Angerturm

The Angerturm stands in Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia, on the edge of the city’s historic centre. It is a small traffic control tower, just under five metres high, built in 1961 for the city’s police. A curved staircase leads up to a glassed-in cabin where officers once directed trams, trolleybuses and cars. A microphone system broadcast orders through loudspeakers, while a drum controller operated the traffic lights below. The tower lost its original purpose when the Anger became a pedestrian zone in 1974. It was moved to the Erfurt-Ost motorway interchange to watch over transit traffic through East Germany until 1989. After German reunification the structure stood unused for seven years before Erfurt’s transport department and city authorities restored it in 1996. Restoration work finished in August 2002, returning the tower to public view. Today the Angerturm sits beside the Magdeburger Allee tram depot in the Johannesvorstadt district, just south of the Lutherkirche. Visitors can walk around its restored cabin and climb the short flight of stairs to see the original control equipment still in place. The glass walls give clear views of the depot and the surrounding streets, linking the tower’s past duties with its new role as a traffic museum piece.