Fernsehturm, Alexanderplatz, Berlin

On our first day of the trip to Berlin in February, as well as getting on a flight in the very small hours of the morning, we will be visiting Fernsehturm in Alexanderplatz.

Image courtesy of berlinperspectivesonarchitecture.com

In the early 1950s, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) planned to build a new facility in Berlin intended primarily for the broadcast of GDR television programmes.  The Fernsehturm (television tower in English) was built in Alexanderplatz and commissioned by Government Leader Walter Ulbricht, who aimed to demonstrate the superiority of socialist societies.  The tower would dominate the skyline and construction showed that a better future was being built in the East.

The original design of the slender tower was devised by the GDR architect Hermann Henselmann. The sphere at the top of the tower was intended to remind people of the Soviet sputnik satellites and was to light up red, the colour of socialism.

The tower was constructed between 1965 and 1969 with only one method considered for constructing it, a method known as “climbing formwork”. The internal steel frame is built first and then the external concrete shaft is built around it.  Mounting the sphere at a height of 200m presented the engineers with a challenge.  The load-bearing steel frame of the sphere was initially precast on the ground and the segments were heaved up using cranes and then secured on the circular platform which forms the final section of the concrete shaft.

The Fernsehturm was also nicknamed "the Pope's revenge" because when the sun shines on the metal skin of the sphere, the reflected light creates the shape of a cross. This was quite unfortunate for the the atheist foundations of the communist GDR government.  Former US President Ronald Reagan once said in a speech that the GDR tried as hard as they could to get rid of the light cross, but without success, the Christian symbol continued to shine on the GDR’s power tower.

Sunlight cross in the Fernsehturm Berlin, and the cross of the Berlin Dome aside, Patricio.lorente, 2015.

At 368 metres tall, the Fernsehturm is the highest publicly accessible building in Europe with  more than a million visitors from 86 countries going up to the observational level with it's breathtaking views of the bustling and constantly changing city of Berlin.