Wasserturm Böhlitz - Ehrenberg

Wasserturm Böhlitz-Ehrenberg rises in Leipzig’s Böhlitz-Ehrenberg district as a 54.6-metre architectural landmark of yellow brick. Its yellow-brick shaft narrows upwards above pilaster strips and segmental-arch windows. A projecting, multi-stepped base once supported the water tank and carries three clock faces. Stone elements interrupt the brickwork at only a few points.

August Schirmer built the tower between 1911 and 1912, when Leipzig’s population and industry were expanding. Its riveted steel vessel held 450 cubic metres of water. The vessel measured ten metres across and 8.2 metres high, with a six-metre water level. It supplied drinking water to Böhlitz-Ehrenberg, Gundorf, Burghausen and Barneck. The system also helped maintain water pressure for daily life and growing industry throughout those districts. Leipzig’s municipal waterworks used it until 2006. Renovation in 2006 and 2007 removed the damaged vessel, rebuilt the roof tip from old plans, and repaired the clocks. The Second World War partly destroyed the dome, which reconstruction later made shorter. The protected monument remains a skyline landmark, with yellow brick and three clocks shaping Leipzig’s outline.