Emperor towers or Kaiser towers ( or Kaiserwarten) are monuments that were built up to 1918 in honour of the German emperors William I

William I, German Emperor

William I, also known as Wilhelm I , of the House of Hohenzollern was the King of Prussia and the first German Emperor .Under the leadership of William and his Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Prussia achieved the unification of Germany and the...

, Frederick III

Frederick III, German Emperor

Frederick III was German Emperor and King of Prussia for 99 days in 1888, the Year of the Three Emperors. Friedrich Wilhelm Nikolaus Karl known informally as Fritz, was the only son of Emperor William I and was raised in his family's tradition of military service...

 and Wilhelm II

William II, German Emperor

Wilhelm II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia, ruling the German Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia from 15 June 1888 to 9 November 1918. He was a grandson of the British Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs and princes of Europe...

 in the German Empire or for Emperor Franz Josef in Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

.

The construction of these towers was also intended to counter the so-called Bismarck

Bismarck

- People :* Bismarck family, a German noble family descending from Herebord von Bismarck* Otto von Bismarck , German statesman of the 19th century* Herbert von Bismarck , Secretary of State, son of Otto von Bismarck...

 cult which had resulted, for example, in the erection of hundreds of Bismarck towers and columns

Bismarck tower

Bismarck Towers are a unique genre of German monument, built to honour the ex-chancellor of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck. A total of 240 of these towers were built between German unification and the National Socialist takeover, i.e. between 1869 and 1934...

.

Kaiser towers in Germany

• Kaiser Tower on the Neunkircher Höhe
  Neunkircher Höhe
  The Neunkircher Höhe is the highest elevation of the Hessian part of the Odenwald. The mountain is located near the village Neunkirchen and is the origin of the rivers Modau, Gersprenz and Lauter....
  
   in the Odenwald
  Odenwald
  The Odenwald is a low mountain range in Hesse, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg in Germany.- Location :The Odenwald lies between the Upper Rhine Rift Valley with the Bergstraße and the Hessisches Ried in the west, the Main and the Bauland in the east, the Hanau-Seligenstadt Basin – a subbasin of...
  
  
• Kaiser Tower (Wernigerode)
  Kaiser Tower (Wernigerode)
  The Kaiser Tower is an observation tower standing on the 478 metre high hill of Armeleuteberg on the territory of the German town of Wernigerode. It was designed by the royal architect of the princes of Stolberg, Paul Kilburger, and financed and erected by a Wernigerode hotelier, Eduard Lührmann,...
  
   on the Armeleuteberg
  Armeleuteberg
  The Armeleuteberg is a 478 metre high hill south of Wernigerode in the district of Harz in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1902 the Kaiserturm, an observation tower, has stood on its summit...
  
   near Wernigerode
  Wernigerode
  Wernigerode is a town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until 2007, it was the capital of the district of Wernigerode. Its population was 35,500 in 1999....
  
  
• Kaiser Tower on the Steinberg near Goslar
  Goslar
  Goslar is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mines of Rammelsberg are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.-Geography:Goslar is situated at the...
  
  
• Kaiser Tower in Quedlinburg
  Quedlinburg
  Quedlinburg is a town located north of the Harz mountains, in the district of Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In 1994 the medieval court and the old town was set on the UNESCO world heritage list....
  
  , since converted into a residence
• Kaiser Tower in Hirschberg (Riesengebirge)
  Jelenia Góra
  ----Jelenia Góra is a city in Lower Silesia, south-western Poland. The name of the city means "deer mountain" in Polish, Czech and German. It is close to the Krkonoše mountain range running along the Polish-Czech border – ski resorts such as Karpacz and Szklarska Poręba can be found...
  
  
• Kaiser Tower near Leutenberg
  Leutenberg
  Leutenberg is a town in the district of Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated in the Thuringian Forest, 18 km southeast of Saalfeld.-References:...
  
   in Thuringia

• Kaiserwarte near Blankenburg (Harz), renamed the Wilhelm Raabe Tower
  Wilhelm Raabe Tower
  The Wilhelm Raabe Tower is one of the few surviving Kaiser towers . It is located on the Eichenberg hill near Blankenburg on the edge of the Harz Mountains of central Germany. It is owned by the Harz Club branch in Blankenburg....
  
  

Kaiser towers in Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

-Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 

• Kaiser Tower on the Nollendorfer Höhe, after 1918 renamed the Karl Weis Tower (Karl-Weis-Warte), later demolished