Bismarck tower (Aachen)
The Aachen Bismarck tower is one of 173 remaining of the former 240 Bismarck Bismarck towers and columns that have been built to commemorate the founding of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck ( 1815-1898 ) worldwide.
History
Just as most Bismarck towers and columns that have been built 1869-1934, also the Aachen Bismarck tower has been given in the early 20th century commissioned and inaugurated on July 22, 1907 by the then Mayor Philip Veltman. The inspiration for this project came from the students of the Technical University of Aachen. Your Committee was formed together with some influential citizens of Aachen, chaired by the court assessor retired from Görschen Robert (1829-1914), a monument committee to implement this idea. On April 26, 1904, the City Council agreed to this plan under the slogan " ... because of the national idea as well as the strengthening and preservation of the unity of our city " to. This should also be reminded of the time when Otto von Bismarck worked as a government clerk in Aachen, before he went into politics.
Description of the tower
The Aachen Bismarck Tower was designed by architect Georg Frentzen (1854-1923) designed and built following the granting of planning permission by the company Boswau & Knauer from Berlin. The tower consists of a semicircular, about five feet high basement, which is divided into five identical segments and two staircases is to climb. The one-meter high stone parapet on the crown opening is supported by a multi-part battlements Fries. Above the basement rises a axially -symmetric basement of a little over eleven meters high with three arched portals, at the keystones that drawn up by Prof. Karl Krauss busts of Otto von Bismarck, Helmuth von Moltke and Albrecht von Roon are attached of basalt stone. In the basement now sits the actual tower with 9.80 meters in height, square and four storeys, in the form of a stylized "B". He concludes with an observation deck, which is accessible via two spiral staircases, from. The top segment of this monument forms a 5 meter high ducal crown with an attached orb instead of a fire bowl, as it was usual with most other towers. At the upper end of the described tower shaft, just below this ducal crown, the Bismarck coat of arms was attached. The orb of the ducal crown but is now no longer visible, as it was possibly removed as part of renovations before the year 1986.
The Bismarck tower had always been used for decades as a lookout and after the last in-depth restoration work between 1999 and 2005 and today remains a popular destination and for the public to access. It is located in the region of Aachen honor cemetery in Aachen- Burtscheid district.