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The second-tallest structure in Europe? What about Longwave radio mast Hellissandur? -- Ghirla | talk 11:49, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

Many radio masts are much taller than these buildings, however this plainly refers to towers that are either free standing or are habitable to a certain extent. 137.94.80.118 16:48, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

i've been born in (east-)berlin and lived there half of my live, and never ever have heard anything like this "pope's revenge" stuff. what's the use of having such "informations" in an encyclopedia?

It could have been known in West Berlin only. I've heard it many times. The source is probably a translation from German wikipedia, where it was also contested by East Berliners, but confirmed by West Berliners. Anorak2 20:59, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

the first half of Berlins never heard any "urban legends" concerning their buildings, the other one did. don't blame others that you didn't heard of it. -- BLueFiSH  ✉ 09:56, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Well I am coming from eastern Germany myself (lived there until the end of the GDR) and I can remember my own parents laughing several times about "St. Ulbrichts Gedächtniskathedrale" ( = St. Ulbricht's commemoration cathedral) and "Johannes Rache" (Johannes' [Pope] revenge) when the GDR still existed (must have been in the time between 1986 - 1989; I was born in 1980). This is maybe due to the fact that my parents were engaged in church that time quite a lot so that people with another background maybe have entirely missed such things. ;-) Arnomane 21:16, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

The UL "Revenge of the pope" is pretty much a fake. Berlin is a mainly protestant/atheistic city, there is nearly no relation to the pope. So only very few people from outside might have had the idea of naming it "Revenge of pope". Its an UL and it does not belong in an enzyclopedia. The Name "St. walter" is much more common, at least I heard that before. -- 217.83.8.224 16:14, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

i agree with you. i was born in berlin too and live here and i have never heard about something like pope's revenge oder St. Ulbricht —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.215.95.19 ( talk) 22:22, 14 November 2007 (UTC)

Much the same goes for "Telespargel", a name which - according to the entry in de.wiki - was concocted as an "approved nickname" by the GDR authorities and which seems to persist only in the lore of tour guides. But better to handle such apocrypha critically than to omit them altogether. -- Humphrey20020 ( talk) 12:28, 20 November 2008 (UTC)

Both nicknames are real and not "urban legends". "Telespargel" might have been an "official" term, but that doesn't make it an UL, besides the border between "official" and "authentic" is blurry. "The Pope's Revenge" is real as it was really used by people in Berlin, maybe only West Berlin but then nobody claimed otherwhise. Anorak2 ( talk) 20:23, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

sry dude you are talking bs... I am from Berlin and nobody here calls the Fernsehturm "Telespargel" or "Die Rache des Papstes" or "St. Ulbricht"... and it is INsignificant if we talk about East or West. The article would be correct if they add that only tourists and outsiders use such ULs - but it is almost conceited to write something about us Berliners thats sooo undeniable wrong! --The Kraut —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.88.117.31 ( talk) 15:16, 3 August 2010 (UTC)

I've added a quote from Ronald Reagan in his Tear down this wall speech. When I was listening to a recording of the speech, I immediately checked Wikipedia for a picture, and I was glad to find it. He misidentified the steel-tiled sphere as "glass," but clearly cited this phenomenon. I believe it is noteworthy, because the speech is at least as famous as the tower. Here is the entire thematic section in which that quote appears:

In these four decades, as I have said, you Berliners have built a great city. You've done so in spite of threats -- the Soviet attempts to impose the East-mark, the blockade. Today the city thrives in spite of the challenges implicit in the very presence of this wall. What keeps you here? Certainly there's a great deal to be said for your fortitude, for your defiant courage. But I believe there's something deeper, something that involves Berlin's whole look and feel and way of life -- not mere sentiment. No one could live long in Berlin without being completely disabused of illusions. Something, instead, that has seen the difficulties of life in Berlin but chose to accept them, that continues to build this good and proud city in contrast to a surrounding totalitarian presence, that refuses to release human energies or aspirations, something that speaks with a powerful voice of affirmation, that says "yes" to this city, yes to the future, yes to freedom. In a word, I would submit that what keeps you in Berlin -- is "love." Love both profound and abiding.

Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West. The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront.

Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the television tower at Alexanderplatz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower's one major flaw: treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind. Yet even today when the sun strikes that sphere, that sphere that towers over all Berlin, the light makes the sign of the cross. There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed.

I am not going to add a reciprocal link to Tear down this wall, but others are free to do so. BlueNight 20:57, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

I guess Ronnie wasn't aware the sphere was made of West German steel...  ProhibitOnions  ^(T) 21:29, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

and designed/built (largely) by Swedish egineers ? 213.40.115.69 ( talk) 10:21, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Sorry to say, but imo one very important issue is missing in this article, the German nick name of this famous building: 'Alex' everybody in Gemany, but espcially in Berlin calls it like that. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.22.254.15 ( talk) 18:51, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

It would be great if someone could make this article come up when "TV Tower" is searched. I would, but do not know how to do so. Levi P. 04:57, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

"Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the television tower at Alexanderplatz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower's one major flaw: treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind. Yet even today when the sun strikes that sphere, that sphere that towers over all Berlin, the light makes the sign of the cross. There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed."

I find it strange how a specifically cruel execution device can be seen as a symbol of love. JIP | Talk 12:30, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

There was a huge amount of images on this page for such a short article. I hope no-one minds, but i moved some of the less important ones to a gallery at the end. ← κεηηε∂γ ^{( talk) ( contribs)} 10:09, 28 March 2008 (UTC)

This article talk page was automatically added with {{ WikiProject Food and drink}} banner as it falls under Category:Restaurants or one of its subcategories. If you find this addition an error, Kindly undo the changes and update the inappropriate categories if needed. You can find the related request for tagging here -- TinucherianBot ( talk) 09:26, 2 July 2008 (UTC)

I am using Safari, and the image in the history section overlaps the text. I do not know how to fix it or what the problem could be. Cheers! Scapler ( talk) 01:52, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Why is a Transmitter in Berlin carrying English commercial stations (ITV1/Channel 4/Digital One) is this some kind of mistake ??? 86.112.254.3 ( talk) 20:57, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

German Wikipedia agrees with the article, but they're allergic to citing their sources, hence why it's not sourced here. The same block also carries BFBS radio, making me think it's for British forces in the area. Xenon54 / talk / 21:31, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

A recent programme on BBC radio mentioned that immediately after reunification there was a lot of consideration given by the city authorities to demolishing the tower as part of a wider architectural "purge" of all things GDR. Thankfully sanity prevailed (to some degree anyway) or maybe they decided it would cost too much ??? 213.40.117.87 ( talk) 22:33, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Why did the GDR authorities decide Berlin needed such an elaborate tower? While both West and East wanted their TV signals covering as much of the other sides territory as possible surely it would have made more sense for such a thing to be built in West Berlin or along both sides of the inner German border It was hardly necessary to build such a big tower to ensure coverage of West Berlin? Or was the construction entirely reasons of visual propaganda/prestige rather than technical considerations? 213.40.117.87 ( talk) 22:33, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Fernsehturm redirected here. This was a bit weird, as "Fernsehturm" means simply "Television Tower" in German - and the residents of any city that has one will refer to "their" tower simply as "Fernsehturm".

While it's fine to simply use "Fernsehturm" in Berlin-related articles, the Berlin tower is not "the" Fernsehturm in all of Germany.

I've changed all the links to Fernsehturm to go directly to Fernsehturm Berlin and made the first a disambiguation page. I hope that this will cause the least confusion. Averell ( talk) 13:22, 18 December 2009 (UTC)

While the translation into German is true, this is the English Wikipedia, so we go by how native English speakers interpret the word Fernsehturm. I would think that the majority would think of the one in Berlin, but there are still other important TV towers in Germany, so I agree with the disambiguation in the case. Welshleprechaun ( talk) 17:34, 18 December 2009 (UTC)

Since this is english wikipedia, I can't understand why it couldn't be 'Berlin TV Tower' or 'TV Tower Berlin', since the tower hasn't actually got a name, nothing but the TV Tower in german? Telespargel would be a different thing, I think. 82.141.117.133 ( talk) 00:51, 27 November 2010 (UTC)

I have lived in Berlin all my life, and NOBODY has EVER said "Alex Tower"! 93.219.135.247 ( talk) 16:09, 15 March 2014 (UTC)