Watchtower at Potsdamer Platz
From the viewpoint of a GDR soldier
The watchtower is currently closed and no longer visible due to its cladding.
In a small side street on Potsdamer Platz stands one of the last relics from the GDR era: the "BT 6" watchtower. Concrete on the outside, round at the bottom and octagonal at the top. Two iron ladders inside lead the few metres to the top, to the so-called "tower pulpit", where small window hatches once gave the GDR border guards a clear view.
History of the watchtower at Potsdamer Platz
The mushroom-shaped "Rundblickbeobachtungsturm" was part of the border troop base and the Ministry of State Security at its current location. It was used to monitor the border strip and the area around the "House of Ministries". The massive BT 6 watchtower with embrasures was used to secure the border in Berlin and along the inner-German border from 1969. At the end of the GDR era, there were more than 200 of these towers on the Berlin border.
the watchtower at Potsdamer Platz was erected in 1971 . The field of fire once reached as far as Tiergarten and the Brandenburg Gate. The tower pulpit was manned around the clock by two border guards, each working eight-hour shifts in a very confined space.
Current situation
Today, the watchtower is the only one of its kind still standing. It was listed as a historical monument in 2001. It is currently encased to protect it from the construction work on the neighbouring Bundesrat extension . An information board on the construction fence explains the current situation: the aim of Berlin's monument preservation authorities is to preserve the watchtower"in situ" - i.e. in its original location - because from the point of view of monument preservation, the tower would lose its authenticity if it were to be moved. however, it is desirable to make the tower accessible to the general public again in the future.
Attractions close to the watchtower at Potsdamer Platz
It is not only the watchtower at Potsdamer Platz that commemorates the partition of Germany. Just one street away, on the premises of the Topography of Terror, a 200-metre stretch of the Berlin Wall has been preserved. These other sights are also just a few minutes away on foot:
- Checkpoint Charlie
- Wall Museum at Checkpoint Charlie
- DIE MAUER - the asisi Panorama of the divided Berlin
- BlackBox Cold War
Our blog editors have visited the watchtower at Potsdamer Platz in person: The Last Watchtower of Its Kind.
