Altona station water tower, Water tower at Altona Station, Hamburg, Germany

The Altona Station water tower is a concrete structure from the 1950s that rises about 37 meters high. The structure was designed with practical functional features for supplying railway station facilities.

Built in 1954/55, the tower replaced two earlier water towers of the Altona depot, erected in 1893 and 1895; one was destroyed in the Second World War, the other damaged and used until 1954. At the time over 300 steam locomotives still ran in the Hamburg railway directorate. The last steam locomotive, 012 102-0, left the depot on 30 September 1972, yet the tower kept supplying water for train cleaning, carriage tanks and the Holsten brewery.

The tower shows traces of the post-war era and reminds visitors of when steam locomotives used this station. Today it stands as a visible sign of how important railways were to Hamburg's growth.

The tower is located in the Altona-Nord district near the station and is easy to spot. The location sits at the intersection of several railway lines, giving a good view of the rail facilities.

The tower's tank is split into an outer ring and an inner cylinder, holding 500 m³ of water in total. A gallery runs behind the ring of windows around the top of the tank, reached by a stair between the outer wall and the tank. Water was also sold to the Holsten brewery.