Mannesmann Tower, Steel lattice tower in Vienna, Austria.
The Mannesmann Tower was a steel lattice structure with a triangular cross-section, built on the grounds of the Vienna Trade Fair. It was assembled entirely from seamless steel tubes connected without traditional welded joints.
Mannesmann AG built the tower in 1955 as a gift to the Vienna Trade Fair, meant to showcase the company's steel tube production. After standing on the fairgrounds for more than three decades, it was demolished in 1987.
The tower was a gift from a German steel company to the Vienna Trade Fair, which was an unusual form of corporate promotion at the time. In postwar Vienna, industrial structures like this one were read as visible signs of economic recovery.
The tower no longer exists, having been demolished in 1987, so there is nothing to visit on site. Those interested can find photographs and records in Viennese archives or in publications on postwar industrial history.
At night, neon lamps lit up the entire steel frame, turning the lattice into a glowing web visible across the fairgrounds. This lighting was not simply decorative but was designed to highlight the company's tubular steel profiles in a direct and visible way.
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