Town Hall (Kornwestheim)

From 1890 to 1933, the population of the city of Kornwestheim increased five-fold and exceeded 10,000: as a result, both the city administration and local utilities demanded expansion. Even before the First World War , in 1912, the municipality decided to build a new town hall - construction began on the corner of Stuttgart Strasse and Eberhardstrasse. In connection with the outbreak of hostilities, construction work was interrupted and no longer resumed: from the old project, the modern building only got a characteristic door. The city’s water supply in that period, from 1917, was provided by supplying water from the Danube through a special water supply , however, the capacity of the reservoir built in 1896 in Zalonwald ( Ludwigsburg ) was soon insufficient.

For several years, a lack of financial resources has prevented the solution of urban problems; and only in 1933 - under the mayor Alfred Kercher - a new competition was announced for the construction of two buildings: the town hall and the water tower. The competition was won by the project of Paul Bonatz, who was the architect of the central railway station of Stuttgart : he proposed to combine both projects and build a tower of the town hall as a water tower. For implementation, a place was chosen on a hill - on Stuttgart Strasse, which at that time was the southern outskirts of Kornwestheim. Due to this arrangement, both the supply of water to the population was guaranteed, and a reserve was created for the subsequent expansion of the city to the south.

Construction, secured by a loan from the federal government of Germany , was started in October 1933 and completed by November 1935. A still existing city administration building was built next to the water tower. The height of the tower is 48 meters with a foundation depth of 8; The tank holds 800 cubic meters of water. Researchers have suggested that the Kornwestheim tower served as the model for the bell tower of Naborito Cathedral ( Hiroshima , 1953). The local Christmas tradition is also connected with the tower: every year at Christmas , a Christmas tree is installed on the flat top of the tower, which is clearly visible from almost anywhere in the city.

Only two decades later, when the population of the city doubled again - and in addition to this, several industrial enterprises were opened in the district at once - the water tower ceased to meet the needs of both the population and the nearby US Army soldiers. Therefore, in 1954–1955, two additional reservoirs were buried in the ground in the area in front of the town hall, each of which had a volume of 2,200 cubic meters: of these, water was pumped into the tower. Since 1958, Kornwestheim also receives water from the "artificial lake" near Stuttgart, "Bodensee-Wasserversorgung". In the 1990s, the administrative wing of the town hall was expanded.

• St. Martin's Church in Kornwestheim
• Museum in the house of Klehus
• Factory "Salamander"

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• Rathausturm (German) . structurae.de . Structurae (16. Mai 2015). Date of treatment February 22, 2019.