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.