Bismarck Pond and Stone Bridge

To honor former German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the Hof city council dammed the Lettenbach stream to form Lake Bismarck in 1904. A stone round-arch bridge has spanned the outflow ever since.

To commemorate the former Chancellor Bismarck, the Lettenbach was dammed up in 1904 by a dam to form Bismarcksee and spanned with a round arch bridge. Why?
Deeply affected by the death of his wife in 1894, the health of the almost 80-year-old ex-Chancellor Otto von Bismarck deteriorated rapidly; he died four years later on July 30, 1898. The city of Hof therefore planned to erect a memorial to him and at the same time to solve its "open-air swimming pool" problem: the river bathing facility on the Saale in the suburbs was heavily polluted by sewage from the textile factories . The clear Lettenbach should therefore be dammed up to form a huge bathing lake, a bathing facility built and a plateau 20 meters above the lake created with “a delightful view of these charms”.
Seven years after the idea, in 1905, damming of the creek was approved; the planned large bathing lake shrank into a pond; the new river bathing facility was built elsewhere (today's outdoor pool).

Beautiful old bridge on a duck pond with a duck house