At 368 meters, the Berlin television tower/
Fernsehturm is the highest building in Germany and the
fifth highest television tower in Europe. The television tower is
located in the park on the television tower in the Mitte district of
Berlin. He was the second highest television tower in the world in 1969
in 1969 and, with over a million visitors, is one of the ten most
popular sights in Germany every year.
The television tower in an
international style was built in 1965-1969 by the German Post of the GDR
in the park on the television tower instead of the demolished
Marienviertel. The opening took place on October 3, 1969. The building
is over 220 meters higher than the old Berlin radio tower from the 1920s
in the western part of the city. As a landmark and visible landmark, it
shapes the city's skyline. In the opening scenes of films with reference
to Berlin, the capital is often symbolized by the television tower in
addition to buildings such as the Brandenburg Gate, the Victory Column
and the Reichstag building.
In addition to its
main function as the main function as the location of several radio
transmitters for radio and television, the building, known internally as
the “telecommunications tower 32”, serves as a observation tower with a
observation floor including bar at a height of 203 meters and includes a
rotary restaurant. In addition, the Berlin television tower serves as an
event location. The striking and city -defining building was defeated by
a strong symbolic change. After German reunification, a politically
consumed national symbol of the GDR developed into a overall city symbol
in reunited Berlin. Due to its universal and timeless design language,
it was increasingly used as a trademark and is identified
internationally with Berlin and Germany. The Berlin television tower
received the monument status in 1979 in the GDR, which was continued
after German reunification.
At the European Radio Conference in Stockholm in 1952, which was
responsible for coordinating the frequency waves in Europe, the GDR,
which was not recognized politically by most countries, was only granted
two television frequency areas: for Volume I the frequency range
classified (and later that can no longer be used). from 40.5 to 48.5 MHz
and the frequency range from 208 to 216 MHz for Volume III. Under these
conditions, the Berlin urban area could not be equipped with several
smaller channels, without overlapping and thus disorders or gaps in
television reception. For a complete and seamless coverage, a powerful
large channel with the highest possible location was required. In the
1950s, only very weak makeshift broadcasters of the German television
radio fulfilled their purpose in Berlin.
Failed construction
projects
In 1952, Deutsche Post began planning a television tower for
Berlin. The headquarters of radio system favored a property in the
Berlin Müggelbergen, which with the highest elevation in the Berlin
environment offered the best prerequisite within the Berlin city area.
The considerations played a role in the fact that the location for such
a purpose building was far from the center and thus neither influenced
the architectural nor the urban planning dimension. After the Deutsche
Post applied for the location approval on April 23, 1954 at the chief
architect of the East Berlin magistrate Hermann Henselmann, it was
granted on May 4, 1954. The area and the tower should be accessible to
the population, the amount of the building was planned at 130 meters.
The concrete construction with square floor plan should contain two
viewing platforms at a height of 70 meters, but no cantilevered tower
basket. The television tower under the lid name F4 was scheduled with a
balance sheet total of 8.714 million marks and included in the economy
plan for the years 1954 to 1957. On December 13, 1955, Interior Minister
Karl Maron called for the immediate hiring of the construction work
already in full corridor. The ministry had approved the construction
project on May 29, 1954; However, it has now found that the location was
only eight kilometers from Berlin-Schönefeld Airport and, due to its
height on the sidelines of the entry lane, threatens to endanger flight
operations. Various compromise efforts of the mail to reduce the tower
height failed, so that the construction project was finally discontinued
on November 15, 1956. The end of the project represents an early example
of the conceptual problems of the East German planned economy, which in
this case threw back the development of the GDR's television and
directional radio network by years. The building solid of the
Fernsehturm Müggelberge, which had been completed up to that point, with
two upper floors was weatherproof and now serves the Deutsche Telekom as
a guideline.
After the F4 project failed, the Ministry of Post
and Telecommunications had to search for a suitable alternative. At that
time there were three touching rings of directional radio connections on
the area of the GDR: the North, the Middle and the Südring; An Ostring
was planned for later. The central television towers Berlin and Leipzig
were intended at the points of contact with North and Mittel- with
Südring. In 1957, a new projectization phase therefore used the East
Berlin television tower. In the meantime, the first television tower
made of reinforced concrete was under construction in the GDR with the
television tower Dequede based on the Stuttgart television tower. At the
end of 1957, the again unexplained location question caused the Ministry
of Ministry to set a move to build the tower in the city center. All
other areas were unsuitable or difficult to integrate into the
directional radio either because of the risk of flight operations. The
architects Gerhard Frost and Waldemar Alder presented the plan of the
first variant of a television tower centrally located in the city area
in 1957/1958. They favored the hilly park of the Friedrichshain People's
Park. As a result, four other locations near the park were discussed.
After only hesitant progress, on July 24, 1960, a positive report on the
selected location for resolving was passed and the state plank
commission created the economic requirements for the construction a few
days later. According to the plan, the television tower in
Friedrichshain should be ready for use in 1964.
A particularly
severe economic crisis-among other things because of the enormous costs
of the construction of the Berlin Wall-forced the government in the
spring of 1962, its seven-year plan-to cancel the only ones in the GDR
history prematurely. The television tower in Friedrichshain fell victim
to the pressure to save; The East Berlin magistrate decided on May 26,
1962. The demolition was a setback for the Ministry of the Post and
threatened to make all other towers in the broadcasting network into
investment ruins. The costs estimated in 1960 were around 20 million
marks; As early as May 5, 1961, this estimate was corrected by the
ministry to 29.322 million marks and again to 30.7 million marks in
January 1962. Despite the decided planning end and the lack of
fundamental bores to explore the building site, and construction
companies received the first orders. The tenants who lived on the
planned construction site had had to leave their apartments; The houses
were largely demolished. The start of construction could hardly be
stopped. As early as the end of 1961, a commission for "overcoming the
technical residues in the field of radio and television" announced that
only 16 FM channels were available at the time instead of the planned 26
and only about 80 percent of the population were able to provide
television programs . The closure of the borders to West Germany made
production and maintenance difficult due to urgently needed imports. The
areas northwest of Berlin were one of the areas, which were particularly
poorly provided with GDR television, in addition to the areas on the
inner German border. The Ministry of Ministry led negotiations to anchor
the tower building at least for 1963. Despite the financial promise of
300,000 marks for the construction preparation, the project was canceled
again and the Friedrichshain location was finally abandoned. All
contracts have been terminated.
After the final construction stop in the Volkspark Friedrichshain,
the government awaited further suggestions from the ministry to improve
the broadcasting supply in the capital. In order to keep the costs low,
several slimmed -down suggestions followed. The variant of foregoing a
central tower and building four smaller radio locations was an option.
This would have been associated with considerable losses in radio
supply. Since the government had a special interest in the broadcasting
supply, the political pressure for implementation increased, so that the
tower building in the 1964 economy plan was resumed. However, the
planners considered deleting the public area for cost reasons; The
choice of location was uncertain again. The Deutsche Post broadcasting
and television and television-technical center examined several
locations and, after various analyzes, came to the conclusion that the
Friedrichshain location was the perfect solution. Therefore, in January
1964, the Ministry tried to enforce the building plot on Friedrichshain
in a new attempt. By decision of February 13, 1964, the Council of
Ministers accepted the structural and technical conception. In the first
half of 1964, the plans that had been unsuccessful for over ten years
had resigned. In addition to the factual purpose of the optimal radio
supply, the role of the tower as a new landmark was increasingly coming
to the fore. In a letter from the state plank commission of May 23,
1964, it says:
“Its height of 360 m […] will at the same time
make the building corresponding to the international building an
impressive architectural attraction, which for this reason demands a
central location. Taking this representative effect into account for the
construction of the capital and the development of the GDR, the site is
to be preferred to the site east of Marx-Engels-Platz compared to the
previously planned at the Friedrichshain. ”
The television tower
as an urban planning dominant appeared to many party officials as an
appropriate replacement for the unrealized central high-rise, which was
to be built in the socialist redesign of the East Berlin center instead
of the demolished Berlin castle. In connection with this architecture
competition at the end of the 1950s, Hermann Henselmann had submitted
the proposal to build a 300-meter-high tower of the signals, the tower
of which was supposed to consist of three concave and with white and
gold mosaic. On the shaft at a height of 230 meters, a restaurant and
viewing ball made of bright rubing las should contain several floors and
completed by a slim tip.
The decisive session of the Politburos
for the construction took place on July 14, 1964. There, the first
secretary of the Central Committee of the SED Walter Ulbricht was
concluded with the conclusion of the high and unprofitable government
building that was planned centrally planned in Berlin. At the same time,
the SED leadership commissioned the overall management of the
construction project Gerhard Kosel, the then president of the German
Building Academy. On August 24, 1964, Ulbricht Kosel invited the chief
architect Joachim Nather to a conversation and recommended that the
television tower to be built west of Alexanderplatz station. The
legitimation for Ulbricht's decision later provided the Swiss architect
and urban planner Hans Schmidt, who had received the order to examine
the visual relationships from the various locations. The recommended
location choice was equivalent to an arrangement, which was formulated
by the Politburo as a work instruction after the conversation. A month
later, on September 22nd, the tower received its final location. In this
session, Ulbricht is said to have been enjoyed in the city model of the
German Building Academy of the sentence "Nu, in this context, you can
see it very well: it belongs to it", which has become the epitome of the
regime's absolutist dictation. According to the planners involved, the
main underground was decisive for the location decision.
The
political location decision was given an aesthetic justification by
producing the viewing relationship between a passerby on
Marx-Engels-Platz and the tower 700 meters away. The then designed two
cylindrical tower baskets and a height of 375 meters. From this point,
the tower can be seen in its entire height, without the viewer having to
look up because it corresponds to the normal visual angle of about 27
degrees. This ideal ratio also corresponds to the project to axially
arrange the building as a central building, which makes it the focus of
various avenues and larger streets. On the one hand, this very simple
presentation ignored the already considered high -rise building on the
spree island, on the other hand, that many of the streets have a kinked
course and thus only partially reached the idea of a baroque orientation
on a point de vue. As it turned out after completion, the tower can be
seen from many streets in the immediate vicinity due to its height,
whereas it is partially or completely covered by high -rise buildings.
The reasoning reflects the real socialist idea of the center of power in
a suitable manner. Incidentally, the height of 365 meters was not due to
structural, but that only a high tower offered the necessary range.
The concerns regarding the security of air traffic that had led to
the demolition of the project for the Müggelberge location played no
role in the safety of the West Berlin airspace. The German planners
rejected the objection made by the western Allies at the Soviet embassy
with two scarce explanations: First, the construction of the television
tower does not affect the safety of the Air traffic of the GDR and
secondly, such questions should be directly related to the territory of
the GDR GDR and not to the Soviet ambassador. There were critical voices
against the location within the GDR. The chief architect Joachim Nather
was one of the most prominent critics. Nather favored public competition
to mobilize the creative powers of all architects. The sculptor Fritz
Cremer made it clear that he expressly rejected the responsibility for
television tower construction at this location, despite the
participation of the working group. Criticism of this kind was mostly
expressed very indulged and could not change anything about the status
quo.
After the location was found and the core of the
construction was determined, the question of architectural design was
still to be clarified. Kosel's proposal of a two -part tower corb
reminded too clearly of the Vienna Danube Tower. In any case, the SED
leadership wanted to avoid that this building, which Ulbricht describes
as a "sensation", could express itself to an emisser form. For this
reason, design guidelines were initially still quite vague:
“The
tower must not look like a chimney. The tower head should receive the
character of a crown in the design: elegant tower head cladding "
-
Protocol of the 1st meeting of the Technical Council Fernsehturm of
October 16, 1964
There was no question of a spherical shape, as
Henselmann had proposed in the 1950s. The first completely new design of
the tower head contains an undated drawing that came from the VEB
industrial project (IPRO) Berlin towards the end of 1964. The cut
drawing shows a slightly ellipsoid shape with load -bearing support
structures for the floors and is already very close to the really
executed ball head. This presentation is signed by the IPRO architect
Günter Franke. The new form was determined on December 22, 1964 for the
tower as an term ante quem; She was first advised by the Technical
Council on January 19, 1965. The original idea of Kosel to gild the
tower ball was out of the question for cost reasons. On February 13,
1965, the public found out of the project for the first time from the
Central Organization of New Germany under the headline of the
Fernsehturm Capital Berlin with three model recordings.
Construction without permission
With the approval of the new shape
of the Berlin television tower by the Central Committee of the SED on
February 9, 1965, it was binding. A day later, the magistrate gave the
location permit. On March 20, the demolition work of a total of 29,400
square meters of residential, office, sales and storage space began. In
order to be able to carry out the area and the sometimes still
completely intact buildings, blast were also used in addition to
explosive pears. The costs for the property purchases and compensation
were at least 6.2 million marks in April 1965. If the costs for
demolition and relocation are added, the campaign made the campaign 38.8
million marks, which already exceeded the estimated total costs of 33
million. This cost explosion caused by unrealistic estimates in the
first few months led to a planning confusion and that the plane
commission and construction supervision did not want to give any further
special permits, which led to a standstill of the work from May 31 to
June 4, 1965. Work could only be continued after Kosel's intervention;
However, there was no permit. The German investment bank of the GDR
involved in the financing saw the economic goals for "completely
illegal" and demonstrated the loans with a penalty rate. This almost
brought the construction project to another standstill. Only a
conductistic intervention ensured the continuation of the work on the
project. Because of the cover -up of the true costs for the construction
of the Berlin television tower, there was no official laying of the
foundation stone or a "groundbreaking ceremony". Without the required
building permit, the tower started as a black building.
Work on the foundation began on August 4, 1965 and was completed by
the end of 1965. An approximately 20 meter high steel frame for the
concreting of the tower foot, which began on March 15, 1966. In December
1965, the steadily increasing construction costs led Gerhard Kosel to
vacate his position as overall manager. He was followed by Gerhard
Frost, the architect of the television tower Dusturge built at the end
of the 1950s. The hyperboloid shell was completed on March 30, 1966. The
towering could only be built using climbing construction, since it is
tapered from 16 to 9 meters in diameter. Due to the intermediate floors
that can be seen from the outside, the shaft is divided into five
sections.
The concrete progressed quickly, so the 100 meter brand
was exceeded on October 4, 1966. The shaft reached its final height on
June 16, 1967. The concrete was initially delivered in units of 500
liters; It was later mixed on site to achieve consistent quality. A
total of 8000 cubic meters of concrete were installed for the 26,000
tons and 248.78 meter high shaft. On August 29, 1967, work on the slogan
was started. A crane lifted the reinforced concrete slab with a total of
16 meters in diameter on a pre -assembled auxiliary framework. For
safety reasons, this work required a blocking circuit of 100 meters. The
podium was not included in the original design and was only added
afterwards due to increased security requirements. Heating the lower
part of the antenna carrier reliably prevented the falling of ice
deposits.
In parallel to the construction of the shaft, the preparatory
work for the tower ball progressed. The implementation of the design
details as well as different opinions about the responsibility of
the institutions involved made working progress. Until the summer of
1966, it was still unclear which steel construction operation should
produce the outer skin of the ball. Finally, the VEB Industrial
Mountains Merseburg and VEB Industriestahlbau Leipzig were
commissioned. The client imported stainless steel from western
Germany as material. The VEB IPRO working group had worked out the
method for assembling the ball on the reinforced concrete shaft,
according to which the ball could be placed into 120 segments on the
ground. In April 1967, a 35 meter high replica of the shaft was
built on the construction site between Marienkirche and the Red town
hall, where the ball segments were pre -assembled. This work lasted
until November 1967. The construction costs had now risen to 95
million marks, caused primarily by components and materials to be
paid with foreign exchange.
From January 2 to February 7,
1968, a railway crane from VEB heavy machine construction S. M.
Kirow Leipzig was installed on the finished shaft. On March 29,
1968, the first ball segment was transported upwards. The lifting
process of the ten -ton unique piece lasted 22 minutes. The elements
were assembled from bottom to top and clockwise and first had to be
supported against the concrete shaft before the steel straps could
be loaded, which should hold the entire ball construction after
completing the work. The antenna straps could be pulled up in June.
In mid -July, all facade elements and floors were completely
attached. At the end of July 1968, the trial strain on the steel
bands began: pressing pressed the elements away from the tower, so
that they could be attached to the ribbons. On October 5, the ball
was completely covered with the outer skin. The thermal windows
required for the viewing platform and the restaurant were made in
Belgium. A small segment initially remained open to conveniently
bring the materials for the interior. The last piece of segment was
finally attached on October 7th. After the end of this construction
phase, the participants celebrated the topping -out ceremony.
The approximately five -meter -high segments of the antenna pipes
made in the VEB Funkwerk Köpenick were transported to the intended area
by the crane, which was later remaining on the building to the wearing
platform and further via a climbing crane. From October 2 to October 30,
1968, the tower structure received its top and the antenna framework
above the ball, so that the interior was followed the following year.
The schedule of the construction work could be met relatively well. In
contrast, the costs were completely out of control; They had reached a
maximum of 103.53 million marks by the end of November 1968.
In
the construction work carried out in three -shift operation, 60 workers
were employed in the day class and 30 workers were employed at night.
The project was necessary to work around 300 companies. A considerable
effort was carried out for the fastest possible process. Heated plastic
tents were available to the workers. There was a telephone system in the
shaft for the communication between the building participants, and
handheld radio devices from the National People's Army were also used.
The construction management was in constant connection with the weather
service in Potsdam to be warned of possible storms.
At the
beginning of 1969, water seeped into the interior of the tower ball,
which caused considerable damage; The ball had to be sealed again.
Compared to the original plan, there was now a ten -month deficit;
Because the work should be ended on October 7, 1969 on the 20th
anniversary of the GDR. The interior was carried out by October 3, 1969
and the entrance pavilion was completed. After 53 months of pure
construction, the tower was completed in "record -breaking" time despite
all the adversities. The costs amounted to over 132 million marks,
although the two pavilions that were only completed in the early 1970s
were not included. The tower was therefore at least four times as
expensive as originally planned. An exact final invoice was never set up
because the instances involved tried to distribute the costs to
different funds in order to save the balance sheet.
The building,
which officially received the designation of television and UK tower
Berlin, was the second highest television tower in the world in October
1969. Only the television tower Ostancino in Moscow was higher. At the
same time, after the tower in Moscow and the Empire State Building in
New York, it was the third highest free -standing building of its time.
On October 3, 1969, Walter Ulbricht, together with his wife Lotte and
a delegation of high -ranking companions, including Günter Mittag,
Herbert Warnke, Paul Verner, Rudolph Schulze, Erich Honecker, Werner
Lamberz and Erich Mielke, inaugurated the television tower and gave the
start signal for DFF 2, the second state program of the GDR. This
started color television on two channels in the country. After a
controversial process, the French Secam and West German Pal system were
chosen. The socialist daily newspaper New Germany described the
construction work with "The Turm - A Masterpiece for the Republic" and
"The Tower - Symbol of our performance". Emphatic reporting on
completion continued in the GDR until 1989 and was worn by all media.
The tower has been accessible to the public since October 7, 1969, the
day of the Republic. In order to give priority to the reports on the
opening of the tower in Berlin, the official opening of the television
tower in Dresden, which was completed in the summer of 1969, was set up.
The press in West Berlin largely ignored the event.
From February
16, 1970, five FM programs shone from the tower; A first television
program followed on April 4, 1970. At the beginning of 1972, the two
missing pavilions for exhibitions, the information center of the Berlin
information, were completed, a cinema and gastronomic facilities. In
total, the restaurants offered space for around 1000 guests. In the same
year, the four millionth visitor was welcomed in the television tower.
After a legal basis for monument protection was created in 1975, the
Berlin television tower received this status in 1979. After the decline
of the GDR, the Federal Republic determined the building status of the
building.
In 1986, a migratory falcon couple at Alexanderplatz
settled for the first time. The birds use the television tower as a seat
for the hunt. The residence is located at a height of 185 meters on the
southeastern side of the tower. Most of the time the hiking falcons
plunge into the birds passing at night. From the residence, the falcons
can see the prey birds above the brightly lit Alexanderplatz. During the
day, the falcons during the insect hunt around the television tower and
when collecting the insects could be observed with beak and clutches
from the concrete surface. The bird of prey pairs serve to breed nesting
boxes at the Marienkirche and at the Berlin town hall.
When the
Palace of the Republic was closed in 1990, in the year of German
reunification and a demolition was seriously considered, voices
increased that also wanted the television tower as the epitome of
totalitarian GDR rule. The writer Friedrich Dieckmann noted in 1992:
“I also tend to preserve the palace [of the republic] because there is a
much more important demolition on the inside of the city, this is the
television tower. […] This obscene structure, […] is an architectural
demonstration of power of unadorned directness, as it were the vertical
correlate to the ground -level wall. The defensive border structure in
its linear extension came to the side of the gesture of aggression on
this tower needle, which was emitted in a kind of turning tree, the
exposed concrete of which was mainly calculated on West Berlin. You
should see who had Berlin in hand. "
- Friedrich Dieckmann
The
Federal Republic decided to preserve the building. Deutsche Telekom, as
a new operator, finally invested over 50 million marks in the
modernization of the broadcasting facilities. Some structural
renovations had to be made; Among other things, the introduced
Spritzasbest had to be removed. In 1995/1996 the wall and ceiling
cladding of the tower restaurant and the viewing floor were replaced by
new insulation materials. From 1995 to 1999, Telekom had the operating
technology completely renewed for around 100 million marks. In these
renovations, the previous antenna received a new, more powerful tip from
327 meters. As a result, the tower was increased from 365 meters to 368
meters in summer 1997. The towering from exposed concrete was given a
light gray protective lacquer.
In the 1990s, the Berlin
television tower was increasingly serving as a backdrop for top sporting
performance. On June 24, 1992, on the occasion of a “holiday opening
festival”, the sports climber drew Detlef Stock, Tilmann Hartmann and
Gregor Katzer with the help of 50 m cables from the dome (207 m) or from
the viewing floor (203 m). The Austrian Rupert Hirner dropped to the
25th anniversary of the tower on October 3, 1994 on a 70-meter-long and
70-kilogram rubber rope from a height of 260 meters. At that time,
Hirner set up a world record performance with the bungee jump. On March
26, 1995, the high ropesist Matthias Traber tried to cross the distance
between the television tower and the Berlin cathedral on a 620 meter
long and 36 millimeter thick rope. Around 50,000 onlookers gathered to
the spectacle that had to be stopped after 28 minutes. Traber lost the
balance after 250 meters above the Neptune fountain and had to abseil
from 50 meters. On July 3, 1998, the first tower stair run took place in
the Berlin television tower, which the hurdle sprinter and former
Olympic champion Thomas Munkelt won 5: 56.8 minutes. He made the 986
levels to the viewing platform five seconds faster than the three-time
winner of the New York Empire-State-Building Run.
The television
tower is one of the buildings that are artfully illuminated for several
days at the festival of Lights, which has been taking place since 2004
in October. On the occasion of the 2006 World Cup, the tower ball
received a cladding as a magenta-colored football as part of an
advertising campaign by the operator. The sticker of the outer facade of
the tower corb performed industrial climbers in a five -month campaign.
In 2009 the tower was once again used as an advertising medium. The
Telekom had 14 vinyl banners attached to love messages along the shaft.
At the instigation of the operating company TV Turm Alexanderplatz
Gastronomiegesellschaft mbH, a complete modernization of all public
areas took place in early 2012, which lasted five months and cost around
1.5 million euros. The Berlin Senate commissioned a redesign of the area
of the television tower in the same period. The interior was given a new
furniture, the visitor areas were designed brighter and the quality of
stay in all areas of the public was significantly increased. The
redesign of the forecourt was completed by December 2013, especially the
elimination of the flower discounts on the lower tips of the pavilion
folding roofs.
The Berlin television tower is located southwest of Alexanderplatz
station in the park on the television tower. The location of the
building is often incorrectly attributed to Alexanderplatz northeast.
Because of the proximity to the well-known place, the television tower
is sometimes even referred to as an Alex tower.
The actual
environment of the television tower was designed as a small green oasis
for visitors between 1969 and 1974, the GDR collectives W. Herzog, H.
Aust, R. Heider for the hexagonal geometry of the pavilion buildings
from the foot of the television tower with an inn and H. Matthes, E.
Horn and R. Rühle for the water features and the green areas that absorb
the geometry of the buildings with the rose parterles, decorative trees,
linden trees and maple. The total area ranges from the train station to
the newly placed neo -baroque Neptune fountain. The Berlin Senate has
given the ensemble under monument protection and baptized the socialist
center area.
The tower stands on a rectangular, approximately six
hectares of space on 37 m above sea level. Nn. The area is limited by
Gontardstrasse and the railway tracks of Alexanderplatz (northeastern),
Karl-Liebknecht-Straße, where the oldest church in Berlin, the
Marienkirche, is located (northwest), Spandauer Straße (southwest) and
Rathausstraße the red town hall (southeast). On the south side of
Spandauer Straße, the Marx-Engels forum joins the Spree.
In
addition to the Berlin subways and S-Bahn, several lines of the tram and
bus traffic at the train station, from which the middle exit is to the
entrance building of the television tower.
The panoramic road on
the northern edge on the northern edge from Gontardstrasse was named in
1882 after a round building with the Panorama of the Battle of Sedan.
The outbuilding of the tower is assigned to this street: the extension
opposite the entrance is panoramic street 1a, the right wing of the
entrance building Panoramastraße 2. The television tower with the
entrance building Gontardstrasse 7 and its left wing construction as
Gontardstrasse 9 is addressed.
At the same time as the television
tower, the 125 m high hotel center of Interhotel Stadt Berlin on
Alexanderplatz, which was completed in 1970, was completed, which is
managed as Park Inn by Radisson Berlin Alexanderplatz. Between 1967 and
1972, the town hall passages were built directly south of the television
tower as a long bar next to the Red Rathaus.
Foundation, base and shaft
The Berlin television tower is founded
between 2.70 and 5.80 meters due to the unequal underground; The
foundation has a wall thickness of 50 centimeters. Compared to the
foundation depths of other television towers, such as the in Stuttgart
with 8 meters or the Europaturm in Frankfurt am Main with 18.5 meters,
the Berliner is founded flat. The trial drilling promoted a mixture of
gravel, sand, stone and lignite stories that have a good load capacity.
In addition, despite the relative proximity to the Spree, the location
is on one of the valley sand islands on which historical Berlin was
founded. The outer diameter of the foundation is 42 meters. The building
is founded on a ring foundation with a 41 meter outer diameter on a
three -meter thick and slightly tensioned. In addition to this
foundation, there is also a second square with the sides of 4.70 meters
that bears the inner part of the tower. It is a 390 -ton, self
-supporting support construction made of steel, which protrudes up to
230 meters. The scaffolding takes up three elevators, supplies and
cables as well as a emergency staircase with 986 stages. For reasons of
stability, the shaft scaffold is connected to the inside of the concrete
session at various points.
The visible base at the terrain has a
diameter of 32 meters and runs hyperbolic tapering cone stump with bull
eyes in the form of a 20 meter high. In this detail, he resembles the TV
Tower Ostancino in Moscow. The 248.78 meter high tower rises from the
entrance pavilion to the tower basket, the diameter of which is tapered
from 16 to 9 meters. The five sections of 45 meters each are divided by
intermediate floors, which can be seen on the outside of the bull eyes.
From a height of 91 meters there are red flight warning.
Conversion complex
Three pavilions, the floor plans of which run
arrow -shaped and symmetrically to the longitudinal axis of the tower
square, line the tower on its ground -level base. The two -storey,
hexagonal buildings serve as the entrance area as well as for
gastronomic facilities and for exhibitions. Only the entrance pavilion
was completed until the opening. They are glazed and flooded with light
on all sides. The most striking feature of this basic complex are the
concrete folding roofs running with a thirty -percent tendency, the tips
of which begin about 30 centimeters above the ground. Other parts of the
roof strive up and protrude up to 21 meters high. The entrance building
is around 50 meters opposite Alexanderplatz station. The open entrance
hall is flanked by a six -part staircase, the parts of which meet in the
middle of a central podium. The cash register area for the tower drive
and a souvenir shop are housed in this hall. A glaster that was 6 meters
high and covered transition (called Skyway) leads to the surroundings on
the tower and to the elevators.
The hexagonal grid of the
conversion complex continues in the large staircase, which is directed
to the southwest, which leads to the other two pavilions. The staircase
literally pushes itself into the park from the tower conversion as a
terrace. On both sides of the stairs, four water pools are arranged
symmetrically, which are automatically controlled every full hour to
generate different water figures with fountains. The system consists of
560 nozzles and has 296 underwater headlights to illuminate the water
feature. From a bird's eye view, the base of the conversion appears as a
arrow or rocket. The Neptune fountain is located in a visual axis to the
southwestern staircase. The open space is around 600 meters long and 300
meters wide. It was designed by the architect Hubert Matthes, Eberhard
Horn and Rolf Rühle. The structural design of the foot conversion was
responsible for the VEB BMK Ingenieurhochbau Berlin, whereby Ulrich
Müther and his construction company VEB special concrete construction
Rügen made the machine park available for the tapping of the
cantilevered folding roof roofs. The architect Walter Herzog and
structural engineer Rolf Heider were drafted and planned by the
architect Walter Herzog.
Structure and technology
The tower basket is formed by a ball -
also called the tower ball - with a diameter of 32 meters and thus over
17,000 cubic meters of volume. The center of the bullet is at an
altitude of 213.78 meters. The outer skin of the seven-storey building
consists of trapezoidal surfaces that protrude 15 centimeters above the
base and form silvery-gray pyramids. This gives the ball a structure
that resembles a diamond rustic. Except for the visitor levels, the
building is windowless. Only small bull eyes let light inside.
The sheets for outdoor cladding are made of high -quality stainless
steel of the Südwestfalen AG Dillenburg steelworks. The fact that the
GDR imported the material from the class enemy from West Germany was
deliberately kept secret. The over 1000 pyramids make the 3500 square
meters of the outer skin of the tower ball look like a diamond. In
addition to the aesthetic design, the shape of the prevention of air
disturbance serves. The enlarged roughness of the surface reduces the
attack surface for winds. The tower ball has a mass of 4800 tons.
While most tower baskets of television towers rest directly on
concrete consoles, the ball is attached to the concrete shaft by means
of a complicated steel subject. The internal steel skeleton is left
behind on 20 steel straps and is located on a concrete console at a
height of 229 meters. The thickness of the 20 steel straps varies
between 8 and 26 centimeters and forms a polygon train that has been
killed several times. The ligaments numbered in the public with "I" to
"XX" are visible next to every third window. On every floor, each of the
20 ligaments with the outside edge of a radial carrier is welded, the
inside of which lays on the concrete shaft. Between the radial carriers
there are smaller, tangent carriers that form a framework -like
scaffolding. The advantage of this hanging construction is that support
-free rooms arise that can be divided.
Safety technology
In
order to keep the risk of falling snow and ice parts as low as possible,
various safety measures were implemented in the upper third of the ball.
There is a snow lattice on the top and below the fourth and fifth series
of pyramids. Between the sixth and seventh row at a height of 220
meters, a walk -in drain channel forms a cut with the naked eye, in
which precipitation can drain. Certain, particularly reinforced areas of
the outer skin are protected against ice. In order to be able to reach
all parts of the ball via a work platform adapted to the respective
curvature, a system from four special guide rails was developed with
which the entire ball can be bypassed. This work platform is parked at
the tower foot when non -use. For cleaning the windows there is a two
-storey maintenance stage that remained on the ball. Your guide rails
can be seen upper and below the two window floors.
Base division
The air conditioning system and the restaurant cools to 200 meters on
the lowest floor at 200 meters. An import from Scandinavia was used as
an initial equipment. Above that is located at 203.78 meters, the
viewing platform with a diameter of 24 meters, which is approved for a
total of 120 people. At this level for the public traffic, a parapet
runs in front of the windows inclined to the outside, on which the
cityscape is explained in display boards.
On the third level with
a diameter of 29 meters, the restaurant floor, called Telecafé, is
located at 207.53 meters with 40 tables distributed seats for 200
guests. The inner part of this floor forms a fixed area. The outer part
is a rotatable ring of 4.50 meters, which is mounted on 120 rollers,
which forms the basis for the rotary restaurant. Until the renovation in
the late 1990s, the firmly mounted tables turned 360 degrees clockwise
within an hour; After that, the guests had to clear their seats. In the
meantime, the turning speed can be set at half or a whole hour. The
telecafé is separated from the stairwell by a glass wall designed by the
artist Richard O. Wilhelm. The brightly dotted wall stylized the Milky
Way. The two visitor levels are highlighted with bronze -colored window
bands. Overall, the ball has a usable area of 5000 square meters.
In three other floors above the area accessible to visitors to 216,
220 and 224 meters there are broadcasting systems for television and
radio technology and the company rooms of the measurement technicians.
Apart from an HF power meter, the transmission systems in the tower
basket are only air-cooled. The top technology floor houses the fire
-fighting gas center for fire fighting. A meteorological weather station
of the German Weather Service is also housed in the tower ball. The
measuring instruments are located in the antenna tip.
Below the tower ball (188 and 191 meters), two rescue platforms,
which are protruding to 1.60 meters, lead around the shaft. These offer
space for up to 400 people, which corresponds to the maximum number of
people, 380 visitors and 20 employees, who may be in the basket. From
the tower ball, the evacuation platforms are connected to a staircase.
Above the tower ball, the tower continues to a height of 250 meters.
The elevator room rooms are housed in it. Radial steel platforms are
arranged on the outside. The optically receded steel frame for the
directional radio antennas brings the struts of the tower upwards
significantly better than the solution that is otherwise common for GDR
remote towers, in which the directional radio systems are attached to
the shaft or install the tower basket.
Elevator
Three lifts of
which are intended for public public transport run within the tower. The
third party is reserved for the operating staff of the technical rooms.
The original elevators from Sweden were replaced in early 1996 by
facilities from the Kone company. Their transport capacity is 15 people;
Due to your travel speed of six meters per second, you create the way to
the viewing floor at a height of 203 meters in 38 seconds. In an
emergency, the elevators can be brought to the same height and one can
switch from one to the other cabin. From February 10, 2014, the
elevators were renewed for around two months when operating. During the
journey you can look through a window in the ceiling of the cabin in the
illuminated elevator shaft above.
Antenna bearer
The antenna
wearer is anchored with bolts on the top piece of shaft that runs over
the tower basket. In this intermediate piece, a "eggtaker" is attached
at a height of 248.7 meters, which is supposed to collect ice down by
the antenna. At the same time, the plate serves as a basis for a mounted
railway crane, which already promoted the individual facade segments
upwards when the tower ball was built. It was made by VEB heavy machine
construction S. M. Kirow Leipzig. Since commissioning the tower, the
crane has been used as a lift for maintenance work with a 20-meter boom
and parked with a northeastern direction with arm folded down.
The antenna wearer is 118 meters long, 245 tons heavy and mostly made of
steel. Only its tip consists of plastic cylinders; It houses a rependant
of 1.5 tons for fluctuation compensation. In 1997 the antenna carrier
was provided with a more powerful antenna tip from a height of 327
meters, which has increased the tower by three meters since then. The
antenna carrier has a diameter of four meters at the base and tapers to
the top to less than two meters.
150 different antennas for
television and radio transmission (→ frequencies and programs) are
mounted on the carrier. The antennas for digital television (DVB-T2 HD),
FM radio station and digital radio (DAB) are located from bottom to top.
The broadcast area comprises around 20,000 square kilometers in Berlin
and its surrounding area and has the highest radio density in Germany.
Together with the broadcaster Scholzplatz in Heerstraße and the
Berlin-Schäferberg telecommunications tower in Wannsee, the broadcaster
of the Berlin television tower forms a transmitter network.
The following building materials were used in the construction of the
26,000 ton Berlin television tower: 7900 cubic meters of concrete, 1650
tons round steel, 300 tons of clamping steel and 1500 tons of profile
steel. The steel used for profiling is distributed over the foot frame
with 175 tons, the elevator shaft with 390 tons, the antenna holder with
70 tons, the teaching scaffolding for the wearing platform with 20 tons,
the antenna wearer with 245 tons and the tower head with 600 tons.
Fixed and safety lighting
Traditionally, only five days a year
(January 1st, 24th to 26th and 31st), the fixed lighting of the Berlin
television tower begins at dusk. This consists of six all -round rows of
lamps in the cylindrical scaffold above the tower ball, from several
pearl chain -like rows of lamps in the tower ball, of which the light
strongest is located in the upper third of the same, as well as two rows
of lamps on the two ring -shaped evacuation platforms below the tower
ball. In addition, as on other nights, the underside of the tower ball
of headlights is illuminated. This internal fixed lighting with
exclusively white, standing lights in its visually imposing entirety
strictly can be distinguished from mostly colored, moving, changing
effect lighting (often with the help of external lasers) on various
occasions, such as the Festival of Lights or Tower anniversaries.
The television tower has several firing facilities for flight safety
in different weather. Along the shaft, obstacle fire are attached to 91,
136, 181 meters, as well as on the antenna wearer to 267, 303 and 329
meters. These glow permanently red.
Above the tower ball at 230
meters and at the top of the antenna wearer there are additional,
flashing hazardfire that have a three-second cycle. The flashing lights
are automatically switched to red light color in daylight and in the
dark.
This system has existed since September 2009 and replaces
an earlier plant that was in operation from October 1989. Instead of the
red/white flashing lights, white-glowing Xenon flash units with a flash
interval of 1.5 seconds were used (even at night). Until the turning
point in 1989, the fire philosophy at the Berlin television tower
largely corresponded to the current system with red flashing lights.
Since January 2018 with an interruption in March, the top of the
Berlin television tower has been illuminated with headlights from the
ball upwards with headlights.
The Berlin television tower is not only a transmission tower, but
also a landmark, tourist attraction and the venue. At the European
continent, the Berlin television tower is the third highest public
building and the second highest public viewpoint in Germany. The
Thyssenkrupp test tower in Rottweil has been offering the highest public
viewing platform in Germany since October 2017.
In the first
three years after its opening, over four million people visited the
building. After the fall of the wall, the average has leveled off from
around 90 countries in around 1.2 million visitors annually. In 2010,
around 60 percent of which came from abroad, with 8.1 percent, visit
visitors from abroad, followed by Italians with 7.6 percent and Danes
with 6.7 percent. In 2010, the tower came in 8th place in the most
popular German sights. The permissible total number of people of the
ball is 320 people. Around 1500 of the daily up to 5000 guests visit the
tower restaurant. In GDR times, the length of stay in the tele-café was
limited to 60 minutes and on the observation floor to 30 minutes.
The two visitor lifts each drive twelve in around 40 seconds to the
viewpoint at a height of 203 meters, where Berlin's highest bar is also
located. From 60 windows there is a panoramic view of all of Berlin and
the Berlin surrounding area. The rotary restaurant is located at a
height of 207 meters above the observation floor. The restaurant rotates
by 360 ° within an hour. For fire protection reasons, the main kitchen
is at the foot of the tower. The dishes are transported to the
restaurant with the lift, where they are prepared in a small satellite
kitchen. In addition to the two evacuation platforms below the tower
corb, the fire protection concept includes a strict ban on smoking in
the entire building. Wheelchair users and people with current walking
disabilities are not possible to visit the Berlin television tower, as
they could not use the escape route in an emergency. For safety reasons,
animals, strollers and large pieces of luggage may not be carried.
In 1972 the visitor brand was exceeded by a total of four million.
Almost 42 years after the opening, on June 14, 2011, the ruling mayor
Klaus Wowereit welcomed the 50-millionth visitors. The entire urban area
must be overlooked from the viewing terrace of the television tower.
With good visibility, the view extends to the Tropical Islands amusement
park, which is almost 60 kilometers away.
The television tower
open all year round for the tourist audience has seasonally adapted
opening times. The last driveway to the viewing floor takes place every
day at 11:30 p.m., the last access to the restaurant at 11 p.m. The
public area can be rented for special occasions, celebrations,
receptions and other events with a maximum of 200 guests. Civil
marriages are also possible on the television tower. The bar area on the
viewing floor is reserved for an hour for the bride and groom and the
wedding party of up to 30 people.
Events that are a meeting point
for locals and guests also take place on the Berlin television tower.
The television tower offered a public viewing for the first time for the
2018 World Cup. All games that were also visible on public television
were shown on the viewing floor and in the rotary restaurant.
Due to the long and unstable planning and building history and the
associated changing responsibilities, several architects and engineers
were involved in the construction of the television tower. Although the
concept of collective is particularly important in socialism, a
copyright dispute broke out after completion in 1969, which was unique
in this extent in the GDR architecture history. In particular, Hermann
Henselmann and the architectural group of VEB IPRO Berlin around Fritz
Dieter, Günter Franke and Werner Neumann claimed to have designed the
shape of the building, in particular its spherical head building, alone
and independently. Since Gerhard Kosel was discontinued as the original
chief architect, his name remained completely unnamed up to the case of
the GDR. From 1989 Kosel intervened in the dispute as the third party.
The dispute was partially fought out in a legal path for decades.
Hermann Henselmann, as a chief architect at the East Berlin
magistrate, led two main arguments for his authorship: First, with the
"Tower of Signals", he had already designed a television tower with a
spherical tower basket in 1958/1959 and secondly, as the head of two
project groups of the technical councils this form enforced. Although
Henselmann's draft undoubtedly has a strong similarity to the building
actually carried out, there are hardly any valid documents from the
design period, which demonstrated how great the influence of his design
on the design of the television and FM tower was actually. Above all,
doubts about the uniqueness are preserved because Henselmann has not
managed to refute the claims of the IPRO architects from the start. He
also often got involved in contradictory times about certain designs.
Nevertheless, a certain “suggestion” cannot be excluded.
The IPRO
architects, on the other hand, state that they have developed their
draft independently of Henselmann's designs or suggestions. They even
stated not to have known Henselmann's design. This statement appears
unbelievable because the "Tower of Signals" was published in 1961 in the
GDR architecture magazine Deutsche Architecture. One argument for the
IPRO architects is that there was a work instruction to design the space
requirement for the tower basket in such a way that with the lowest
possible surface, a maximum volume for transmission technology, the
public needs and the desired fully air conditioning had to be available.
With this requirement, the ball is the only possible solution. The
architect's collective has tried a total of 40 tower basket variants.
The actual proposal to the ball comes from Fritz Dieter. Günter Franke
made the necessary cut drawings for the reports to the authorities.
Henselmann's role was only to enforce the determined form in the
technical council.
Gerhard Kosel, who was overall manager of the
construction project from July 1964 to December 1965, was always not
taken into account after his deduction in official documents. Kosel
stated that the current location of the television tower stimulated and
still defined the shape in front of Henselmann's design. Due to his
dismissal, his performance on the project could not be recognized.
Kosel's participation in construction and its performance in terms of
implementation are undisputed. However, there are no documents that
could prove that the authorship in question was to be attributed to him.
After Kosel and Dieter publicly attacked the point of view of
Henselmann, Henselmann applied for honorary court at the Berlin Chamber
of Architects on February 22, 1994. Since the chamber rejected such a
procedure, a colloquium was called up and the three were loaded. In this
conversation, all opponents insisted in their position after emotionally
strongly charged exchange. In the same year, Dieter turned to the Berlin
district court and wanted to have Henselmann prohibited from describing
himself publicly as the author of the Berlin television tower. After an
affidavit Henselmann, Dieter had to withdraw his application. Kosel
tried to enforce its position through the media, a publication and the
Berlin Senate.
The only comprehensive naming of the people
involved remains an edition of the magazine Deutsche Architecture
published in August 1970, in which Fritz Dieter and Günter Franke are
mentioned for the architectural design and Hermann Henselmann as an
artistic consultant. The magazine only called the IPRO architects after
several interventions. It can be assumed that the parties have
influenced and inspired each other. How high this proportion of the self
-creative performance was cannot be reconstructed exactly. It is
questionable whether the actual authorship can ever be clarified,
especially since Dieter (1931–2002), Franke as well as Henselmann and
Kosel have died. Henselmann may have been inspired by a contribution by
the French architect Jean Faugeron, whose competition draft for West
Berlin 1957/1958 provided for a television tower, which in the
perspective presentation initiated the design approaches of the Berlin
television tower.
architecture
With the spherical tower head, the Berlin television
tower differs particularly clearly from the previously built television
towers, which mostly have cylindrical, conical or disc -shaped outings.
This makes it unique and stands out from other buildings of its kind.
The spherical shape has the property that it is always recognizable as
such regardless of the point of view. In other forms, the shape is
particularly lost for strong underground.
The design becomes the
most important representative of "sputnik iconography" in the GDR, which
received the success of the Soviet space program. This is associated
with the image of the "television tower rocket", which is already
supported by the shape of the feet. Other architecture examples of this
time are today's Café Moscow with Sputnik-Schmewiten on the roof and the
cinema internation-equipped with "engine lamps". There are also bonds to
the space motifs in the house of the teacher and in the former state
council building. The ball of the television tower stands for the
satellite, which is worn by the dynamic shaft to the sky.
The
architecture processed the spherical shape before the construction of
the Berlin television tower, such as in the geodetic dome Biosphère by
Richard Buckminster Fuller to Expo 67 or the Dresden Kugelhaus from the
1920s. The use of the spherical shape for a tower was a novelty. Due to
the strong representative of the representation, the building was
therefore pioneered for a short-term architectural and urban flow in the
GDR at the end of the 1960s and in the early 1970s. Buildings from
important cities in the country should be equipped with dominant high
-rise buildings, the design language of which should refer to the
function or region in terms of image. For example, the Leipzig
University University, the form of which is supposed to remind you of a
open book, and the Jentower, the basic shape of which is based on
telescope and lens. For a non -realized house of science, education and
culture in Rostock, a ship bug was intended as a shape and the house of
the heavy machine building in Magdeburg should be a screw. Because of
the sometimes clear iconicity, these buildings are often considered to
be less than architecturally less successful. Even if the television
tower pursues the bond to the satellite form, its shape is for itself
without the ideological superstructure, which makes it appear much more
timeless and more universal. The art historian Peter Müller even
describes him as the most important building that the GDR architecture
has produced in its history.
Towers that absorb a spherical shape
were also created abroad in the following years. At the end of the
1970s, the Nuremberg telecommunications tower was built in the Federal
Republic, whose egg -shaped tower basket is a modification of the ball,
but still very close to the shape of the Berlin television tower.
However, this is not so consistently implemented architecturally, since
the upper part only indicates the shape through the antenna platforms.
The three Kuwait Towers are not only formally clearly based on the
Berlin model. In the 1970s, the Kuwaiti developer wanted to award the
order to the same GDR companies that had built the television tower.
Despite the preference of Kuwait, the GDR failed to receive the contract
for the project. The water towers with spherical water reservoir were
built by Swedish companies. Another tower with a spherical part is the
81 meter high SunSphere, which was built as a landmark for the 1982
World Exhibition in Knoxville (Tennessee). A similar tower was created a
few years earlier in Dallas with the 171 -meter high Reunion Tower,
which, however, has a tower basket covered by a ball braid. The Oriental
Pearl Tower in Shanghai from the 1990s quotes the ball motif several
times, which is supposed to remind you of a pearl chain.
The foot
conversion created in 1968–1972 with the three pavilions and the
expressively formed cantilever folding roofs support the aeronautical
motif with their shape and arrangement. The roof structure with its
lowered and lowered shapes can be interpreted as a wing strike of a
bird. This architecture is characteristic of international modernity
after the Second World War. The capital of Brazil, Brasília, which was
created in the 1960s, leans its floor plan to a bird with spread out
swinging (Portuguese Plano Piloto 'Guide Plan') and Eero Saarinen's
reception building (Twa terminal) on New York John F. Kennedy
International Airport solves similar Associations.
The comparatively simple basic form of the Berlin television tower
made it a easily recognizable and reproducible landmark, which was found
in art and culture as well as everyday perception. The television tower
was the necessary purpose construction to counteract the catastrophic
broadcast of East Berlin. Despite his architecturally unique design, it
had only become a means to an end and thus the "replacement character"
for the failed concept of the central building. The television tower
also served to send the new self-confident rhetoric from the "socialist"
GDR constitution of 1968 adopted one year before its completion. All
official documents led the designation of television and UK Tower Berlin
capital of the GDR. At the same time, he became a cipher for the big
city and modernity in the GDR.
The glorification of the building
by the GDR regime caused a more or less subtle counter-propaganda, which
expressed itself through mockery or various, mostly on rumored
anecdotes. This includes the appearance of the atheistic basic attitude
of the socialist government and the discrimination of church
institutions in the GDR as the "revenge of the Pope". It is based on the
fact that a cross -shaped reflection becomes visible when the sun is on
the tower ball. Various anecdotes - right down to the demolition of the
tower - circulated in the fact that the regime was a thorn in the side
of the regime and tried to remove it. IM examinations on this topic are
documented, but there is no indication that there were really radical
suggestions for removing the light cross. Nevertheless, the stories were
therefore particularly in the time of the Cold War. After Walter
Ulbricht, the tower got the nickname “St. Walter ”. Thereupon the SED
central organ is said to have tried to establish a pet name with the
spread term “telescafe” in order to counter the term that is perceived
as a mocking term. However, he could not prevail. The rumors about the
reflection and its consequences culminated in the fact that US President
Ronald Reagan took up this in his known speech in front of the
Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987 and claimed that the East Berlin
authorities had "repeatedly with the construction of the television
tower The use of color and chemicals tried in vain to prevent the light
reflection on the glass ball [sic!] ”.
After the Berlin
television tower was rising in the GDR era for the controversial
structural symbol, the GDR collapse resigned. The exaggerated importance
of the television tower lost its basis in reunified Germany. With the
East Nostalgia, which had arisen after the fall of the wall, the Berlin
television tower made the change from the politically strongly captured
and transfigured symbol to a landmark that belongs to all of Berlin,
especially the new middle scene. In this form, this hardly succeeded in
any other East structure. The design is sometimes valued and maintained
and is considered a "retro chic". Since the 2000s, the television tower
has been increasingly shown on company logos. For example, it serves
smaller record companies as a memorable symbol of media communication
and adorns posters of cultural events as an expression of local
connection. Until the mid-2000s, his meaning was more of Berlin-specific
and according to assessments, he had had its day as a national symbol.
Not least because of his universal-time-free and thus apolitical design
language, the symbolic character of the Berlin television tower
strengthened from the 2010s due to growing visitor numbers. In a survey
by the German Center for Tourism, the Berlin television tower is one of
the most popular sights of the Germany travel destination and is even
two places in front of the Reichstag dome. He is again accepted as an
overall German attraction and, due to his striking and
cityscape-defining form, assumes a symbolic nature, which equips it with
a recognition value that is identified with Berlin and Germany at home
and abroad.
The GDR also used the representative landmark as a use graphic,
mostly accompanied by propaganda slogans, which should illustrate
strength, performance and thus superiority over the capitalist states.
The television tower was omnipresent in children's magazines, graphics
of the FDJ, on posters, stamps, documents, medals and various other
objects. The building's silhouette was regularly used for agitprop,
tourism, friendship statements to the Soviet brother state,
anniversaries, festivals and parades.
In the period from its
completion to reunification in 1990, the German Post of the GDR only
published well over a dozen stamps, which represented the tower as the
main motive, as an accessory in the city silhouette or as a stylized
form, including three block expenses. As early as 1969, the Deutsche
Post of the GDR published five special brands, which had the tower as a
motive. In addition to the red town hall, the television tower was also
shown on the back of the blue 100-mark bank note of the GDR. Until the
political turn, the Berlin television tower was hardly received in the
Federal Republic. Only on a special brand for the 750th anniversary of
Berlin in 1987 (joint edition with the German Bundespost Berlin in 1987)
the tower was seen in a light pink silhouette in the background.
During the GDR era, Helmut Stöhr the song text our television tower
(what is in our Spreeathen) of the young pioneers and set to music as a
television tower song. The melody composed Hans Naumilkat. The
children's magazine Bummi published the television tower song in 1975.
Other children's and youth magazines such as Atze or Frösi used the
television tower in pictures, graphics or stories. The degree of
ideological content rose with the age of the target group. Even the
sandman of GDR television presented the tower that was currently
completed for the 20th birthday of the GDR.
In addition, as
souvenirs, television cower models in different sizes were sold, also as
a children's toy for plastic. The menu of the tower restaurant had the
shape of the tower ball and the guests could take it with them.
After the political turn, more than ten years passed before the artist
took up the object of television tower; This happened particularly in
music and in the Berlin scene. The Berlin DJ duo Lexy & K-Paul published
the song of the television tower in 2002, which is a homage to the
building and the city of Berlin. He is also often shown in music videos
that play in Berlin; He thus became a synonym for Berlin and the city's
identification feature.
The film industry also discovered the
strong character character for itself, so that films playing in Berlin
also increasingly show the tower briefly so that the viewer immediately
recognizes the place of action. During its construction, a lord on
Alexanderplatz was shown the unfinished tower in the comedy. The place
of work of the main actress in DEFA production Hostess from 1976 is the
Berlin television tower. In the novel adaptation of the room fountain,
the unemployed main figure built a water-controlling television tower
model that unexpectedly turns out to be a sales success. In the German
disaster film Das Inferno - Flames over Berlin, the building itself
became a place of action when a fire broke out in the tower restaurant.
For security reasons, the scenes were replenished in the background that
is true to the original. The cinema film The Bourne Conspiracy of 2004
shows the television tower in several settings. The Telenovela in love
in Berlin from 2005 to 2007 used the television tower in her logo.
In addition to the usual souvenirs, a glass perfume bottle is also
available in the form of the tower. A local manufactory offers a seed
bomb in the form of the television tower under the name Berlin Flower
Tower, which contains seeds of Berlin wild plants. In the advertising
industry, the television tower was largely cited by companies - related
to the city of Berlin. The advertising of the beer manufacturer Berliner
Kindl, which was a beer bottle in a poster, was particularly well -known
in the shadow throw of which the Berlin television tower emerges. The
model railway accessories manufacturer Faller has released a multi-part
kit-modeled on the Berlin television tower.
On the occasion of
the Milan Furniture Fair 2008 (Salone del Mobile), the Berlin television
tower received an artistic reception as a temporary art installation.
The stylized tower ball with red and white antenna tip served the fair
as a 15-meter-high geodetic cathedral (Berlin Design Dome) as well as as
a meeting point and exhibition room. The Berlin association C-Base uses
the television tower in its logo and designs with it a fictional
start-up myth, in which the tower is only the antenna of a space stance
crashed into Berlin.
Analog radio (FM radio)
A total of 19 radio programs are radiated
from the different heights of FM antennas. Their transmission
performance ranges from 0.5 to 100 kW. The technical operation takes
place after the market is opened by different transmitter network
operators, including Uplink Network GmbH.
The private broadcaster
BB Radio used his frequency of 107.5 MHz coordinated for the television
tower with permitted 100 kW until December 12, 2016, alternatively from
the Berlin-Schäferberg telecommunications tower with only 13 kW. Since
then it has been sending a transmission power of 40 kW from the
originally coordinated television tower. The Fritz program from the RBB
can send from the Berlin television tower with a maximum of 100 kW.
Superlative silver ball - the Berlin television tower. Documentary,
Germany, 2010, 13:44 min., Book and Director: Michael Petsch,
production: ZDF, first sending: April 2, 2010 at ZDF, table of contents
with online video from ZDF, video available until October 3, 2020.
The television tower in the middle of Berlin. Documentary, Germany,
2009, 88:25 min., Book and Director: Jens Rübsam, Production: RBB,
September of ARD.
The Inferno flames over Berlin. Disaster film,
Germany 2007, 95 minutes, directed by Rainer Matsutani, production:
ProSieben.
Tornado - the anger of the sky. Disaster film in 2 parts,
Germany 2006, 180 minutes, directed by Andreas Linke, production:
ProSieben.