March 5, 2019 Comments Off on The making of Berlin’s famed Fernsehturm television tower Views: 1528 Berlin, Virtual Memoirs

Millions of tourists have visited the symbol of Germany’s capital, the Fernsehturm. When construction of this iconic TV tower commenced on August 4, 1965, at East Berlin’s Alexanderplatz, hardly anyone believed the site will become such a significant success.

Before Alexanderplatz was chosen as the Fernsehturm location, the East German government (under whose jurisdiction East Berlin was in between 1949 and 1990), other location proposals included the Müggelbergen hills and Volkspark Friedrichshain. The tower construction effort, which had balloon costs of more than 30 million German marks at the time (roughly 15 million euros), also came in a period of great economic recession.

However, no price was high enough for the East German government who wanted to improve its media presence in a region heavily bordered and monitored by Western powers, and build yet another symbol of socialism. As West German TV broadcasted an appealing program for its audiences, state control of the new TV house just across the wall seemed vital to captivate the souls of East Berliners, of whom many actually attempted to flee. Below are photos of how construction work unfolded.

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H0904-0022-001 / Junge, Peter Heinz / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-G0822-0020-001 / Sturm, Horst / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Construction efforts at Alexanderplatz – the Berlin TV tower in the background, 1969, Photo:

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H0813-0026-001 / Brüggmann, Eva / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-F0616-0045-001 / Spremberg, Joachim / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-G0806-0007-001 / Sturm, Horst / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H0813-0023-001 / Koard, Peter / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-G0329-0036-001 / Spremberg, Joachim / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-G0521-0003-001 / Spremberg, Joachim / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-G1007-0020-001 / Sturm, Horst / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-G0206-0024-001 / Spremberg, Joachim / CC-BY-SA 3.0

The Berlin TV tower, without its hefty ball, seen from the distance, Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-F0313-0209-003 / Stöhr / CC-BY-SA 3.0

1968, Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-G1001-0037-001 / Brüggmann, Eva / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-F0818-0022-001 / Koard, Peter / CC-BY-SA 3.0

The bottom of Berlin’s TV tower, Fernsehturm construction, East Berlin 1968, via Pintrest

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-G0802-0019-001 / Mittelstädt, Rainer / CC-BY-SA 3.0

By 1969, the Fernsehturm was completed. Visitors were able to reach the Panorama floor, at some 203 meters (666 feet) up in the air, via a fast-moving elevator. The restaurant located a level up from the Panorama floor was designed to rotate once an hour and offered even a better panorama view of Berlin. Back in the day, that view would have shown a divided city.

At present, the Berlin TV tower makes for one of the most exciting sites of interest to see in the city. The structure is also the tallest in Germany and among the four tallest towers across Europe. Albeit its construction originally had a political background, it is the tower’s ageless, modernist design that has sealed its status as a trademark of Berlin and Germany.

We also thought to remind you of the German-produced Graf Zeppelin, which went on to be the first aircraft in human history to fly over million miles and achieve 144 crossings of the world’s oceans

Tags: Berlin, cities and people, Fernsehturm, Germany, historical photographs, TV tower