The old Waisenbrücke Bridge
In January 1960, the East Berlin city administration began the demolition of the Waisenbrücke Bridge, and by June 1961, the bridge’s foundations had been removed. The historic construction, which had been visible from Fischerinsel and Mühlendamm, a river crossing that had connected the opposite banks of the Spree for centuries, was gone. One of the city’s central lifelines has been severed ever since.
Origins
After the horrors of the Thirty Years War, people wanted to better protect their towns with high walls and deep trenches. Therefore, in the late 1650’s, they began to expand the twin city of Berlin-Cölln, which was still rather mediaeval in character at that time, into a fortress town. There, where the moat in the east of the town flowed into the River Spree, a so-called Oberbaum [upper river barrier, literally: “upper tree”] was constructed over the Spree as an extension of the fortification wall. The Oberbaum was a wooden barrier which would prevent ships from passing and which would only be opened once the toll had been paid. However, the expansion of the “Neukölln am Wasser” district south of the Spree, which was part of Luisenstadt and not to be confused with today’s Neukölln district, soon made it necessary to construct a bridge which would connect it to the Alt-Berlin district, seeing as the existing Spree crossings at the time required long detours.
Its size and significance even equalled that of the Jannowitzbrücke Bridge, which was built just a few dozen metres upstream in 1822. Yet, time had taken its toll: The old wooden bridge had rotted to such an extent, both above and beneath the water, that, in 1832, it had to be completely demolished and rebuilt, once again using wood.
A new construction made of stone
Until the late 19th century, most of the bridges in Berlin were the property of the Prussian State which did little to maintain them. It was not until 1876 that the Berlin Magistrate was handed over responsibility for the mostly dilapidated constructions, which, by then, were no longer able to cope with the increasing demands of road traffic.The wide footpaths on both sides of the generously proportioned roadway tempted people to take a walk along the Waisenbrücke Bridge over the Spree or linger for a while on the semi-circular balconies, under the artistically decorated street lamps. From here, one could enjoy sweeping views of the river and the hustle and bustle at the harbour, all the way to the Alt-Berlin district, with its rooftops, towers and domes.
Between 1901 and 1907, the Märkisches Museum was being built on the southern side of the bridge, right on the Märkischer Platz square. Its architect Ludwig Hoffmann deliberately aligned the museum’s main entrance with the Waisenbrücke Bridge’s pedestrian path. With its proximity to the Jannowitzbrücke S-Bahn station, the Inselbrücke U-Bahn station (Märkisches Museum as of 1935) and the newly-erected commercial buildings surrounding Köllnischen Park and along Wallstraße, the once tranquil district surrounding the Waisenbrücke Bridge had now become a bustling commercial district.
In order to ward off the right-wing Freikorps and the government troops, whose soldiers were given the order by the Ministry of the Reichswehr to kill any armed person they came across, members of the Volksmarinedivision set up barricades on the Waisenbrücke Bridge. A postcard from the Deutsches Historisches Museum’s [German Historical Museum] collection documents a machine gun emplacement which was located on the bridge. After about two weeks of fierce fighting, the revolutionary forces were eventually defeated and the Marinehaus building was damaged by shelling. There is a plaque commemorates these dramatic events to this day.
Almost spared, yet still destroyed
Unlike many other structures in Berlin, the Waisenbrücke Bridge came through the bombing raids of the Second World War unscathed. However, as was the fate of most German bridges, it fell victim to the German demolition squads, who were destroying transport routes all over the city in order to hinder the advancing Red Army. While the Jannowitzbrücke Bridge, which had been newly rebuilt as a modern steel construction between 1927 and 1934, had completely sunk into the river, “only” the southern arch of the Waisenbrücke Bridge was blown up, while the rest remained intact. Shortly after Germany surrendered, the Soviets constructed a temporary bridge to replace the destroyed arch.
From 1949, the Trümmerbahn [rubble train] would cross over the temporary structure. The rubble from the devastated districts of Mitte and Friedrichshain was transported on tipper wagons and dumped from the bridge onto barges which lay afloat on the Spree. The reconstruction of the Waisenbrücke didn’t begin until 1952 and was completed in 1954, once the tracks for the Trümmerbahn had been cleared away. Nevertheless, on 26th January 1960, the newspaper “Der Morgen”, which was the mouthpiece of the GDR’s Liberal Democratic Party, wrote: “The bridge has been closed to vehicle traffic since yesterday.” The traffic was being redirected over the Jannowitzbrücke Bridge, which was rebuilt to its original size between 1952 and 1954. The Waisenbrücke Bridge’s days were numbered.
The Waisenbrücke Bridge today
At the location where the Waisenbrücke Bridge once stood, it’s only upon closer inspection that one can see any signs that the two sides of the Spree were once closely connected here: across from the Märkisches Museum, a sandstone-clad bridge stump surrounded by railings protrudes into the river – one of the two mighty abutments on which the Waisenbrücke stood on each bank. Overgrown with trees and furnished with benches, one can hardly make out that this outlying vantage point conceals the remains of what was once a much-used bridge.Downloads
Appeal of the Allianz Neue Waisenbrücke