Relics of the GDR: the Watchtowers
Watchtower at Schlesischer Busch
Today only 2 of the once 302 watchtowers are still standing and can be visited in Mitte and Kreuzberg...
by Beatriz Gamboa
The watchtowers placed carefully along the border section of the Berlin wall aided in the wall's protection of the State of Workers and Farmers against the "imperiliastic enemy". Like the wall, they were subject to constant improvement during the near 30 years of their existence. After the first ones came up in August 1961, until they were taken down along with the wall, the towers went from being wooden with flood lights in the 1960s, to concrete structures in the 1970s, soon considered too feeble to withstand strong currents of wind, to the 1980s watchtower: a tall rectangular block with four floors, one underground. These are the ones which can be seen today.
The first one is on Kieler Eck in Mitte near Invalidenstrasse. This watchtower is now a memorial to Günter Litfin, the first person to be shot and killed as he was trying to escape to the West. It now stands amidst a group of residential buildings which cover the ground which could be surveyed from the tower.
The watchtower in Kreuzberg is in Schlesischer Park on Puschkinallee, at the border of Kreuzberg and Treptow. This stands in what was the Schlesischer Busch, a vast area of land where there was practically a doule barrier due to its being near the river and because the old tram repair station which belonged to the West had been caught in between and was now being used by the East. Hence, the trams from the East had to pass through this border area to what is now the Badeschiff area and the club Arena (maybe you have noticed the tram lines on the floor in the entry!).
This watchtower was nearly destroyed if it had not been thanks to the youth of the Association of Forbidden Art who bravely took over the tower and stationed themselves there, organising venues and a coffee house, until the tower was finally established under monumental protection one year later in 1992.
The watchtower is now being taken care of and can be visited in the afternoons for only a friendly tip at the entrance.
