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Once a symbol of futurist modernism in the East, like the Concorde symbolized simultaneously in the West, it is now a phallic sign of the airy "joie de vivre" of the party-crazed Prussian metropolis.
Golf-ball-on-a-knitting-needle: that was the common association regarding the Fernsehturm in more contemplative former GDR-times. But in the Fernsehturm today's Berlin has found an adequate landmark: this electrifying ever-changing metropolis, this giant adventure playground for adults and eternal children, this city of night-owls and paradise birds, which urban pulse is a fast, electronic beat associates the TV-Tower with a giant disco ball, which turns six metres the second and glows its warm light into the ever-awake city at night.
Berlin in the late 1960s: a time when relations between East and West Berlin were at their lowest ever ebb, the majestic tower- its ball-on-spike shape visible from all over the city- was intended as an assertion of communist dynamism and modernity. With the unpopular and ugly wall as a background, Erich Honecker decided that the historic square of the Alexanderplatz, should reflect the glories of socialism, and tore it all down to erect a masterpiece of commie kitsch: gapingly wide boulevards, monotonous white buildungs filled with cafés and shops, and, of course, the impressive Fernsehturm from whose observation deck and revolving restaurant, the Telecafé, one can gain a fantastic view of the city on a clear day.
Shame that such television towers were a West German invention. Shame, too, that they had to get Swedish engineers to build the thing. Atheist communist authorities were also displeased to note a particular phenomenon: when the sun shines on the tower, reflections on the ball form the shape of a cross. Berliners dubbed this stigmata 'the Pope's revenge'.
Nevertheless, they were proud enough of the thing to make it one of the central symbols of East Germany's capital; its silhouette even used to form the 'i' in 'Berlin' on all eastern tourist information. No longer is it flaunted, but Berliners have grudgingly come to like this modernist monstrosity. The reunited Berliners have inhaled the architectonical pride of the Commies and continue to worship the Tower:
Norbert Bayer, aka. Mr. Ministeck reflects with his Miniature TV Tower Ministeck the Pop and the throbbing beat which represents the Fernsehturm. Ministeck?
The cheapest location turns into a VIP party when the nostalgic clubber is offered the unique pop panorama of the Alexanderplatz with its Fernsehturm. And if architecture is frozen music one would hear a remix of the sandman echoing through the streets of Berlin, the sound of sweetness. And above all the 30 800t heavy Commie- Symbol is a fix point of orientation - whether drunk punks, dizzy disco-freaks or confused tourists. Everyone holds on to the control tower of the planet Berlin, because if the Fernsehturm towers in front of you, it seems like the sun rising in front of your eyes.
Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin
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TV TOWER: LARGER THAN LIFE |
TOUCHSCREENS |