From Hildburg Bruns
It is the last of its kind. For decades, GDR border guards observed the confusing area at Leipziger Platz from the octagonal pulpit.
In the meantime, 33 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the watchtower near Leipziger Platz has been sealed off again. He is standing behind a wooden fence and a roll of razor wire on a federal construction site. “What irony,” says ex-tenant Jörg Moser-Metius.
Tourists with rucksacks jostle in front of a revolving door at the end of Erna-Berger-Strasse, trying to catch a glimpse of the relic of the Wall era. For ten years, tenant Moser-Metius took care of it, renovating windows and concrete damage. Now he’s out.
Museum boss Jörg Moser-Metius had leased the watchtower from the Mitte district for ten years Photo: Ralf Lutter
Will the watchtower ever be accessible again? “Desirable,” write the authorities involved, but that’s not a promise. Because around the watchtower is being built. The Federal Council will be expanded, a facade will be less than 2.50 meters away. And on the other side, the Ministry of the Environment will soon start an extension.
“The adjacent new federal buildings threaten further use,” says CDU culture expert Stefanie Bung (44). Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (67, Greens) rejected a word of power, writing that she was “incompetent!”
This is what the extended Bundesrat building on Leipziger Strasse should look like Photo: Max Dudler
Bung: “I expect more from Claudia Roth than a notice of responsibility.” Why? “The unique wall tower certainly does not have a high prestige effect, but its preservation should be of national interest. What use are artificial unit monuments if the historical evidence is not adequately protected?”
Ex-tenant Moser-Metius would like to move the tower to Leipziger Platz so that it becomes accessible again.
But the Mitte District Office and the State Monuments Office reject it. They find it more important that the listed tower remains halfway in its original place.