilities took up the idea again and found a suitable location for a waterworks in Hage . This started operations on August 2, 1939. The plan was to equip the tower of the Doornkaat distillery with an elevated tank to ensure uniform pressure in the connected water network. Problems with the structural engineering ruined this plan. The Stadtwerke then bought the property at Alleestraße 18, where they built the water tower and put it into operation in 1939. At first there was a flagpole on the top . During the Second World War an anti- aircraft gun (flak) was stationed on the building. The position may have been bunkered. There are now cell phone antennas on the building.

As in many other places, the Norder water tower was to be relieved of the task of water supply. The reason for this was given by the municipal utilities to the high operating costs of the building as well as an upcoming refurbishment of the container, which required high investments . When the city's power grid collapsed after a storm surge , the water supply continued to function smoothly, as it managed largely without electric pumps. The water tower is therefore still in operation today.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ City of the north: List of monuments . Retrieved October 20, 2014.
  2. ↑ a b Antje Borchert, City of the North, Lower Monument Protection Authority: Water Tower . In: Open Monument Day. 2014 program . Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Nils Aschenbeck , Jens U. Schmidt: Water towers in the northwest. Isensee, Oldenburg 2003, ISBN 3-89995-006-2 , p. 52.
  4. ↑ Stadtwerke Norden: Drinking water supply: Stadtwerke Norden receive a withdrawal permit and celebrate 70 years of the Hage waterworks . Press release of August 21, 2009. Accessed October 21, 2014.
  5. ↑ bunker-whv.de: City North . Retrieved October 21, 2014.

Coordinates: 53 ° 35 ′ 26.2 "  N , 7 ° 11 ′ 31.2"  E