The Berlin TV Tower, known in German as the Fernsehturm Berlin, rises above Alexanderplatz in the heart of the city, built between 1965 and 1969 by the government of the German Democratic Republic as both a functioning broadcasting facility and a monumental symbol of socialist East Berlin. Reaching 368.03 meters including its antenna, it remains the tallest structure in Germany and one of the tallest in the European Union. Its steel sphere near the top, which houses a rotating restaurant and observation deck, catches sunlight in a way that produces a bright cross-shaped reflection, a phenomenon East Berliners nicknamed the Pope's Revenge for its resemblance to a crucifix appearing over a city where church crosses had been removed from public view. Since German reunification the tower has become a widely recognized symbol of Berlin itself rather than of its original political purpose.
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