Bismarckturm Hasselfelde-Trautenstein

The Bismarckturm Hasselfelde-Trautenstein was a metal observation tower on Carlshaushöhe near Hasselfelde in the Harz district of Saxony-Anhalt. It stood 626 metres above sea level on the same spot where a wooden predecessor, the Karlshausturm, had collapsed in 1898. The new tower was built by Maschinenfabrik Carl Reinsch in Dresden and paid for by the Harz Club and its local branches. The Harz Club proposed its construction in July 1899, and it was inaugurated in May 1901. The tower had a square base, four intermediate platforms and a circular viewing deck with a waist-high railing.

The tower carried a bronze medallion designed by Eugen Kircheisen and cast by Rinckleben foundry, placed above the first platform. The inscription read “Dem Andenken Bismarcks in deutscher Treue. Der Harzklubverein Braunschweig.” In 1924 the original medallion was stolen and replaced by a cast copy. By the 1950s a wooden frame was added to mark a trigonometric point, and in 1960 the tower was closed to visitors because its platforms offered views into West Germany. It then served as a fire-watch tower and was renamed Karlshausturm.

In the late 1970s the area became a restricted military zone and in 1981 a Soviet radar station for missile defence was installed. Soviet troops dismantled the tower in 1981 using oxyacetylene torches. After reunification the site was returned to civilian use and in 1998 a new 50-metre steel tower with two viewing platforms was built on the same spot. The present Carlshausturm stands as a replacement for the original Bismarckturm.