An A Tower (German: A-Turm) was a standard type of communication tower that was built in all provinces (Bezirke) of East Germany during the 1950s. These towers were 25 metres high, their roofs were equipped with a host of antennas and were painted green. Several had wooden cladding.
German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol in Italy, the German-speaking Community of Belgium, and Liechtenstein. It is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg and a co-official language in the Opole Voivodeship in Poland. The languages which are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch: Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German/Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, and Yiddish. There are also strong similarities in vocabulary with Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, although those belong to the North Germanic group. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English.
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic, was a country that existed from 1949 to 1990, when the eastern portion of Germany was part of the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. Commonly described as a communist state in English usage, it described itself as a socialist "workers' and peasants' state." It consisted of territory that was administered and occupied by Soviet forces at the end of World War II — the Soviet occupation zone of the Potsdam Agreement, bounded on the east by the Oder–Neisse line. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin but did not include it; as a result, West Berlin remained outside the jurisdiction of the GDR.
In the second half of the 1950s, the Central Committee (ZK) of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) began building its own communications system, the Richtfunknetz der Partei (RFN) which was totally independent of all other communication networks. There were two levels of network:
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany, often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the governing Marxist–Leninist political party of the German Democratic Republic from the country's foundation in October 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. The party was established in April 1946.
In telecommunication, a communications system or communication system is a collection of individual communications networks, transmission systems, relay stations, tributary stations, and data terminal equipment (DTE) usually capable of interconnection and interoperation to form an integrated whole. The components of a communications system serve a common purpose, are technically compatible, use common procedures, respond to controls, and operate in union.
Network Level 1: a network of microwave links from the ZK in Berlin to all SED provincial headquarters and
Network Level 2: from the provincial HQs to all county HQs.
Their construction was prompted by the events of the popular uprising in East Germany on 17 June 1953. In all provinces of the GDR, apart from the urban conurbations, microwave communication centres (BzRFuZ) were established, initially in old barracks and, later, in the towers.
All BzRFuZ were given the designation "A1" prefixed by the respective provincial code number, for example, the Totenstein near Karl-Marx-Stadt was designated as 14A1. In the mid-1960s, the NVA joined the system with their own narrowband radio relay network. Both systems were only communication networks over which telephone and teleprinter circuits were operated. The towers in these networks were not used for surveillance.
Totenstein is a mountain of Saxony, southeastern Germany.
Due to electronic eavesdropping of these networks by communications intelligence elements of the Bundeswehr and other NATO forces during the 1960s, the use of both networks was technically very restricted. The special radio service of the Stasi may have used the same towers for training purposes. The area around the A towers of the narrowband radio relay network was a military out-of-bounds area and was guarded against unauthorized access. Trespassing and the taking of photographs were punishable.
The Ministry for State Security or State Security Service, commonly known as the Stasi, was the official state security service of the German Democratic Republic. It has been described as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies ever to have existed. The Stasi was headquartered in East Berlin, with an extensive complex in Berlin-Lichtenberg and several smaller facilities throughout the city. The Stasi motto was Schild und Schwert der Partei, referring to the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany and also echoing a theme of the KGB, the Soviet counterpart and close partner, with respect to its own ruling party, the CPSU. Erich Mielke was the Stasi's longest-serving chief, in power for thirty-two of the GDR's forty years of existence.
After the Wende the buildings were initially taken over by the Federal Ministry of Post and Telecommunications. Some of them were used by providers of mobile networks. Later they were developed or converted but continued to be used as telecommunications facilities.
Locations
The following list shows a selection of the various locations of these towers.
The Volksmarine was the naval force of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1956 to 1990. The Volksmarine was one of the service branches of the National People's Army, and primarily performed a coastal defence role along the GDR's Baltic Sea coastline and territorial waters.
A wireless network is a computer network that uses wireless data connections between network nodes.
In telecommunications, a repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it. Repeaters are used to extend transmissions so that the signal can cover longer distances or be received on the other side of an obstruction.
Communications in Vietnam include the use of telephones, radio, television and Internet.
Telecommunications towers in the United Kingdom are operated mainly by Arqiva. Arqiva operates the transmitters for UK terrestrial TV and most radio broadcasting, both analogue and digital. BT also operates a number of telecommunications towers in the UK.
The Liberal Democratic Party of Germany was a political party in East Germany. Like the other allied bloc parties of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the National Front, it had 52 representatives in the People's Chamber.
The National Front of the German Democratic Republic was an alliance of political parties (Blockpartei) and mass organizations in the German Democratic Republic, controlled by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which stood in elections to the East German parliament, the Volkskammer.
The National People's Army was the armed forces of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1956 to 1990.
Telstra Tower is a telecommunications tower and lookout that is situated above the summit of Black Mountain in Australia's capital city of Canberra. It is named after Australia's largest telecommunications company, Telstra Corporation, which owns and operates the tower. Rising 195.2 metres (640 ft) above the mountain summit, it is a landmark in Canberra and offers panoramic views of the city and its surrounding countryside from an indoor observation deck and two outdoor viewing platforms.
The Combat Groups of the Working Class was a paramilitary organization in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1953 to 1989.
Friedrich "Fritz" Ebert Jr. was a German politician and East German communist official, the son of Germany's first President Friedrich Ebert.
Military communications or military signals involve all aspects of communications, or conveyance of information, by armed forces. Military communications span from pre-history to the present. The earliest military communications were delivered by runners. Later, communications progressed to visual and audible signals, and then advanced into the electronic age. Examples from Jane's Military Communications include text, audio, facsimile, tactical ground-based communications, terrestrial microwave, tropospheric scatter, naval, satellite communications systems and equipment, surveillance and signal analysis, encryption and security and direction-finding and jamming.
Sutton Common BT Tower is a 72-metre (238-foot) radio tower built of reinforced concrete at Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. Sutton Common was originally conceived as part of the 1950s 'Backbone' chain designed to provide the UK and NATO with survivable communications during nuclear war.
Microwave transmission is the transmission of information by microwave radio waves. Although an experimental 40-mile (64 km) microwave telecommunication link across the English Channel was demonstrated in 1931, the development of radar in World War II provided the technology for practical exploitation of microwave communication. In the 1950s, large transcontinental microwave relay networks, consisting of chains of repeater stations linked by line-of-sight beams of microwaves were built in Europe and America to relay long distance telephone traffic and television programs between cities. Communication satellites which transferred data between ground stations by microwaves took over much long distance traffic in the 1960s. In recent years, there has been an explosive increase in use of the microwave spectrum by new telecommunication technologies such as wireless networks, and direct-broadcast satellites which broadcast television and radio directly into consumers' homes.
The National Defense Council of the German Democratic Republic was created in 1960 as the supreme state body of the GDR in charge of national defense matters, including mobilization planning. The NVR held the supreme command of the GDR's armed forces, and the NVR's chairman was considered the GDR's commander-in-chief.
Telecommunications in Djibouti falls under the authority of the Ministry of Communication & Culture.
The Ministry of National Defense was the chief administrative arm of the East German National People's Army. The MND was modeled on the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union. The headquarters of the Ministry was in Strausberg near East Berlin. The Guard Regiment Hugo Eberlein provided security and guard services to the Ministry. The Ministry also had its own publishing house, Military publishing house of the German Democratic Republic.
The Schneekopf near Gehlberg in the Thuringian county of Ilm-Kreis is 978 m above sea level (NHN) and thus the second highest peak in the Thuringian Forest after its western neighbour, the Großer Beerberg. The Adler Saddle between them is only about 59.4 metres lower than the two summits. To the east some distance away is its subpeak, the Sachsenstein, to the south are the Teufelskreise and Fichtenkopf. The Goldlauterberg further south marks the transition to the mountain of Großer Finsterberg.
The C band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies ranging from 4.0 to 8.0 gigahertz (GHz); however, this definition is the one used by radar manufacturers and users, not necessarily by microwave radio telecommunications users. The C band is used for many satellite communications transmissions, some Wi-Fi devices, some cordless telephones as well as some surveillance and weather radar systems.
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