Heinrich Hertz Tower


The Heinrich Hertz Tower is a landmark radio telecommunication tower in the city of Hamburg, Germany.
Designed by architect Fritz Trautwein, in co-operation with civil engineers Jörg Schlaich, Rudolf Bergermann and Fritz Leonhardt, the tower was built between 1965-1968 for the former Deutsche Bundespost near Planten un Blomen park.
With an overall height of 279.2 m it is Hamburg's tallest structure, consisting of a 204 m steel-reinforced concrete lower section topped by a 45 m steel-lattice tower and a three-segmented cylinder of about 30 m, which supports various antennas. There are eight concentric platforms stacked one above the other: starting at 128 m with the two-story observation and restaurant platform, served by two high-speed elevators. Above that at 150 m is the operations platform housing the workforce and equipment, and further up six differentially sized, smaller open platforms in same distances, populated with high-gain directional microwave radio relay antennas. Number nine was added at 25 m height in July 2005.
After the observation platform and restaurant were closed due to asbestos decontamination, former stuntman Jochen Schweizer had a bungee jumping base installed. The restaurant will not open again due to new fire escape regulations, and the bungee platform was closed at the end of 2001.
The tower has been home to the VFDB Hamburg section's radio amateur club station "DF0HHT". It also housed a DGPS transmitting station serving the city of Hamburg's Surveying Agency.
The tower is named after the Hamburg-born German physicist Heinrich Hertz. A memorial plaque in his honour on the tower's wall reads: "Heinrich Hertz – Dem Sohn der Stadt Hamburg".