The construction of the Bismarck Tower located on the "Sinnberg", a hill in the German spa town of

Bad Kissingen Bad Kissingen is a German spa town in the Bavarian region of Lower Franconia and seat of the district Bad Kissingen. Situated to the south of the Rhön Mountains on the Franconian Saale river, it is one of the health resorts, which be ...

, started in 1914 following the plans designed by architect,

Wilhelm Kreis Wilhelm Kreis (17 March 1873 – 13 August 1955) was a prominent German architect and professor of architecture, active through four political systems in German history: the Wilhelmine era, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and the founda ...

. It was projected by the local Bismarck Tower Association under the chairmanship of its founder, pharmacist Oscar Ihl. This association was in favour of Bismarck and the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

and competed in a certain way with the Wittelsbacher Association, which, even after the

Unification of Germany The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federalism, federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with ad ...

, regarded the

Kingdom of Bavaria The Kingdom of Bavaria (german: Königreich Bayern; ; spelled ''Baiern'' until 1825) was a German state that succeeded the former Electorate of Bavaria in 1805 and continued to exist until 1918. With the unification of Germany into the German E ...

to be a sovereign kingdom and built the '' Wittelsbacher Tower'' in Bad Kissingen in 1907.Werner Eberth: Bismarck und Bad Kissingen. Theresienbrunnen-Verlag, Bad Kissingen 1998, p. 341 Up to that time, the architect of the Bismarck Tower, Wilhelm Kreis, had already designed different Bismarck Towers; his concept "Götterdämmerung" was carried out in 47 towers alone, which differed only slightly from each other. The construction of the Bismarck Tower in Bad Kissingen, however, followed a completely new design. Due to the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, a delay in finishing the construction took place. It was only on 2 December 1926 that, under the promotion of the "Movement for Completing the Tower" under the chairmanship of Wolfgang Singer, the director of the spa gardens, that the roofing ceremony could be held.Sieglinde Seele: ''Lexikon der Bismarck-Denkmäler''. Michael Imhof, Petersberg 2005, pp. 227f. The completion of the tower's exterior was delayed until 1930 due to the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. In 1934, Wolfgang Singer conveyed the construction of a hairpin-bended footway leading to the Bismarck Tower. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the Bismarck Tower was used as an observation point for observing the

airspace Airspace is the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere. It is not the same as aerospace, which is the ...

. It was only in 1985 that the construction of the tower's interior was started. So, the tower could be opened to the public on 21 June 1986. A staircase, bathrooms, and an observation deck were built into the tower.

External links

Entry about the Bismarck Tower on the website of Bad Kissingen

* ttp://www.bismarcktuerme.de/ebene4/bayern/badkiss.html Bismarck Tower Bad Kissingen at bismarcktuerme.de

References

{{coord, 50, 12, 44, N, 10, 05, 24, E, region:DE-BY_type:landmark_source:dewiki, display=title Towers completed in 1926 Towers completed in 1930 Towers completed in 1986 Bad Kissingen

Observation towers in Bavaria Buildings and structures in Bad Kissingen (district)

World War II sites in Germany

Further reading

See also

External links

References