Fernsehturm, Berlin
Thursday, 28th July 2005 by James Turnbull
The Fernsehturm (literally, "TV tower") was built in 1969 and features a revolving cafe and observation deck. Aside from the obvious function of providing TV and radio signals for the city the underlying motivation for the tower was to create a powerful political symbol in East Germany that could be seen by the West.
The buildings around the tower appear to be in the shape of an aeroplane, but I couldn't find anything saying if this was intentional or not. Also look for the tower's large shadow extending to the North, the train station 'Alexanderplatz' just to the east and the orange roofed church St. Marien to the west .
Thanks: Matt Sauer, Pat Rafferty, Roland, Kristian, DJ Swammi, Henryk Plötz, Markus
Another interesting thing about it is that when the sun shines on the upper geodesic sphere part, it forms the image of a cross, which the west Berliners used to call “the Pope’s revenge”.
You just forgot the thrid sight in this area:
View Placemark
this is the “Rotes Rathaus” (Red Town Hall), which is named after its facade and not its staff. Unfortunatly it looks like nothing from above, but one may see the long shadow of the clock tower.
Wikipedia has the better pictures in this case:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotes_Rathaus
where the wall was?
You can see the Brandenburg Gate here:
View Placemark
Part of the wall ran on the Eastern side of the gate, but from there I can’t say where it went.
The TV Tower was also created so the USSR could eavesdrop on secret radio broadcasts by the Americans. The American’s mounted their listening antennas on a hill created from bombed rubble after the end of the war. Unfortunately, that hill is south of the Olympic Stadium and not in a high res area:
View Placemark
View Placemark a basket ball?
That’s a hot-air balloon. Watch the shadow of the balloon right to the north. View Placemark
My friend Larry spotted and submitted the balloon some time ago, but I never saw it published as a site… has anyone seen any other hot-air balloons?
No, it’s not a hot Gas Balloon, but a Helium Baloon. It’s tethered to a fixed Position by wire and Tourists can go for a short trip up and down.
http://www.ballonservice.de/sat1ballon.htm
Some pics of the famous tower:
http://www.davidllada.com/art_fotos/fotos_19/fotos_19.htm
See also http://www.berlinerfernsehturm.de/engl/05home_e.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernsehturm .
I think the airplane shape is a side effect of the angle at which the picture was taken. The tail, at least, is clearly a tent-shaped structure, look at the shadow. See also this picture from the first site, showing a tent-shaped structure behind the tower.