File:Lascar Fernsehturm (Television tower) (4471645489).jpg

English: The Fernsehturm ("television tower") is a television tower in the city centre of Berlin, Germany. This well-known landmark, close to Alexanderplatz, was constructed between 1965 and 1969 by the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). The GDR administration intended it as a symbol of Berlin, which it remains today, as it is easily visible throughout the central and some suburban districts of Berlin. The original total height of the tower was 365 metres (1198 feet), but it rose to 368 m (1207 ft) after the installation of a new antenna in the 1990s. The Fernsehturm is the fourth tallest freestanding structure in Europe, after Moscow's Ostankino Tower, the Kiev TV Tower and the Riga Radio and TV Tower. There is a visitor platform and a rotating restaurant in the middle of the sphere. The visitor platform is at a height of about 204 m (669 ft) above the ground and visibility can reach 42 km (26 miles) on a clear day. The restaurant, which rotates once every 30 minutes[2], is a few metres above the visitors platform (originally it turned once per hour; the speed was later doubled following the tower's late 1990s renovation). Inside the shaft are two lifts that shuttle visitors up to the sphere of the tower within 40 seconds. It is not accessible by wheelchair. To mark the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, for which the final match was played in the Berlin Olympic Stadium, the sphere was decorated as a football with magenta-coloured pentagons, reflecting the corporate colour of World Cup sponsor and owner of the Fernsehturm, Deutsche Telekom. Owing to its suggestive shape, the tower is sometimes referred to as "Telespargel" (TV asparagus), although this nickname is virtually never used by Berliners themselves [Wikipedia.org]