Wasserturm Friedrichstraße, Water tower in Friedrichstraße, Gütersloh, Germany

Wasserturm Friedrichstraße is a 42-metre brick water tower with a 13.5-metre foundation ring and an 8-metre inner diameter. Its two-storey base alternates buttresses and brick panels; above, three sandstone-banded storeys lead to a blind arcade, three clad floors and a tent roof. A sandstone medallion over the entrance shows the Gütersloh coat of arms and the construction date.

Gütersloh's council resolved in August 1887 to build a waterworks after only 216 of the town's 526 wells yielded safe water. The tower, designed by Adolf Schlüpmann, entered service on 1 October 1888. It regulated pressure for sixty years until a pumping station in Spexard and a 1950 pressure pipeline made it redundant; it was listed as a monument in 1984.

Above the entrance, a sandstone medallion shows the Gütersloh city coat of arms and the date of construction. The tower is a protected industrial monument (Denkmalnummer A 044, listed 1984) that documents the city's infrastructure development. Since 1998 its interior has housed a youth café, funded with 300,000 DM from the Mark-Wössner-Jugendfonds.

The tower stands on Friedrichstraße between the Evangelisch Stiftisches Gymnasium, the Stadthalle and the Theater, at 74.35 m above sea level. The exterior was restored in 1998 for about 800,000 DM. A youth café opened inside, funded with 300,000 DM from the Mark-Wössner-Jugendfonds.

The tower's tank, held by a support ring at 28.6 metres, holds 310 cubic metres of water. After decades of neglect, the city utilities restored the exterior facade in 1998 for about 800,000 DM, and the Mark-Wössner youth fund provided 300,000 DM to open a youth café inside.