Wetzstein (Thuringia)
Altvaterturm on the whetstone
The whetstone is 792 m, the highest mountain in Eastern Thuringia. On it stands the 35 m high Altvaterturm.
The survey is located at the junction of the Thuringian Slate Mountains on the Franconian Forest, about three kilometers south of the city Lehesten. South of the whetstone runs the historic Grenzweg Rennsteig.
History
Bismarck Tower
The Thuringian Forest Club, built in 1902 on the whetstone an observation tower with a height of 22 m and called him Bismarck tower. A lively excursion and tourism developed. After the Second World War, the mountain was at the border between the Soviet and the Western occupation zones, so that the weekend traffic came to a standstill.
NVA base
Since 1961, the whetstone was in the GDR restricted area on the border, and was used by a military object as a base for the NVA air monitoring. The Bismarck Tower, which was now in disrepair, was blown up on 27 July 1979.
Altvaterturm
The crest of the whetstone is a vantage point from which one can for example look up to Leipzig. 2000 has started on the top of the construction of the 35.8 -meter-high observation tower " Altvaterturm ", in August 2004, he was finished. Home builders were friends from Sudeten Silesia, who had founded in 1976 in Langgoens the " Altvaterturm Club ". The tower is a replica of the tower, which had by 1959 Praděd (Altvater mountain ) in Altvatergebirge seasoned. The location in the south-eastern Thuringian Forest was chosen because it is similar to the wooded and mountainous area of Altvater Mountains. The newly built tower to commemorate the lost home of the expellees. In the chapel in the basement of local commemorative plaques for cities and towns are attached, from which the Sudeten Germans were expelled because of the Beneš decrees. On the ground floor there is a restaurant that is decorated with colorful wooden coat of arms. On the upper single rooms for exhibitions at the former German settlement areas are used. In the ninth and the top floor is a viewing platform.