The building is characterized by high architectural values, distinguished among other projects by its rich facade decoration.

History of the structure

Okonek (German: Ratzebuhr) is a small town, located in the Szczecinek Lakeland, on the Czarna River (right tributary of the Gwda River), near moraine hills, the highest of which is the Tecławska Mountain (the name comes from a legendary knight-robber Tecław hung here), on the road from Poznań through Piła and Szczecinek to Koszalin. According to the description of the boundaries between the Crown and Pomerania from 1436 and later documents, Czarna River constituted a border between Wielkopolska and the Szczecinek Land in the Duchy of Pomerania (earlier, still at the beginning of the 13th century, the border ran further to the north, leaving the southern part of the Szczecinek Land in Wielkopolska). The oldest mention of Okonek dates back to 1547, when the prince’s court marshal Jakub Műnchow handed over the grange located there to prince Barnim X. Probably due to his initiative, a village was established in the place of the grange in 1554. In the second half of the 16th century and in the first half of the following century Okonek developed successfully, which was connected with its location at the crossroads of important trade routes: the March Route and the route connecting Wielkopolska with Pomerania. A local trade centre developed here. In the years 1582 and 1597, the Pomeranian prince Jan Fryderyk issued market privileges, pursuant to which three fairs were held annually in the settlement. As a result of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), Okonek and the entire land of Szczecinek came under the rule of Brandenburg. The successful development of the village was interrupted in the middle of the 17th century during the war with Sweden, when Okonek was destroyed by fire in 1658. During the last decades of the 17th and 18th centuries, the town underwent an economic revival, with the cloth industry playing a major role. In 1720 Okonek was incorporated into the Prussian state. In 1754 the settlement was granted municipal rights by the Prussian prince Frederick the Great. The successful development of Okonek was halted during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). In the second half of the 18th century, the town was a large centre of cloth making. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the territory of Okonek grew. In 1879 a railroad line from Szczecinek to Piła was opened. During the warfare in 1945 about 35% of Okonek’s buildings were destroyed.

The Bismarck Tower in Okonek was erected in 1908 (other sources give the years 1908-1912). It was one of 240 monument towers (Bismarckturm, Bismarcksäule) built between 1896 and 1914 within the then German borders. These towers were built as a tribute to Otto von Bismarck - the first chancellor of the North German Union, later the German Reich. After the chancellor’s death (1898), his cult in German society assumed enormous proportions. Streets, districts and towns were named after him and numerous monuments were erected.

The first monument towers were built of wood during Bismarck’s lifetime. After his death, they were usually built of stone or brick. Many of them were based on the “Twilight of the Gods” design by Wilhelm Kreis of Dresden, awarded in a competition held in 1899. Nine other designs were also awarded in the competition. All these projects were characterized by monumentalism, achieved through a simple, massive form and the rawness of the material, most often - large blocks of stone. Fire bowls were placed on top of the towers, in which fire would be lit on certain days of the year. Despite the generally accepted design of W. Kreis, Bismarck’s towers varied in form and construction due to local conditions and funds that came from collections held by societies and monument committees. They were never subsidized by the state.

The tower in Okonek was built on the initiative of the local Public Utility Association, whose president was the postmaster Ernst Nitschke from Szczecinek. The cornerstone was laid on 1 April 1908. Construction costs were about 10-12 thousand marks. The work was done by the Stelter Company from Okonek. Near the tower, against the background of a niche in the western elevation, a monument made of artificial stone was erected, honouring the fallen in the Prussian-Austrian (1866) and Prussian-French (1870-71) wars (the pedestal and a fragment of the obelisk have been preserved to this day). The official opening of the tower and unveiling of the monument took place on 23 August 1908.

After 1945, the tower began to serve as a fire protection watch tower. In connection with the change of its function, its architecture was slightly changed - in the upper part of the building, a fire protection lookout point was added - an octagonal, wooden, glazed structure, covered with a multi-sided roof. In recent years, the tower has also been used as a cellular phone transmitter: panel antennas have been mounted on its top, and a towering mast has been erected nearby.

Description of the structure

The tower is located in the northern part of Okonek, about 1 km. from the town centre, on top of the wooded Tecławska Hill (191 m above sea level), at the foot of which there is a dirt forest road leading east from the road to Szczecinek. The building consists of three parts, narrower at the top: the plinth part in the shape of a truncated pyramid, erected on a square plan measuring 5x5 m, a two-storey rectangular shaft and a crenelated head. The total height of the tower exceeds 20 m. A brick building, built of cement brick, on a high stone and concrete pedestal. In the plinth part and in the fields of the elevation panels, different-coloured granite stone was used for facing.

The elevations are divided by a dentil string course between the first and second storeys, with a symmetrical composition. In the lowest storey on the eastern side - a segmented entrance, preceded by external steps. On the western side, there is a niche topped with a semicircular arch, against the background of which there used to be a monument honouring those who died in the “Patriotic” wars in the form of an obelisk on a stone mound with a commemorative plaque, crowned by a bronze sculpture of an eagle with outspread wings. The shaft of the tower is framed by corner lesenes. On the axes of each elevation there are small, narrow windows, pairs of rectangular or semicircular windows, sometimes framed with brick. The elevations were decorated with panels of various shapes, faced with multi-coloured stones, closed with a three-centred arch, sharp arch or semicircular. On the southern elevation, in the upper part of the pointed-arch niche, there is a metal medallion with the bust of Bismarck, cast in Mannheim (destroyed after 1945). Inside the tower a wooden staircase has been preserved, leading to the former viewing platform. Originally, a fire bowl was mounted on top of the tower.

Visitor access. The tower can be visited from the outside.

Compiled by: Krzysztof Jodłowski, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Poznań, 21.08.2017

Bibliography

• Kowalczyk-Kontowska J., Wieża Bismarcka w Okonku, [in:] “Kronika Wielkopolski, no. 2(118), 2006, pp. 120-124
• Łęcki W. [et al.], Wałcz, Złotów i okolice, guidebook, Poznań 1973, pp. 104-06.
• Mazurkiewicz M., Funkcje małych miasteczek i problemy ich rozwoju na przykładzie miast: Czarne, Lędyczek i Okonek, [in:] “Przegląd Zachodnio-Pomorski”, 1968, no. 1, pp. 95-119, 222.
• Miasta polskie w tysiącleciu, Vol. 1, ed. M. Siuchniński, Wrocław [etc.] 1965, pp. 588-89.
• Śmigielski A., Złotów, Poznań 1995, p. 57.