Berger memorial, Observation tower in Witten, Germany
The Berger memorial is a 21-meter sandstone tower in the Hohenstein recreation area, displaying the city coat of arms of Witten and the Westphalian horse on one side. A spiral staircase inside leads up to a viewing room with views across the Ruhr Valley and the Hohenstein hydropower plant.
The gymnastics community of Witten built this memorial between 1902 and 1904 to honor Louis Constanz Berger, an industrialist and community co-founder. Its construction occurred during a period of industrialization and modernization of the Ruhr region.
The tower is stop 12 on the Route of Industrial Culture, and its copper plaque above the entrance carries a dedication to Louis Berger as a friend of the people and defender of their rights. The relief portrait and inscription were unveiled on 28 August 1904, his birthday. At the 2005 centenary-plus-one ceremony, former mayor Klaus Lohmann called the monument a landmark known far beyond Witten's borders.
You can climb the spiral staircase and reach the viewing room at the top for open views of the surroundings. The best time to visit is in clear weather when you can enjoy the full extent of the distant views.
The tower was decided in 1897, when Witten's committee chose to honour a local figure rather than build a Bismarck column as was common at the time. Of 47 anonymous competition entries, Paul Baumgarten's design "Arbeit ist des Bürgers Zierde" won first prize of 500 marks.
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