Berger Warte

Berger Warte is a circular watchtower of red Main sandstone, standing about twelve metres high in Seckbach. It marks Frankfurt’s highest point at 212.4 metres above sea level.

Built in the mid-sixteenth century, the tower served as an observation post and escort station on the road between Frankfurt and Bischofsheim. Merchants met the city’s escort here on their journeys. A wooden predecessor called Geierswarte stood on this hill around 1340 before fire destroyed it during Frankfurt’s siege. Stone replaced timber in 1557 under Philipp III of Hanau-Münzenberg.

The tower differs from Frankfurt’s other medieval watchtowers because it belonged outside the city’s Landwehr system. Its first-floor entrance once required a retractable ladder during times of crisis. A circular wall, ditch and wooden palisades once surrounded the tower. During the Battle of Bergen in 1759, French Marshal de Broglie commanded troops from this position. The site later sheltered Hessian troops protecting Frankfurt’s imperial election in 1790. Nearby, the High Court of Bornheimer Berg used an execution site from 1484 to 1834. Stones from its 1735 gallows later formed the tower staircase. World War II damaged the Berger Warte, and repairs followed in the 1950s. Today, the protected monument belongs to Regional Park RheinMain and the Frankfurt Green Belt landscape protection area. The historic Via Regia once passed nearby.