Towers of Horror

‎...an ugly structure, resembling an oversized automatic pencil, towering over London. Another tower, no less ugly, black and angular, is climbing to the Paris skies, not far from the Gare Montparnasse. And a third one in Warsaw - not so tall but so grotesque, with baroque ornaments and enormous spire, probably some government office. A page or two, and I'm in Berlin, looking at Brandenburg Gate. The gate is here, like on any other day, but... no Adlon, no Palais Blucher, nothing - and in the background, the Reichstag without its dome! This artist must be crazy. No wonder there's no Royal Palace in his Berlin. Who needs to search for Potsdamerplatz when everything, absolutely everything is wrong. And the peak of insanity is certainly near Alexanderplatz, where a silver needle is growing out of rubble, punching a crystal ball eight hundred feet above the ground.

Berlin TV tower

January 19, 1972

Photographer: Horst Sturm

Well, what has he done to my hometown? Not bad - just the Southern Railway Station is missing and the Radio Building (so many years there ...probably too much) is guarded by two shining cubes.
- Maybe you will be so kind to explain all this insanity?

Photo: Bundesarchiv