The Schläferskopf is a hill in

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, which is 454 metres high.

Kaiser Wilhelm Tower

In 1883, a 10-metre-high, wooden

viewing tower An observation tower is a structure used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct long distance observations. Observation towers are usually at least tall and are made from stone, iron, and ...

was built on the summit of the Schläferskopf; it fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1900. In 1905, on the initiative of the Wiesbaden Conservation Society, work on a 31-metre-high tower was begun and, in July 1906, the new ''Kaiser Wilhelm Turm'' (formerly also the ''Kaiser Wilhelm II.-Turm'') was opened. It was made from local

rubble stone Rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Analogously, some medieval cathedral walls are outer shells of ashlar with an inn ...

and

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

lava with a room for "refuge and refreshing". Typical of the period it was designed to resemble a medieval fighting tower or ''

bergfried ''Bergfried'' (plural: ''bergfriede''; English: ''belfry''; French: ''tour-beffroi''; Spanish: ''torre del homenaje'') is a tall tower that is typically found in castles of the Middle Ages in German-speaking countries and in countries under German ...

''. The watchtower turret on the

polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...

al platform reinforces the impression. One unusual feature is the double

spiral staircase Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...

which enables a separation between "up" and "down" stairs. In the restaurant building added in 1907/08 is a room with a notable jugendstil window. It comes from Wiesbaden glassworker, Albert Zentner, who also made the windows in the churches of Medenbach and

Otzberg Otzberg is a municipality in the district of Darmstadt-Dieburg, located in the Odenwald forest region of Germany. It was founded in 1972 by the merger of six former independent municipalities. Otzberg consists of seven villages: Habitzheim, Herin ...

. The Kaiser Wilhelm Room is graced by an oil painting, which shows the

Kaiser ''Kaiser'' is the German word for "emperor" (female Kaiserin). In general, the German title in principle applies to rulers anywhere in the world above the rank of king (''König''). In English, the (untranslated) word ''Kaiser'' is mainly ap ...

in a hunting scene. On 16 September 2014 the municipal authorities of Wiesbaden decided to carry out a comprehensive refurbishment of the Kaiser Wilhelm Tower in 2015 at a cost of 700,000 euros. 52,000 euros of the cost was met by the two mobile phone operators that have transmission equipment on the tower. This refurbishment was completed in May 2016. Since September 2016 the tower has been open at weekends and on public holidays and may also be opened by individual appointment. From the viewing platform of the tower there are views over the Taunus and, southwards, towards the

Upper Rhine Plain The Upper Rhine Plain, Rhine Rift Valley or Upper Rhine Graben (German: ''Oberrheinische Tiefebene'', ''Oberrheinisches Tiefland'' or ''Oberrheingraben'', French: ''Vallée du Rhin'') is a major rift, about and on average , between Basel in the s ...

and Wiesbaden. Attached to the tower is a mountain inn formerly called the Waldcafé ''Schläferskopf'' and now the Waldrestaurant ''Schläferskopf Gold''. Access to the tower is normally through the restaurant, but it's currently closed. The city of Wiesbaden is looking for a new leaseholder. At the moment the tower can only be ascend for rare special opening times.

References

Monumente-online
''Eine Doppelhelix für den Kurblick''
auf monumente-online.de ''Kaiser-Wilhelm-Turm''
Landeshauptstadt Wiesbaden, auf wiesbaden.de Sina Schreiner ( Wiesbadener Kurier), 29 July 2010, retrieved 27 April 2016, aus wiesbadener-tagblatt.de ''Schläferskopf Gold''
Waldrestaurant auf dem Schläferskopf, auf schlaeferskopf-gold.de Sigrid Russ, Hrsg: Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Hessen; Denkmaltopographie Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Kulturdenkmäler in Hessen, Wiesbaden II – Die Villengebiete; Vieweg 1988; ; S. 610 f {{DEFAULTSORT:Schlaferskopf Mountains of Hesse Mountains and hills of the Taunus High Taunus