"Bismarckturm" (Tower)

The “Bismarckturm” of Bad Ems was built in honour of the first German Imperial Chancellor Fürst Otto von Bismarck (1815 – 1898). The tower was planned by the architect Wilhelm Kreis ( 1873 – 1955) and is located directly east of the town centre on the “Bismarckhöhe”. The tower is twelve and a half metres high and was dedicated in 1909. On 26th of June 1900 the foundation of the tower was laid and the building work started. The building works were not supervised by the architect Wilhelm Kreis himself but were carried out by Wilhelm Jacob Balzer, a builder from Bad Ems. The material used was mainly quartzite, which came from a nearby stone quarry next to Kemmenau, as well as basalt from a quarry in Niedermendig in the Eifel. Next to the tower there is a restaurant-café with a panorama terrace. The restaurant as well as the tower can easily be reached with the help of the “Kurwaldbahn” (cable railway). The top station is next to the restaurant and the tower.