24/02/2025
The Germania Tower, Westend, Berlin, Germany.
From Wikipedia: "The Germania Tower was built in 1872 in what was then the Charlottenburg development area of Westend at the corner of Eschen and Rüsternallee. The builder, Heinrich Quistorp, planned to use the tower to make money both as part of the Westend's water supply and to generate income through a restaurant in the water tower under the two thousand cubic metre water basin...
..After Quistorp had allegedly spent 4.5 million marks on the still unfinished building, he was bankrupt. The Charlottenberg Waterworks, founded in 1878, also did not take on the construction and so the building was put up for auction. Quistorp's brother, Johannes Quistorp, bought the unfinished water tower for 50,000 marks. In 1892 he sold it to the demolition company Fischer and Metzger, which wanted to make a profit from the seven million bricks used . The demolition company planned to blow up the ruined building, but their attempts to do so failed. The Prussian Army then called in the Schoneberg Railway Pioneers. On 14 October 1892, the pioneers first blew up the dome of the water tower. At the end of October/beginning of November, the enormous columns and the supporting pillars of the dome behind them followed. These had not been demolished at the same time as the dome in order to avoid damage to the neighbouring houses.
The Paulinenhaus was built on the site of the Germania Tower in 1912."
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