ARCHITECTURE
16 old water towers of Berlin
How I collected historical towers around the city, including a cemetery, a prison, and gas plants
Elevated tanks had served as water storage since ancient times but spread worldwide only in the 19th century when pipe technology became more robust and reliable. The beauty of a tower is that it supplies water even during an electricity outage — thank god for gravity!
Many old towers are protected historical sites or repurposed as libraries, apartments, or offices. And Berlin is a great example of a city that preserved many old towers despite being almost fully devastated during the Second World War.
1. Wasserturm Gaswerk Mariendorf (1900)
Height: 45 m.
Not only is this tower carefully restored but also beautifully illuminated by orange projectors at night. I think it’s because of the tower’s neighbor — craft brewery and party space “Brewdog” that occupies one of the facilities of the former gas plant Mariendorf.
The tower resembles a fairy tale castle, and a cute balcony adorns its front side. So much work just to make it look not ugly!
By the way, in the 1970s, the old tower was accompanied by a new one, which has a modern mushroom shape. Its “alien plate” silhouette is visible in the photo above, as well as the frame of an old gasholder.
2. Wasserturm Volkspark Jungfernheide (1925–1927)
Height: 65 m.
Unlike most water towers, this one doesn’t stand encompassed by residential areas or factories. I spotted it accidentally in spring when was walking around the district of Siemensstadt and gathering material for an article about modernist architecture.
Water tower Jungfernheide was so beautiful I could hardly recognize its practical usage. Moreover, the filigree lamp that tops the tower first made me think it was a lighthouse or something. On warm summer weekends, the lawn in front of the tower is usually crowded, but I was lucky enough to see it at sunrise.
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3. Wasserturm Gaswerk Charlottenburg (1889–1891)
Height: 28 m.
And again — serendipity! I spotted this tower a long time ago but never tried to take a closer look. It’s visible from the S-Bahn train when you travel between the stations Beusselstraße and Jungfernheide.
This water tower was part of the Charlottenburg gas plant but is also known as Wasserturm Gaußstraße. By the 2000s, you could also notice huge — higher than the tower — ball-shaped gas tanks nearby. However, nowadays, the tower stands alone among commercial and logistics facilities.
The tower seems to be in good shape, but broken windows and a welded door might indicate the structure is currently abandoned.
4. Wasserturm Prenzlauer Berg (1875–1877)
Height: 44 m.
This tower is the oldest and most well-known; it has functioned for over 70 years. Unlike many similar structures that are just elevated water tanks, Wasserturm Prenzlauer Berg also included apartments for machinery operators who used to work in the tower.
It’s probably the only water tower you can comfortably observe from the park on a hill — relaxing on a bench and sipping a refreshing drink.
5. Wasserturm Güterbahnhof Moabit (1893)
A highly populated residential area around the tower was an industrial hub over a century ago. In a 5 minutes walk from the tower, you can spot the old facilities and a former AEG turbine hall. This huge 123-meter-long building (with a later extension to over 200 meters) is considered a masterpiece of industrial architecture.
As for the tower itself, it was part of the local railway system, thus not only holding a tank of water but also serving as a signaling control. However, it looks like a country house — that was the architect’s intent.
The plate “Mwt” on the tower means “Moabit West, Turmstellwerk” (Moabit West, signaling control tower).
6. Wasserturm Ostkreuz (1912)
Height: 50 m.
The main peculiarity of this building is its glossy and sleek surface, whereas other towers I saw typically had brick texture. No less remarkable is the roof: it looks like Pickelhaube, a spiked helmet of Prussian and German soldiers in the First World War. You might have seen the depictions of Otto von Bismark wearing such a helmet.
Although the tower stands near the major railway station, Ostkreuz, it’s not the easiest building to approach and take a closer look at. The area between the two railway bridges is fenced, and the tower is still too high to be fully seen from the station’s upper platform.
7. Wasserturm Steglitz (1915–1919)
Height: 40 m.
I suppose this is probably the second most famous tower in Berlin (after Wasserturm Prenzlauer Berg). The Steglitz tower stands in the middle of a cemetery, although it was initially built on its edge.
The building survived both world wars and multiple extensions, such as an urn hall (columbarium), crematorium, and WWI memorial. Nowadays, only the tower has been reconstructed; it houses medical publishers.
A signature detail of the tower is its slanting brick pattern on the sides where spiral staircases are placed. The only issue I experienced visiting the tower was dense vegetation obstructing the full view. I could find only one suitable spot, but it’s convenient for taking pictures only in the evening when the sun illuminates the facade in front of you.
8. Wasserturm Charlottenburg I & II (1881, 1910)
Heigh: 27 m & 60 m.
This complex of two towers with Dutch-style houses in between supplied the district of Westend with drinking water a century ago. From the 1970s, the towers stayed unused, and in the 2010s, they were turned into apartments and gained modern extensions for staircases and balconies.
The taller western tower has 14 floors in this new setting, whereas the lower eastern tower has seven levels. A recording studio occupies the top penthouse due to its acoustic properties.
The western tower is illuminated at night but, to be fair, not as elegant as Wasserturm Mariendorf, which goes first in this review.
9. Wasserturm Tempelhofer Berg (1887–1888)
Height: 44 m.
One might think this well-preserved tower used to be part of Berlin’s medieval fortification. Instead, it’s a product of a 19th-century architectural contest for the best water plant design — a tower, boiler, coal house, pump, and a dwelling for the machinist. The winner project by Hugo Hartung and Richard Schultze bears a romantic title, “Undine.”
I found details that reveal stylization, for example, a chimney and an ideally attached brick house on the side. In the Middle Ages, of course, no one would construct a military structure this way. And one more thing: where are the remains of the castle wall then? The tower looks beautiful and makes uniform residential quarters slightly more epic.
10. Wasserturm Rangierbahnhof Tempelhof (1927)
Height: 50 m.
So far, we have talked about brick buildings stylized as fortifications. But this metal water tower of the former Tempelhof shunting railyard cannot leave you unimpressed. It has been repaired and painted and nowadays adorns the nature park Schöneberger Südgelände.
This park, as well as Gleisdreieck, is famous for countless railroad tracks running through the forest. From the 1980s till the 1950s, this vast area was a railway hub — today, only the rusty tracks and dilapidated bridges have remained. Abandoned territory got covered with vegetation and became home to rare species, including wild bees, grasshoppers, and nightingales. Besides, the park is full of creative sculptures made of old metal parts and houses a vintage steam locomotive.
11. Wasserturm Gaswerk Lichtenberg (1928–1929)
This water tower stands in the middle of nowhere, at least nowadays. Almost a century ago, it was part of the gas plant Lichtenberg, but today all the other facilities have been demolished. As a result, a grassy wasteland surrounds the tower, with few buildings nearby.
This building resembles Saruman’s Orthanc from “The Lord of the Rings” because of minimalistic ribbed walls, doesn’t it? At first sight, the tower is in good condition but not sure if used somehow.
12. Wasserturm Betriebsbahnhof Rummelsburg (1912–1914)
In my personal rating, this tower is the most difficult to take a picture of because it’s located in the middle of a freight yard, a restricted area, unless you are a Deutsche Bahn employee. It was pretty naive to assume I could use a passage above the tracks — it was for the staff only. So, I had to be inventive and go 3–4 kilometers around to find spots from which one could observe the tower.
For example, the most picturesque place is Blockdammbrücke, a pedestrian bridge 500 meters from the tower. I’ve been there twice — to capture the sunset when only silhouettes stand out in the fiery sky and the sunrise when the whole scenery is lit by the sun.
As for the remaining two photo spots — they were on the sides of that elevated passage, which I thought was open to the public.
Since the tower was closer this time — in 150 and 220 meters — I could finally distinguish the architectural details, namely its original black roof and such a rare attribute of water towers as plastered walls.
13. Wasserturm Königlichen Pulverfabrik Spandau (1890)
This plump tower witnessed the rise of the German military industry, namely gunpowder production. A factory supplying the Prussian army with powder opened in Berlin’s Jungfernhide in 1717. However, in the 1830s, it was moved to Haselhorst, not far from the Spandau Citadel.
Unlike the old mill, the new one (current location) could produce a modern smokeless powder. However, after the defeat in WWI, Germany had to disarm and close down all Haselhorst armament factories. Since 1919, the facilities, including a water tower, haven’t been used, and now only a few buildings remain. This beautiful yet decaying tower stands on the territory of a film studio. Hopefully, it’ll be reconstructed someday.
14. Kasinoturm Frohnau (1909–1910)
Height 35 m.
Kasinoturm was part of a 1910s architectural ensemble that formed the center of the Frohnau district.
Ludwig Lesser designed two art-nouveau squares connected with a bridge, and railways were hidden in a soundproof trench. Shortly after that, shopping facilities appeared on both squares; the water tower with a viewing platform was facing a casino complex with restaurants. The casino itself didn’t survive WWII, but the tower remained undestroyed.
15. Wasserturm Anhalter Güterbahnhof (1908)
Height: 35 m.
This filigree metal structure was part of a large railway hub, which included three stations: Dresdner Bahnhof, Potsdamer Bahnhof, and, finally, Anhalter Banhof — the former central station and an infamous deportation point during the Holocaust.
Anhalter Banhof was destroyed in the Second World War; the remains of its grand entrance adorn modern Askanischer Platz. Bronze statues and samples of facade decoration from the station, as well as the water tower, are now preserved in the German Museum of Technology. So, if you want to see them, you have to buy a ticket.
16. Wasserturm JVA Plötzensee (1868–1872)
I thought I would never be able to see this 19th-century water tower close up because it turned out to be part of the Plötzensee Prison, fenced by a 3–4-meter brick wall with razor wire.
Before the visit, I found pictures of this tower on the internet and assumed they should have been taken from the prison. However, I didn’t know there was a publicly accessible spot, Gedenkstätte Plötzensee, a memorial to the victims of Hitler’s regime who had been executed here. This site includes the execution chamber, document exhibition, and memorial wall — and all that, like a peninsula, surrounded by the prison.
Of course, I took a photo of the water tower, but more important — I learned something about Ukrainian historical roots.
Galyna Romanova from the Ukrainian city of Dnipro (former Dnipropetrovsk) was deported to Germany in 1942 and worked as a doctor in forced labor camps. She was sentenced to death for participation in the “European Union” group fighting against the Nazis. Galyna was beheaded in the Plötzensee Prison in 1944. She was 26 years old. Representatives of about 20 nationalities were murdered by Hitler’s henchmen here.
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