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The Television Tower and Outer Space

In red, the colour of Socialism, the sphere of the Berlin Television Tower should shine according to the design of GDR architect Hermann Henselmann; its shape was intended to commemorate that of the Sowjet Sputnik satellites. Structurally resembling a chimney it should under no circumstances look like one, this was stipulated during a meeting in 1964. The building that officially was called “Fernseh- und UKW-Turm Berlin” (TV and Metric Wave Tower Berlin), in Oktober 1969 was the second highest tlevision tower in the world. Only the Russian tower Ostankino in Moscow was higher. At the same time it was – after the tower in Moscow and the Empire State Building in New York – the third highest free-standing building of its times.