"The father of television towers"
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In 1956, the Stuttgart television tower, which is now the city's emblem, was unique in the world and much admired for its avant-garde design. Nowadays, many cities throughout the world boast similar, even higher reinforced concrete structures.
The tower, which is now 217 metres high, was a public attraction right from the start. Since its opening, more than 22 million visitors from near and far have enjoyed the breath-taking view from the top - 150 metres above the ground and 395 metres above Schlossplatz in the city centre.
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When the South German Broadcasting Corporation (Süddeutscher Rundfunk) decided to build a television tower for Stuttgart and its environs, the "Hoher Bopser" (483 metres) was found to be the most suitable location for a transmitter of this kind. The engineer Dr.-Ing. Fritz Leonhardt, known at that time as a bridge builder and an excellent structural engineer, had the ingenious idea of mounting the aerial on a closed, rein-forced concrete tower supporting a viewing platform and restaurant at the same time. This solution was the very first of its kind. New ground had to be broken to solve many of the problems involved before the 3.7 million Mark project (originally estimated at 1.8 million Marks) fulfilled all of the necessary requirements. Great effort was taken to give the tower head a streamlined shape in order to make it appear as light as possible. Flat sheets of aluminium provided the best solution here.
The Stuttgart television tower was inaugurated on the 5th of February 1956. Since then, its two planners, Dr. Leonhardt and Dipl.-Ing. Heinle have received much acclaim and have passed on their vast experience to their academic successors: Heinle is currently a professor of architecture at the State Academy of Fine Art in Stuttgart; Dr. Leonhardt is a professor of bridge building, construction engineering and industrial construction at the University of Stuttgart (college of advanced technology). Now a world-famous civil engineer, he received the highest German engineering honour in 1965, the Werner-von-Siemens-Ring founded in 1916, and the citizens' medal from the city of Stuttgart in 1991.
© Copyright Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart, Presse- und Informationsamt
