Radio masts and TV Towers (German: Fernsehturm) are elevated structures intended to support antennas for telecommunications and broadcasting, together with television.
The TV Towers in Germany are among the tallest fabricated structures. Analogous structures comprise electricity pylons and towers for wind turbines.
In Berlin, in the late 1960s, a period while relations between East and West Berlin were at their lowest ever ebb, the grandiose tower — its ball-on-spike shape visible from all over the city — was projected as an affirmation of communist enthusiasm and modernity. With the detested and repulsive wall as a background, Erich Honecker decided that the historic square of the Alexanderplatz, ought to reflect the glories of socialism, and tore it all down to erect a masterpiece of commie kitsch: gapingly wide boulevards, monotonous white buildings, filled with cafes and shops.
In addition, of course, the impressive Fernsehturm from whose observation deck and revolving restaurant, the Telecafé, one can gain a fantastic view of the city on a clear day.
Agnostic communist establishment were displeased to note a particular phenomenon: whilst the sun shines on the tower, reflections on the ball form the shape of a cross. Berliners dubbed this stigma as ‘the Pope’s revenge’.
The Fernsehturm in Berlin is a TV Tower in the center of the city, close to Alexanderplatz, and altogether a very well-known landmark. The former German Democratic Republic (GDR) built this tower around 70s, and its icon was used as a symbol of Berlin by the GDR administration. The tower is simply perceptible throughout the central districts, and remains a symbol of the city.
The original entire height of the tower was 365 meters, but subsequent to the installation of a fresh antenna in the 1990s, the height is now increased to 368 m. This TV Tower is the third biggest configuration in Europe, after Moscow’s Ostankino Tower and Riga Radio and TV Tower.
In 1964, Walter Ulbricht, chief of the Socialist Unity Party, which governed East Germany, permitted the construction of a TV Tower in Alexanderplatz. This TV Tower was later modelled on the Fernsehturm Stuttgart and the architecture traces back to an idea from Hermann Henselmann and Jörg Streitparth. Construction started on August 4, 1965 and After 4 years of work, it began test broadcasts on October 3, 1969, and was publicly inaugurated four days later on the GDR’s National Day.
It is among the best-known tourist attractions in Berlin, and attracts around a million visitors every year.
The TV tower in Stuttgart was the first concrete television tower in the world, with a total height of 217 meters, height of tower head 138.1 to 150.3 meters, height of concrete tower 160.9 meters. Tower head with two restaurants, one story for communication services and one story for kitchen, restrooms, all were making it an exquisite tower.
The TV tower in Hamburg has a total height of 271.5 meters, height of tower head for public use is 119 to 134 meters, tower head for the Post is 143.5 to 159 meters, and height of concrete tower is 204.7 meters. This was built for community use with lookout platform and revolving restaurant.
The TV Tower built in Frankfurt is the highest concrete tower in Germany with a total height 331 meters, height of tower head is 211.5 to 237.8 meters, and height of concrete tower is 295.4 meters. This tower’s head is with a lookout platform, revolving restaurant, and two stories for communication services. Owing to this large diameter, there is a composite structure consisting of steel struts and beams with concrete slabs fitted with seven antenna platforms as conical concrete shells with maximum diameter 24 meters.
They were proud enough to make it one of the central symbols of Germany but no longer flaunting it, Germans have grudgingly come to like this modernist monstrosity.
