Wasserturm Cottbus, Water tower in Vetschauer Street, Cottbus, Germany

Wasserturm Cottbus is a brick water tower on a circular plan, its unplastered shaft tapering upward and divided by twelve shallow pilasters, with two tall windows in every second bay. A stepped cornice marks the transition to the spherical steel tank, which holds 500 cubic metres of water pumped from the Spree to a height of 23 metres. Inside, a single-flight iron staircase with wooden treads survives.

The Prussian State Railways built this tower in 1914 to supply water for steam locomotives, with operations ending in 1955. Its construction occurred during a period of major railway expansion across Germany.

The spherical tank is a Klönne container, built by the Dortmund steel firm Aug. Klönne; such towers served as models for many later elevated tanks. The walkway railing around the tank's middle is made of flat bars in Jugendstil forms, and the ventilation lantern above it was originally topped by a weather vane.

The tower has been out of service since 1955 and is not open to visitors; there is no observation platform. It stands just south of the Cottbus station area on Vetschauer Strasse and is a listed monument, so it can only be viewed from the public street. It was once offered for sale for 98,000 euros by Sparkasse Spree-Neisse.

The spherical steel tank is ringed by an iron catwalk on consoles, its railing made of flat bars in Jugendstil forms. A movable ladder, entered through a window in the brick shaft, can be shifted around the tank's central axis and leads up to the octagonal ventilation lantern, once topped by a weather vane.