Bismarckturm, Observation tower in Gießen, Germany.

The Bismarckturm in Gießen is an approximately 15-meter-tall monument with a square base, entrance podium, and octagonal viewing platform. The platform features orientation panels that provide views across the surrounding landscape of the Gießen basin.

The tower was designed by university building officer August Becker and built from July 1905 to July 1906 for about 12,000 marks using local Lungstein. It commemorated Otto von Bismarck, who died in 1898 and was revered as a co-initiator of the 1871 Reich. Renovated in 1954, it was closed in 1975, reopened in 2014, and since 2007 a support association has worked for its preservation.

The entrance displays the name BISMARCK with an imperial eagle relief by Frankfurt sculptor Augusto Varnesi. This monument reflects the deep admiration this historical statesman received in the region.

The tower can be climbed on the first and third Sunday of each month between March and October. The entrance was walled up from 1975 until it was reopened in 2011, and the renovated tower reopened in 2014. Two oak avenues lead up to the tower from two sides.

The tower is built of local Lungstein, a basalt lava quarried in the region around Gießen. Its viewing platform holds an octagonal fire bowl 1.90 m across, where a widely visible fire was once lit on Bismarck's birthday and other national holidays.