Silesia Water Towers 2: Gliwice

Gliwice is home to what remains of Huldschinskyche Hüttenwerke AG. Founded for pipe manufacture in 1867 by Solomon Huldschinksy and Albert Hahn, the mill installed Siemens-Martins furnaces in 1890 and made a start producing wheels and rims for the railroad.  Then in World War I, the mill switched to munitions production.  At its height in World War II, the steel works employed 20,000 workers.

The water tower itself was built 1930- after the Soviets had renamed the mill “May 1” and added glass production.  A spiral staircase reaches to the heavens.  But the ascent is treacherous: there is no rail, surfaces are crumbling, and the occasional step is dislodged and dangling from rusty cables.  

The land has been cleared where May 1 once operated.  Gliwice has long been a shopping destination for regions west of the Katowice conurbation, and soon this plot will be home to a new shopping mall.

Brandenberg Wasserturm: Eberswalde

The once highly industrialized town of Eberswalde is home to Wolfswinkel paper mill, founded 1726 and maker of the Spechthausen brand paper.

Wolfswinkel specialized in Deckle-edge paper- a rough-cut form that became a status symbol once industrial processes rendered it obsolete.  The plant is said to have manufactured a good many of the banknotes and letters of credit that fuelled the Reich's expansion, 1874-1945.

At its peak in 1897, Wolfswinkel employed over 200 workers. With brief interruptions, it made paper through the Seven Years War, World War I, and World War II. It was also left unmolested by Soviet metallophiles following World War II.  Two years after privatization in 1992, the plant shuttered.

Wolfswinkel's watertower- built when the mill expanded in1928- today casts a hollow gaze over the Finow canal.  But it can boast a big tent constituency that includes Graffiti artists from Berlin, land developers, and dog walkers on a neighbouring footpath.

Berlin Wasserturm11: Dahlem

Fichtenberg Wasserturm, 1886, anchors Steglitz's highest peak.  It's designer, Otto Techow, lived on a neighbouring plot. And probably the tower cast long, jagged shadows in the path of nearby resident Erich Pommer- producer of the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis, Blue Angel.

Today, Techow's creation is outfitted with the the most modern of instrumentation.  It peers skyward on behalf of the Institute of Meteorology, Freie Universität Berlin, and affords a running account of Berlin's northwest horizon.

Saxony Anhalt Wasserturm1: Reinsdorf

Activities in Reinsdorf offered still more evidence of the Nazi's drive to war.  So wrote Maria Leitner, jew, radical, and clandestine journalist in her 1936 dispatch.

Leitner had travelled to Reinsdorf to investigate a 1935 explosion at the nearby TNT production facility.  The explosion, she wrote, occurred at an underground facility that had expanded at a breakneck pace.  Whereas it had employed 2000-3000 workers in 1933, now it took on 12,000.

According to official reports, 78-90 good german workers perished in the conflagration.  Hitler and Göring descended on Reinsdorf to pay respects- an archival photo shows the former extending a hand to seated grievers.  Foreigners, and former socialists and communists were rounded up as suspected saboteurs.

Generous reconstruction benefits followed.  That year, the first bricks were set for this simple, octagonal water tower.  It rests between a clean athletic field, a cluster of homes, and the local fire house.  On an early March Sunday just minutes before noon, the only suggestion of habitation is the whining of screws being driven by a power tool.

Berlin Water Towers10: Jungfernheide

"They ruined this historical monument by installing that shitwood [scheisholz] at the base." So says an older man as he hobbles by, supported by two walking sticks.

The Jungfernheide water tower was always less of a facility, more a centerpiece for this finely landscaped, Weimer era park.  The park's planner, Erwin Barth- envisioned the tower as a viewing prospect and concession. Barth designed many of Charlottenberg's parks of this era, and went on to become parks director of Berlin 1926-1929.  Unable to continue his work owing to failing vision, dejected by the rise of the Nazi's, he committed suicide in 1933.

The tower itself- a Walter Helmcke creation-- is pure brick expressionist.  It was almost unscathed by World War II- restored to spendor in 1980- and in warmer weather, it continues to serve the ambulatory coffee economy of this urban territory.

Berlin Water Towers9: Haselhorst

The once sprawling campus Königsliche Pulverfabrik sits just North of the Spandau fortifications, in the obscure district of Haselhorst.  Feeding Prussia’s demand for gunpowder since 1717, the complex expanded into an annex- with water tower- in 1890.  There is some suggestion poison gas and other munitions were manufactured here; the Treaty of Versailles put an end to operations. 

Artur Brauner, a Polish Jew who fled the Nazis by heading east, purchased the property in 1947 and built CCC FilmStudios.  “Out of a poison gas factory I wanted to make a dream factory,” he stated in an interview.  The second layer of irony being the sobriety of the studio’s monumental output: The Garden of the Finzi-Continees, Europa Europa, The White Rose, and other films. 

Today the plot is weedy and littered; the building housing the old munitions factory is ramshackle. Through broken panes one sees vacancy, dampness, and wall-mounted rotary telephones.  Signs announce the entrance- now boarded over- to an erstwhile guitar band camp.

Just beside, however, music can be heard drifting from the studios- even on a Sunday.  A leather jacketed employee waves us away- this is Private Property- but entertains our questions about the water tower and the complex. And as an afterthought, he then asks us where we are from, complements us on our German, and pats my companion’s back.

Berlin Water Towers8: Ostbahnhof

Situated on what was once Berlin's main train station, the Ostbahnhof water tower (b.1881) once filled steam engines bound for Silesia.  But after WWII, the heavily damaged station was relocated across the street.  Then they drained the tower in 1963.  And visitors declined further in 2006, after Berlin's current central station became operational.

Still, Ostbahnhof's water tower may be the last thing a sated traveler sees of Berlin, as she drifts off on her way to Cottbus.  The tower now occupies a small circus ground, it oversees hipsters getting a start in Friedrichsheim, and it is now happily bejewelled with a JR installment of "Wrinkles of the City."

Berlin Water Towers7: Plötzensee Gefängnis

From 1872, the water held in the Plötzensee tower laundered prison uniforms. From 1936, it washed the hands of wardens and guards overseeing Red Orchestra captives. In the early 1940s, it hosed the floors in the neighbouring guillotine shed.

Impassive and with no name to its designer, Plötzensee water tower stood by as 2891 inmates were liquidated.  It stands by as visitors roam the memorial to the victims; as chronic fare beaters on the other side take a smoke.

Berlin Water Towers6: Templehofer Berg

Pottery shops, wine merchants, and restored altbau facades casting shadows set the stage for Kreuzberg's most famous water tower- built 1886 and designed by Hugo Hartung and Richard Schultze.

The tower served Templehofer Berg's growing population, and functioned through the 1950s.  Today, it is a community center. Through a window, there is evidence that a fine cup of coffee can be had in good company.

On the south face, a swirl of glazed bricks catches winter's afternoon light.  On the north, the reticulation of vine that will bloom in warm weather.

Berlin Water Towers5: Niederschöneweide (2)

Pickelhelm top, corrugated steel body, brick base with filigree collar, Schöneweide's most visible water tower presents itself as the S45 pulls into Betriebsbf. Schöneweide.

The tower, built 1906, served a switching yard for the Berlin-Cottbus line that was in active use until 1998. Too industrial, I gather, to have a named architect. Just beyond the tower is a beautiful roundhouse, a wisp of exhaust from a stovepipe.

Today, the switching yard is occupied by "Dampflofreunde Berlin"- which charters journeys on vintage rail.  Inside the fence, beautiful, curtained passenger cars from the 1940s and earlier are lined up in wait.

Beyond the western fence is a swath of mostly disused rail lines, dotted with abandoned buildings, heaps of earth, and stacks of railroad ties.

Berlin Water Towers4: Niederschöneweide (1)

Here is a water tower that lacks all guile.  It is tucked deep inside an unmarked industrial plot containing decaying busses, dumpsters, and other metallic miscellany.  It should be cherished with the same devotion as all other water towers.

Many water towers are discovered by chance.  However, there is a small community that curates water tower photographs, and a German Wikipedia entry on Berlin water towers provides GPS information for each, along with hideous thumbnails. This takes some of the magic out of finding water towers.  But not always. There are probably many that have gone uncatalogued- and here is one.

On the other hand, advance knowledge of a water tower transforms the activity- from uncovering to collection.  Bird watchers, numismatists, and others can recognize the joy in the latter.  There are good spottings, and even better ones.  And though there is pleasure in a second encounter, there is no need to return once the object has been recorded.

Berlin Water Towers3: Steglitz (1)

Built 1915-1919, Wasserturm Steglitz sits on the southern section of Steglitz Friedhof- a large cemetery that houses many of Berlin's almost world famous from the late nineteenth century.  A small notch on the southwest edge contains a pet cemetery- "ein Haustierfriedhof."

The tower was originally designed to supply of drinking water for Steglitz- then an independent municipality.  It probably never functioned in this capacity, according to a German Wikipedia entry.  Steglitz was incorporated into Berlin in 1920, and thereafter joined the greater Berlin water supply.

Thereafter, the tower became a columbarium and, in1935, a memorial hall for soldiers of World War I.  The tower burned after an aerial raid in 1941, and was damaged in another raid in 1943.  It was unused from the early 1960s until restoration in 1999.  Today, its occupants are a medical publishing outfit.

Steglitz water tower was designed by Hans Heinrich Müller- a fine, brick expressionist architect whose imposing industrial structures- one of which is named "Kathedrale der Elektrizität"- can be found throughout the city.  I'll be posting on some of his buildings down the road.

For now, let me say that this is one of my least favourite water towers in Berlin.  It is too ornamental.  It presents too many textures, shapes and patterns, and defers too much to the affluent and residential area that once surrounded the cemetery.  It is probably not helped along by its leafy surroundings.

Still, this does raise the question: why are some water towers more pleasing on the eye than others?  Water towers are distinctly modern and industrial forms.  But towers of this vintage dampen the effect with homespun, preindustrial gestures.  This is partly what makes towers like Mariendorf so fascinating.  Consider its gothic buttresses, the exposed beams in the top section, the two-tiered roof. Why would a designer go to such lengths for a gas works structure?  Why would a facility owner commission such a design?  What did workers and others think of the structure? (I also wonder about the original surroundings of the Neukölln tower- one of the more amusing, archly conservative designs).  Part of what makes a good water tower, I think, is that these gestures do not overwhelm or unduly obscure a water tower's stark, utilitarian character.

Berlin Water Towers2: Mariendorf

The Mariendorf Gaswerk water tower sits in a large industrial campus that was established in 1900- just off the Teltow canal.  The Gaswerk was active until 1996.  The tower's architect, Paul Karchow, also designed the Polish embassy and GIZ-Haus in Berlin.  This is one of Berlin's most ornate water towers. Its location- far from housing and in a somewhat remote part of the city- does not afford much opportunity for viewing. On the other hand, the campus gates are wide open, and this is one of only a few water towers that are not fenced off.

The campus also contains a second, more modern water tower, a gasometer, and some renovated mills.  Also there is a stand of solar panels.  One of the mills is occupied by a brewery- said to make "American style craft beer."  Its logo- a green devil with large horns- is slightly depressing to me.

But there are other water towers to be discovered.  On a Saturday in Fall, the only human presence on this campus is a few people tinkering with vintage cars, skateboarders near the gates of the gasworks, and a stray worker or two leaving a nearby beverage distributer.  Beyond the gates in the shadow of the brewery, a few joggers.

Berlin Water Towers: Neukölln

Neukölln water tower, built 1893, is the largest in Berlin. It was designed by Otto Techow- who also designed a water tower in Steglitz- close to the botanical gardens.

At its base is a small, light industrial facility; it rests in a triangular plot of land between apartment blocks- not too far from the now defunct Berliner Kindl brewery.

A tower like this is designed to sit in one place.  But if it could march, it would move along vertical files and horizontal ranks.