Hard to extinguish—a water tower on fire

To the 19th-century citizens of Waren, obtaining fresh water was not a big concern, because the large water reservoirs of Tiefwarensee, Müritz and Feisneck were right on their doorstep. Plus, there were more than 20 public wells, and some private premises even had their own water supply. At the time, water coming “out of a wall” was a thing unheard of, people used peat or wood for heating and oil or candles for lighing. But the rapid population growth meant more water. The existing wells were no longer enough and, from a hygienic point of view, the water quality became worse. Also, there were other cities, where progressive engineers brought water directly into houses.

This is why, on 13 May 1896, Mayor Schlaaff and his senators decided to "execute a contract [...] concerning the installation of a sewage system project", with engineer Heinrich Scheven from Bochum as the chosen contractor. The construction of the waterworks started quickly and proceeded at a fast pace. As early as 2 July 1896, the newspaper Mecklenburger Anzeiger reported on boreholes near the lake Feisneck, which helped to determine the quality of the groundwater there. On 10 March 1897, Scheven presented the status of the project at a meeting of the citizens' association, which prompted the local newspaper Warener Zeitung to report: "It is remarkable that the water tower, which, as we all know, is being built on the Nesselberg, will also serve as a viewing platform. The tower will be 35 m high, while the gallery will be at a height of 17 m—calculated from the top of the Nesselberg".

On 1 November 1897, the time had come for operations to begin, and Nesselberg’s waterworks went into operation. The Wasserturm, which stood at a distance of 280 m from the pumping station, was visible from far away, proudly overlooking the then low trees. Pumps, driven by steam engines, drew water out of eight pipe wells, each 12 metres deep. If it was not immediately required by the city's grid, the water was stored in the Wasserturm’s wrought-iron tank, which stood inside on a massive substructure about 14 m high. In the year of commissioning, 209 houses were supplied by the waterworks. These included the town hall at Neuer Markt, the municipal slaughterhouse on Chausseestraße, the retired teachers' house on Denkmalstraße and the Grand Ducal Tax Office. For those supplied, the water price was either 30 pfennigs per cubic meter for private households (with a minimum cost of 1 mark per month) or 10 pfennigs per cubic meter for the City. Engineer Heinrich Scheven, who alone bore the construction costs of the waterworks and sewerage system (at an estimated 240,000 marks) as well as the associated economic risk, received an exclusive operating contract of 50 years in return. However, on 1 September 1898, he sold the waterworks to Deutsche Wasserwerke AG in Berlin for 225,000 marks.

On 11 January 1900, a red-hot stovepipe from the apartment located under the reservoir set fire to the water tower’s wooden construction. The fire brigade’s manually-operated pumps failed to pump the water the required height of the burning wooden frame, so the Wasserturm was destroyed—just two years after being commissioned. Of course, the ironic case of a tower full of water burning down caused ridicule in some places. For example, a satirical magazine from Munich published a sketch by art student Ulrich Kähler, which was later also distributed as a postcard (see illustration).

The slate-roofed Wasserturm that you see today was rebuilt shortly after the fire. The renovated building featured once more a basement and three above-ground floors for living and storage rooms. Above these, the water tank of 175 cubic meters was contained in half-timbered walls. A cast-iron spiral staircase, housed in a slender side tower, connected all the floors.

On 1 July 1919, Deutsche Wasserwerke AG in Berlin sold the waterworks (and thus the Wasserturm) to the City of Waren for 500,000 marks.

Between 1926 and 1928, the old steam piston pumps were gradually replaced by piston pumps driven by diesel engines. Electrically driven centrifugal pumps were fitted from 1929 on.

The water tower was severely damaged during the Second World War and was not restored until 1953. For the next 10 years, it supplied Waren with water and remained inhabited until the 1990s.

In 2010, our cooperative BEWAHREN Ferienhaus eG bought the Wasserturm and started its reconstruction in the same year. You can find more information about the reconstruction, together with photos, on the next page.

Source: “135 Jahre Gaswerk 1862-1996, 100 Jahre Wasserwerk 1897-1997 in Waren (Müritz), Festschrift Stadtwerke Waren GmbH”, Jürgen Kniesz, Friedrich-Wilhelm Kruse (Authors), Stadtwerke Waren GmbH (Publisher), Waren 1997