The Mouse Tower, or Mäuseturm, is a stone tower on a small island in the Rhine, outside Bingen am Rhein, Germany. The Romans were the first to build a structure on the site. The structure fell and was rebuilt many times. Hatto II, Archbishop of Mainz, restored the tower in 968. In 1298 it became an official customs collection tower.
A French army destroyed it in 1689. It was rebuilt in 1855 as a Prussian signal tower.
The name comes from a folk tale about Hatto II, a cruel ruler said to have demanded tolls from passing ships. The source calls the legend unsubstantiated. One suggested etymology links the name to Maut, the German word for toll. Robert Southey wrote a poem about the legend, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow alludes to it in The Children's Hour.
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