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.