Landmark Europe
Berlin TV Tower (Fernsehturm)
The Berlin TV Tower is a very tall tower in Germany. It has a big shiny ball near the top. You can ride up and look out over the city!
The Berlin TV Tower, or Fernsehturm, is a tall concrete tower in the center of Berlin, Germany. It was built from 1965 to 1969 to send television and radio across the city. A steel ball 32 meters across, near the top, holds a viewing platform and a restaurant that slowly turns around.
The Fernsehturm in Berlin, built in 1965–1969 between Alexanderplatz and the Spree, is a 368 m television and radio tower (berlin.de, 2025): a concrete shaft with a 32 m steel-clad sphere near the top and an antenna mast above. Berlin's monument record lists it as a protected monument, together with the pavilion building at its foot and the open space around it.
Photo: L-BBE, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover the Berlin TV Tower
The TV Tower is in Berlin, a big city in Germany. It is very, very tall.
Near the top is a giant ball. People ride up inside the tower to look out!
The Berlin TV Tower stands in the middle of Berlin, between a square called Alexanderplatz and the Spree River. It is 368 meters tall, and the city's website calls it the tallest structure in Germany.
Near the top is a round 'head', a sphere 32 meters across. Inside are machines for sending out signals, a viewing platform and a restaurant that slowly turns.
Berlin's own website gives the TV Tower a height of 368 m and calls it the tallest structure in Germany (in 2025). Its spherical head, 32 m in diameter, houses transmission technology, a slowly rotating restaurant and a viewing platform.
Berlin's monument record describes the tower as planned not only for television and radio but also as a landmark visible from far away, and lists it with its pavilion building and the open space at its foot as one protected monument.
- Where
- between Alexanderplatz and the Spree, Berlin, Germany
- Height
- 368 m (berlin.de, 2025)
- Built
- 1965–1969
- Sphere
- 32 m across
A tower for television
Builders worked on the tower for about four years. It opened in 1969.
It was made to send TV and radio to people in the city.
In 1964, in East Germany (the German Democratic Republic), it was decided to build the tower in the center of Berlin. Building took from 1965 to 1969, and the tower opened in 1969.
Its job was to send East German television and FM radio to the city. Who designed it is disputed: several architects are named, including Hermann Henselmann.
Berlin's monument record says the decision to build a tower between Alexanderplatz and the Spree was made in 1964, based on Hermann Henselmann's 1959 idea of a 'tower of signals'. It was built in 1965–69 and inaugurated on 7 October 1969; berlin.de says its purpose was to serve the city reliably with East German television and FM radio.
Authorship is disputed: berlin.de names Hermann Henselmann, Fritz Dieter, Günter Franke and Gerhard Kosel, and the monument record notes that a 1970 publication named Dieter and Franke as designers and Henselmann as artistic adviser.
How the tower went up
First the builders made the tall, round trunk of the tower out of concrete.
Then cranes lifted pieces of the big ball up to the top!
The tower's tall shaft is made of reinforced concrete. Builders used 'climbing formwork': a steel frame inside grew a step ahead, and the concrete shaft was built up around it.
The ball starts 200 meters up. Its steel frame was made on the ground in pieces, and cranes lifted the pieces to the top of the shaft.
The tower's official visitor site explains that only one method was considered for the shaft: climbing formwork, in which the inner steel scaffold grew a step faster than the outer concrete shaft built around it. Mounting the sphere at 200 m was a challenge: its supporting steel frame was prefabricated on the ground, lifted in segments by cranes and attached to the ring-shaped platform at the top of the concrete shaft.
The monument record describes the 250 m reinforced concrete shaft, the 115 m antenna mast anchored on it, and the sphere's seven floors, clad in ground stainless-steel sheets shaped into pyramids.
Inside the sphere
A very fast elevator takes visitors up. The ride takes less than a minute!
Up in the ball, a restaurant slowly turns around.
Visitors ride an elevator that travels 6 meters every second, reaching the observation deck in about 40 seconds. The tower also has 986 steps, but only staff may use them, or people in an emergency.
The tower itself does not turn, and neither does the observation deck. The restaurant in the sphere does: it goes all the way around every 30 minutes.
According to the tower's official visitor site, the elevator runs at 6 m per second and reaches the observation deck in about 40 seconds; the deck can be reached only by elevator. The 986-step staircase is reserved for emergencies and service staff.
The tower and the observation deck stay still, while the Sphere restaurant rotates on its axis, completing one full turn every 30 minutes and giving a 360° view of Berlin.
- Elevator
- 6 m per second, about 40 seconds to the deck
- Restaurant
- one full turn every 30 minutes
- Stairs
- 986 steps, for staff and emergencies only
Above the rooftops
In this photo, the tower rises high over the city. Can you find the red and white stripes on top?
This photo was taken in March 2016 from high up. The gray concrete shaft rises from a low building with pointed white roofs, past the sphere, to a red and white antenna.
Around it spread the roofs and streets of Berlin, with a brick church and long rows of buildings.
The photograph (19 March 2016, by L-BBE, from Panoramio) shows the full height of the tower from the pavilion building at its foot, with its sloping white roofs, to the red-and-white antenna mast. The monument record dates the pavilion building to 1969–72, designed by a team led by Walter Herzog and Herbert Aust as flat pavilions with tilted roofs, and the open space of about six hectares at the tower's foot to 1970–73.
Berlin's website lists the tower among the city's most visited sights.
Amazing facts
-
The elevator zooms up to the top in less than a minute!
The tower's elevator travels 6 meters every second and reaches the observation deck in about 40 seconds.
At 6 m per second, the elevator reaches the observation deck in about 40 seconds; the deck has no visitor stairs.
-
The restaurant at the top goes round and round, very slowly!
The restaurant in the sphere turns all the way around every 30 minutes, but the tower and the observation deck stay still.
Only the Sphere restaurant rotates, twice an hour; the tower and the observation deck are stationary.
-
The big ball is covered in shiny steel pieces shaped like little pyramids!
The outside of the sphere is covered with polished stainless-steel sheets shaped into pyramids.
The sphere's outer skin is made of ground stainless-steel sheets formed into pyramids on a trapezoidal plan.
Words to know
- antenna
- a rod or mast that sends or receives radio and television signals
- concrete
- a strong building material made from cement, sand, gravel and water that sets hard like stone
- sphere
- a round shape like a ball
- observation deck
- a high place where visitors stand to look at the view
- formwork
- a mold that holds wet concrete in shape until it sets
- broadcast
- to send out television or radio programs for many people to receive
Discovery challenge
-
What is near the top of the TV Tower?
What shape sits near the top of the Berlin TV Tower?
What 32 m structure, starting at 200 m, sits high on the tower's concrete shaft?
- A big ball
- A big box
- A big bell
Show the answer
A big ball
A big shiny ball!
A sphere, 32 meters across.
The steel-clad sphere.
-
What was the tower built to send out?
What was the Berlin TV Tower built to send across the city?
According to Berlin's city website, what was the tower built to serve the city with?
- TV and radio
- Water
- Electricity
Show the answer
TV and radio
TV and radio!
Television and FM radio.
East German television and FM radio.
-
How do visitors get up the tower?
How do visitors reach the observation deck?
By what means is the observation deck reached?
- By elevator
- By the stairs
- By a rope ladder
Show the answer
By elevator
By a fast elevator!
By elevator, in about 40 seconds.
Only by elevator; the stairs are for staff and emergencies.
-
What part of the tower slowly turns around?
Which part of the TV Tower turns around?
Which part of the tower rotates, once every 30 minutes?
- The restaurant
- The whole tower
- The antenna
Show the answer
The restaurant
The restaurant!
The restaurant in the sphere.
The Sphere restaurant.
-
Which city is the TV Tower in?
In which city does the Fernsehturm stand?
In which capital does the Fernsehturm stand, between Alexanderplatz and the Spree?
- Berlin
- Paris
- Toronto
Show the answer
Berlin
Berlin, in Germany!
Berlin, Germany.
Berlin.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Explain what a TV tower does, using the Berlin TV Tower as an example.
- Describe how the tower's concrete shaft and steel sphere were built.
- Compare the tower's numbers (368 m, 32 m, 986 steps) with buildings children know.
Recommended ages: 4 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why would a radio or TV antenna work better when it is very high up?
- The sphere's frame was built on the ground and lifted up in pieces. Why might that be easier than building it in the air?
- Several architects are named for this tower. How can people find out who designed something?
Try at home or in class
- Build a tower from paper tubes with a ball of foil near the top, and test how tall it can stand.
- Time how long you take to climb 20 steps, then work out how long 986 steps might take.
Key vocabulary: antenna, concrete, sphere, observation deck, formwork, broadcast
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- 1 TV Tower (Ost-West-Ost history walk) , Berlin.de (State of Berlin)
- Fernsehturm mit Fußumbauung und Freiflächen (Denkmaldatenbank 09065023) , Landesdenkmalamt Berlin
- History , Berliner Fernsehturm
- FAQ , Berliner Fernsehturm
- File:Tv-turm - panoramio.jpg , Wikimedia Commons
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.