What to See in Wilhelmshaven - Top Sights and Attractions

Wasserturm Wilhelmshaven is a 42 meters tall landmark of Wilhelmshaven in Lower Saxony, Germany. The tower was built in the years of 1910-11 as the third water tower of Wilhelmshaven, and still functions as an important part of the town's water supply. It was originally constructed with a suspended drinking water storage element consisting of two alloyed steel chambers. Both chambers could contain between 800 and 1200 cubic meters of water.

The water container was revamped in 2007 during a working period of several months, and the whole tower including the foundation was reconstructed. After 100 years of operation the technique of the tower was outdated. Corrosion damages resulted in leaks of the inner connections. The old container was completely demounted during the reconstruction, and a new one made of stainless steel with a diameter of 15.90 (water level 8.75 meters) was installed. The new container has a water capability of 1750 cubic meters.^[2]

Botanical garden in Wilhelmshaven, Germany. The Botanischer Garten der Stadt Wilhelmshaven is a municipal botanical garden located at Gökerstraße 125, Wilhelmshaven, Lower Saxony, Germany. It is open daily in the warmer months; admission is free.

The garden was established in 1947 as a school garden. Its major collection represents typical plants of northern Germany, from environments including heath, dunes, forests, meadows, and ponds. Other outdoor collections include a medicinal garden, ornamental plants, and thematically arranged areas. Its greenhouses contain plants from the Mediterranean, tropics, and subtropics including coffee, cocoa, bananas, sugarcane, rice, carnivorous plants, succulents, epiphytic bromeliads and orchids, and Victoria cruziana.^[4]

The cemetery of honor in Wilhelmshaven is located on the edge of the Rüstringer Stadtpark and was established between 1912 and 1914 as a burial place for the naval garrison.

The cemetery of honor goes back to plans by the Hamburg horticultural architect Leberecht Migge, who designed it together with the city park. Many of the marines who died in World War I, especially those from the Battle of Skagerrak, were buried here. In the cemetery there are memorials and honorary monuments in memory of the dead who died on various warships: the battle cruiser Lützow, the tankers Deutschland and Admiral Graf Spee, the battleships Tirpitz and Scharnhorst, the destroyers Leberecht Maass and Max Schultz, the flak cruiser Medusa, as well as for the fallen submariners of both world wars.

There are also two graves of deceased Soviet prisoners of war in the cemetery.

The cemetery of honor has since been taken over by the city of Wilhelmshaven as a municipal cemetery.

Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven is a museum in Wilhelmshaven. It was opened in 1913 as the Kaiser-Friedrich-Kunsthalle. It was founded on the initiative of the then Chief of Naval Station of the North Sea, Admiral Friedrich Graf von Baudissin, and was intended to make fine art accessible to the inhabitants of the city with changing exhibitions. It has fulfilled this task since its existence.

After its destruction in World War II, the Kunsthalle moved from Viktoriastrasse to a new building on Adalbertplatz in 1968. The old building had been a victim of the bombing. The Wilhelmshaven architects Harms and Sommerfeld realized a matter-of-fact, sober building with elements of Brutalism, based on Bauhaus models, in which a great variety of exhibitions have been shown ever since. The first director after the war was the artist Siegfried Pagel, who also created the concrete relief of the Kunsthalle.