Water tower in Berlin-Heinersdorf, Water tower in Heinersdorf, Berlin, Germany.
The Wasserturm Heinersdorf is a 46-metre tower with a square ground plan, built in 1910 as the first section of a planned large town hall that was never completed. As befits a town-hall tower, it carried a copper dome and a tower clock as architectural ornament. It stands under monument protection in Berlin's Heinersdorf district.
The tower was built in 1910 as the first section of a planned large town hall for Heinersdorf, a project abandoned because of the First World War. After Heinersdorf was incorporated into Greater Berlin in 1920, the town hall became unnecessary. From 1934 to 1935 a school and gymnasium designed by Richard Ermisch were built next to the tower. In 1944 an anti-aircraft position was installed on it, and after the war Soviet forces used it to monitor air traffic to Tegel Airport.
The structure reflects how industrial engineering was presented through architectural beauty, combining function with classical design principles. This approach shaped how the district's growing neighborhoods viewed modern infrastructure.
The tower has stood empty since the Allied forces left Berlin in the 1990s, and its interior was gutted by a fire on 24 June 2014. The district's 2019 plan to buy the site for a daycare centre and youth facility has stalled because the Senate finance administration has refused funding. The building is not open to visitors; its condition can be judged from the street.
The building is a rare example of how Berlin's infrastructure structures were crafted with artistic details to present them as more than purely functional constructions. Many visitors overlook that such water towers once formed the backbone of the city's water supply network.
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