Goethe Tower

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The Goethe Tower

The Goethe Tower (German: Goetheturm) is a 43-metre high tower built entirely out of wood on the northern edge of the woods of Sachsenhausen near Frankfurt am Main. After the Jahrtausendturm, the two towers of the Brück aerial testing facility, the Blumenthal Observation Tower and the Linsen Tower, it is the fifth tallest wooden construction in Germany, thanks to the addition of two antenna measuring stations.

[edit] History

In 1867 a wooden tower was first built on the site, at that time 22 metres tall. It was built in honour of a poem by the local poet Karl Heinrich Ehrt, who described how Goethe enjoyed taking walks in the area and looking down upon the town. In a poem of 1860 he gave the spot the name "Goethe's Repose" (Goethes Ruh). After the First World War this first tower had become so rickety that it had to be pulled down.

In 1931 the Goethe Tower was rebuilt with money donated by the Jewish businessman Gustav Gerst. The opening ceremony took place in November 1931, shortly before the 1932 commemorations of Goethe's death one hundred years before. The city of Frankfurt provided the wood for the tower - altogether more than 340m³ of pine, beech and oak timber.

Today the Goethe Tower is still a popular place for day-trippers, especially families, as a large playground and a café have been built at the foot of the tower.

This article was translated from de:Goetheturm of 14 June 2005