The best running trails in Wulfener Bruchwiesen

Beginner friendly

The moated castle is now a retirement home. The adjacent castle park is in poor condition.

The former Akazienteich seaside resort is now a lost place. It used to be very popular. People met here to swim, permanent campers had their pitches, and it was also a popular holiday camp for tents. Unfortunately, the water quality continued to deteriorate. For a time, the area was also used for parties and open-air events with fireworks. The owners then changed frequently. The last renovation of the outdoor area took place after the Elbe floods in 2013. Since then, unfortunately, things have only gone downhill, and the last permanent campers disappeared. Now everything is abandoned and run down.

Visible from afar

Invites you to refresh yourself 😎

A pump house, five deep wells, a transformer station, and the pipelines for drinking water distribution were built. The 58-meter-high tower, which clearly towers above its surroundings, has several parallels to the tower in Bobbau. They are both square, and their exteriors are structured by pilaster strips and cornices. Both towers use a reinforced concrete skeleton construction, with only the spaces between them (compartments) lined with bricks. Both towers also almost completely conceal the elevated tank, which in this case can hold 200 cubic meters of water. The tank floor protrudes only minimally from the eleven by eleven meter floor plan.[4] A significant difference, however, is the number of windows (123 in total) and the number of floors, as the Aken water tower has significantly more visible floors than the Bobbauer one. The Aken tower is also unplastered, has a pyramidal roof with numerous skylights, and dispenses with expressionist details, which are typical of the contemporary towers in Halle and Bobbau. To the outside observer, it appears like an observation tower, as a window gallery is located directly below the roof.[3] The tower can most easily be attributed to the New Objectivity or Neues Bauen movement, which was significantly influenced by the Bauhaus—located in neighboring Dessau since 1925. The water tower is a listed building and is registered in the register of monuments under the number 094 06000.[5] Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasserturm_Aken

The first plan for the construction of a water tower in the city on the Elbe dates back to 1905. Further unsuccessful attempts followed in 1914 and 1921, so the population continued to rely on public and private wells. However, in 1924, a hot summer caused several wells to dry up, and testing of the remaining ones revealed poor quality and did not meet hygiene standards. Subsequently, on September 14, 1925, the city council passed a resolution to create a central water supply, which the city council finally approved on September 26, 1926.[2] Thus, between 1927 and 1928, Aken finally received a new water tower, at the same time as other surrounding towns (e.g., the Bobbau water tower from 1926 to 1927, the Gräfenhainichen water tower from 1927 to 1928, and the South (Halle) water tower from 1927 to 1928). Construction began on July 7, 1927, and the water tower was commissioned on February 2, 1928. In 1934, the newly constructed IG Farben housing estate (later the Didier Works) on the eastern edge of Aken ("Amsel-Wald-Siedlung") was connected by pipelines.[2] The "Waterworks II" was built at the Akazienteich (Acacia Pond) between 1958 and 1959, primarily to meet the needs of agriculture (vegetable cultivation). It also helped supply drinking water to Trebbichau (a district of Micheln, Osternienburger Land municipality), Osternienburg, and other surrounding villages. However, the connection to Aken's drinking water network was not established until 1988 and 1989. Additionally, wells were drilled in the city and surrounding area to supply individual units as needed, for example, by the Aken Magnesite Works in 1965 and 1978.[2] From 1992 to 1994, the Aken Public Utilities (Stadtwerke Aken) were formed through the gradual acquisition of these waterworks. However, the individual facilities soon became redundant due to declining drinking water demand, as the Aken-Ost waterworks alone was sufficient to meet this demand (approximately 4,000,000 cubic meters of water in 1989, then reduced to 280,000 cubic meters of water per year). Nevertheless, the decision was made to retain them. Starting in 1994, the water tower was renovated because steel girders had rusted through and the roof allowed pigeons to access the water basin. Since the renovation was completed in 2004, the water tower has served solely as a water reservoir and pressure equalization tank. Since then, the tower has also been used for company conferences and as a radio station for telephone, fire, and police.[3][2] Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasserturm_Aken

It is now a steakhouse. But the view of the Elbe is wonderful here too.