Story
The first plan to build a water tower in the city on the Elbe dates back to 1905. Further unsuccessful attempts followed in 1914 and 1921, so that the population continued to rely on public and private wells. In 1924, however, a hot summer caused a number of wells to dry out and examination of the remaining ones revealed that they were of inferior quality and did not meet hygienic requirements. The magistrate then made the decision on September 14, 1925 to create a central water supply, which the city council finally approved on September 26, 1926.[2]

So in the years from 1927 to 1928, Aken received a new water tower at the same time as other cities in the area (e.g. Bobbau water tower 1926–1927, Gräfenhainichen water tower 1927–1928, South water tower (Halle) 1927–1928). Construction began on July 7, 1927, and the water tower was put into operation on February 2, 1928. In 1934, the newly built IG Farben (later Didier-Werke) housing estate on the eastern edge of Aken (“Amsel-Wald-Siedlung”) was connected with pipelines.[2]

“Waterworks II” was built at the acacia pond in 1958 and 1959, primarily to meet the needs of agriculture (vegetable cultivation). But it also helped with the drinking water supply to Trebbichau (district of Micheln, municipality of Osternienburger Land), Osternienburg and other towns in the area. The connection to the drinking water network in Aken, however, only took place between 1988 and 1989. In addition, if necessary, wells were drilled in the urban area and the surrounding area to supply individual units, for example through the Aken magnesite plant in 1965 and 1978.[2]

Between 1992 and 1994, Stadtwerke Aken was formed through the gradual acquisition of these waterworks. However, the individual facilities soon became unnecessary due to the declining demand for drinking water, as the Aken-Ost waterworks alone was sufficient to guarantee this (in 1989 around 4,000,000 cubic meters of water, then reduced to 280,000 cubic meters of water per year). Nevertheless, the decision was made to preserve them. From 1994 onwards, the water tower was renovated because steel beams had rusted through and the roof gave pigeons access to the water basin. Since the end of the renovation in 2004, the water tower has only served as a water storage and pressure compensation tank. Since then, the tower has also been used for company meetings and as a radio station for telephone, fire brigade and police.[3][2]
Source de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasserturm_Aken

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Schakal

February 25, 2024

A pump house, five deep wells, a transformer station and the pipes for drinking water distribution were built. The 58 meter high tower, which clearly towers above its surroundings, has several parallels to the tower in Bobbau. They are each square and their external shape is structured by pilaster strips and cornices. Both towers use reinforced concrete skeleton construction, in which only the spaces (compartments) were lined with bricks. Both towers also almost completely hide the elevated tank, which can hold 200 cubic meters of water. The container floor only protrudes minimally from the eleven by eleven meter floor plan.[4]

A key difference, however, is the large number of windows (123 in total) and the number of floors, because the Aken water tower has significantly more visible floors than the Bobbauer. The Aken Tower is also unplastered, has a pyramid roof with numerous skylights and does not contain any expressionistic details that the contemporary towers in Halle and Bobbau have. To the outside observer it looks like a lookout tower, as a window gallery is located directly below the roof.[3] The tower can best be attributed to the New Objectivity or New Building, which was significantly influenced by the Bauhaus - located in neighboring Dessau since 1925. The water tower is a listed building and is recorded in the list of monuments with the number 094 06000.[5]
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Elevation 60 m

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Tuesday 30 December

4°C

-4°C

94 %

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Max wind speed: 26.0 km/h

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Location: Aken (Elbe), Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

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