The Humberg Tower is an

observation tower An observation tower is a tower used to view events from a long distance and to create a full 360 degree range of vision to conduct long distance observations. Observation towers are usually at least tall and are made from stone, iron, and woo ...

on the Humberg hill, 425 metres (1,400 feet) high, to the south of the city of

Kaiserslautern Kaiserslautern (; ) is a town in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfurt am Main, 666 kilometers (414 m ...

in southwest

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. The idea of building a

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

on the Humberg (already in those days a favourite hill among the citizens of Kaiserslautern, for its view) was taken up in 1896. For this purpose, inhabitants of the city founded the Humberg Association, with the aim of financing the building of an observation tower. Among the founding members were the well-known sewing machine factory owner

Pfaff PFAFF () is a German manufacturer Manufacturing is the creation or Production (economics), production of goods with the help of equipment, Work (human activity), labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation ...

, the mayor, Dr. Orth, distinguished businessmen, Pfeiffer and Karcher, and malt manufacturer, Gelbert. The tower was built to plans by the

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, Ludwig Ritter von Stempel, who had already made a name for himself with some public buildings in the city. The Humberg Tower is a monumental construction of

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

blocks, typical of the Wilhelminian period. Building began in the spring of 1899.https://www.humberg-kaiserslautern.de/ The building material was quarried on the spot from the stone plateau of the Humberg. The tower was ceremonially opened on 2 September 1900. The tower is 35.77 metres (119 feet) high and its observation platform is 28.16 metres (93 feet) above the ground. The

spiral staircase Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical direction, vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps wh ...

inside has 130 steps; in addition, there are a further 33 steps in the outside stairs at the base. In 1909, the existing Humberg Association was dissolved. The tower and the association's capital came into the possession of the city of Kaiserslautern. In 2001, the Humberg Tower Association of Kaiserslautern e.V. was founded with the aim of preserving the tower and its attractiveness as a goal for hikers.

References

Observation towers in Rhineland-Palatinate {{RhinelandPalatinate-geo-stub