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THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

TOURISM

When the first stone was laid: Berlin TV tower

In August 1965, Berlin's iconic TV Tower wasn't yet part of the city skyline. But east of the Wall, plans were underway to create a spectacular monument for the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

When the first stone was laid: Berlin TV tower
Photo: DPA

50 years ago this week, the first foundation stone was laid for the Berliner TV Tower (Fernsehturm).

The tower would soon become the tallest building in Germany, and was intended to be a symbol of the city. Plans for its construction had actually begun some decade before – but things hadn't gone quite as expected.

Where to build the Tower?

“The TV Tower is one of the most visited attractions in the city, and draws more than one million visitors each year” said Christian Tänzler, spokesperson for tourism website Visit Berlin.

The 50th anniversary is a particularly good time to champion this “touristic heavyweight,” he told The Local – and to emphasise its huge importance within the city.

Berlin's Fernsehturm was originally a GDR construction.

In the early 1950s, Socialist Unity Party (SED) leaders in East Berlin wanted to build a tower to transmit GDR television signals.

Intended to represent the power and efficiency of socialism, the tower was to be built on the Müggelberge – a wooded area in Berlin's Treptow-Köpenick quarter.

However, after the first few outbuildings were built on this site, the Ministry of Internal Affairs realised something: the Fernsehturm would be directly in the flight path of Berlin's planned Schönefeld Airport.

After the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, Volkspark Friedrichshain was also aired as a suggestion – but this time, it was the cost that halted plans.

A potential spend of 30 million Ostmarks just wasn't feasible in this time of economic crisis, the East German government decided.

Two plans brought together

Meanwhile – and completely unrelated to the tower's planning – GDR leaders had just demolished the Berlin Palace, former residence of the Kaisers of Germany, and needed something to replace it.

The plan was to build a kind of “Government skyscraper” in the city centre, but the plans were rejected.

However, something magnificent came about when these two rejected plans were merged.

On 4 August 1965, the first stone was laid for Berlin's iconic Fernsehturm – not at the Schlossplatz, where the government had dreamed of creating an architectural masterpiece, but just next to nearby Alexanderplatz.

“Well, Comrades, there one sees it exactly: it belongs there,” said SED leader Walter Ulbricht, according to a popular anecdote.

He stood before a model of Berlin.

It was 1964, and Ulbricht had apparently just determined where the Fernsehturm was going to stand.

In reality, it was more likely the sandy soil around Alexanderplatz – a much better foundation than the riverside marshy earth at the Schlossplatz – that sealed the deal for the Fernsehturm's final location.

A lasting icon

Construction finished in 1969 – and on October 3rd that year, Berlin's Fernsehturm opened its doors to the public.

Despite its original aim of highlighting the power of the GDR, the tower has come to symbolize a united Berlin since reunification in 1990.

With a height of 368m, the Fernsehturm is Germany's tallest building – and is also one of Berlin's most distinctive landmarks.

Jeremy Minsburg leads custom-made tours around the city for visitors to Berlin through the website The Berlin Expert.

A Jewish American, he has lived in the city for 14 years.

“My clients all love the TV tower,” he told The Local.

Minsburg said that visitors love hearing about how in the GDR era, the Fernsehturm's revolving restaurant took an hour to fully rotate, but after recent renovations now takes just 30 minutes.

“Communism vs. capitalism,” he jokes.

Visitors are impressed by the tower's “funky” design, he said – with many claiming that the Fernsehturm “looks like a piece of asparagus!”

Tänzler explained that while the Fernsehturm has been modernized since its construction to keep up with increasing demand, “its visual appearance has – thank goodness – not changed.”

“Both the exterior design and the tower's interior have become design icons for Berlin,” he said.

The Fernsehturm is now owned by Deutsche Telekom, and open seven days a week to tourists.

After a 40 seconds elevator ride – or a trip up the tower's 986 steps – visitors enter the sphere.

Here, the tower boasts a 203m high viewing platform and a restaurant 270m above the ground.

Offering what the tower's website advertises as “an incomparable view of the capital,” the sphere allows visitors to gaze upon Berlin in a way that, 50 years ago, planners could only dream of. 

Written by Hannah Butler

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TRAVEL NEWS

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Almost 800,000 fewer UK holidaymakers have visited Spain in 2023 when compared to 2019. What’s behind this big drop?

Why are fewer British tourists visiting Spain this year?

Spain welcomed 12.2 million UK tourists between January and July 2023, 6 percent less when compared to the same period in 2019, according to data released on Monday by Spanish tourism association Turespaña.

This represents a decrease of 793,260 British holidaymakers for Spain so far this year.

Conversely, the number of Italian (+8 percent), Irish (+15.3 percent), Portuguese (+24.8 percent), Dutch (+4 percent) and French tourists (+5 percent) visiting España in 2023 are all above the rates in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. 

German holidaymakers are together with their British counterparts the two main nationalities showing less interest in coming to Spanish shores.

Britons still represent the biggest tourist group that comes to Spain, but it’s undergoing a slump, with another recent study by Caixabank Research suggesting numbers fell particularly in June 2023 (-12.5 percent of the usual rate). 

READ ALSO: Spain fully booked for summer despite most expensive holiday prices ever

So are some Britons falling out of love with Spain? Are there clear reasons why a holiday on the Spanish coast is on fewer British holiday itineraries?

According to Caixabank Research’s report, the main reasons are “the poor macroeconomic performance of the United Kingdom, the sharp rise in rates and the weakness of the pound”.

This is evidenced in the results of a survey by British market research company Savanta, which found that one in six Britons are not going on a summer holiday this year due to the UK’s cost-of-living crisis.

Practically everything, everywhere has become more expensive, and that includes holidays in Spain: hotel stays are up 44 percent, eating out is 13 percent pricier, and flights are 40 percent more on average. 

READ ALSO: How much more expensive is it to holiday in Spain this summer?

Caixabank stressed that another reason for the drop in British holidaymakers heading to Spain is that those who can afford a holiday abroad are choosing “more competitive markets” such as Turkey, Greece and Portugal. 

And there’s no doubt that the insufferably hot summer that Spain is having, with four heatwaves so far, has also dissuaded many holidaymakers from Blighty from overcooking in the Spanish sun. 

With headlines such as “This area of Spain could become too hot for tourists” or “tourists say it’s too hot to see any sights” featuring in the UK press, budding British holidaymakers are all too aware of the suffocating weather conditions Spain and other Mediterranean countries are enduring. 

Other UK outlets have urged travellers to try out the cooler Spanish north rather than the usual piping hot Costa Blanca and Costa del Sol destinations.

Another UK poll by InsureandGo found that 71 percent of the 2,000+ British respondents thought that parts of Europe such as Spain, Greece and Turkey will be too hot to visit over summer by 2027.

There’s further concern that the introduction in 2024 of the new (and delayed) ETIAS visa for non-EU visitors, which of course now also applies to UK nationals, could further compel British tourists to choose countries to holiday in rather than Spain.

READ MORE: Will British tourists need to pay for a visa waiver to enter Spain?

However, a drop in the number of British holidaymakers may not be all that bad for Spain, even though they did spend over €17 billion on their Spanish vacations in 2022. 

Towns, cities and islands across the country have been grappling with the problem of overtourism and the consequences it has on everything from quality of life for locals to rent prices. 

READ ALSO: ‘Beach closed’ – Fake signs put up in Spain’s Mallorca to dissuade tourists

The overcrowded nature of Spain’s beaches and most beautiful holiday hotspots appears to be one of the reasons why Germans are visiting Spain in far fewer numbers. A recent report in the country’s most read magazine Stern asked “if the dream is over” in their beloved Mallorca.

Spanish authorities are also seeking to overhaul the cheaper holiday package-driven model that dominates many resorts, which includes moving away from the boozy antics of young British and other European revellers.

Fewer tourists who spend more are what Spain is theoretically now looking for, and the rise in American, Japanese and European tourists other than Brits signify less of a dependence on the British market, one which tends to maintain the country’s tourism status quo for better or for worse.

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