Glue tunnel
The Gleimtunnel is an underpass in the north of Berlin . Via Gleimstrasse - named after the poet Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim - it connects the Gesundbrunnen district ( Mitte district ) with the Prenzlauer Berg district ( Pankow district ) and thus the Brunnenviertel with the Gleimviertel . It was built as a level crossing structure for road traffic and railway systems (freight station of the Berlin Northern Railway ).
description
The Gleimtunnel is not a tunnel in the mining sense. Rather, it is an underpass 130 meters long and 23 meters wide, consisting of steel track superstructures supported by 78 cast-iron Hartung columns . Due to its location in the restricted border area after the Wall was built in 1961 until 1990, the building is still in its relatively original state. Most of the pillars still have the capitals that have already been lost on the pillars of the Yorckbrücken or removed as part of traffic safety measures .
Via the Gleimtunnel, the feeder tracks for the Berlin Northern Railway, coming from the north, ran parallel to Schwedter Strasse to Bernauer Strasse , where they ended in a terminus, the so-called Nordbahnhof (later Eberswalder Strasse freight station ). The eastern part of this former railway site near the Max-Schmeling-Halle and the stadium in the Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark on the former parade ground is now part of the Mauerpark .
history
From the north station on the corner of Bernauer and Schwedter Strasse, rail traffic on the Berlin Northern Railway began in 1877, initially to Neubrandenburg (later to Stralsund ). From the beginning, however, with the exception of the period between 1892 and 1898, passenger traffic ran to the Szczecin station and the north station became a freight station.
The embankment was backfilled and the railway overpass over Gleimstraße was built from 1903/1904 onwards by the civil engineer Zabinski. Between 1908 and 1911 the Gleim tunnel was rebuilt and expanded. It was an important link for many workers from the residential areas in Prenzlauer Berg to the factories in Wedding, such as the AEG on Brunnenstrasse.
The Gleimtunnel got its name on November 9th, 1911 after the road that runs through it. During the Battle of Berlin in April 1945 the Gleimtunnel and the neighboring Falkplatz were fiercely contested. The Gleimstrasse was recaptured several times between the Russian and German sides. The Falkplatz served as an emergency cemetery. The bodies were reburied in June 1945. The freight yard above the tunnel and further south was renamed from Berlin Nordbahnhof to Berlin Eberswalder Strasse in 1950 .
After the Berlin Wall was built in 1961, the Gleimtunnel was impassable until 1989 in front of what was then the border area of the GDR . The eastern exit was blocked by the wall. The freight train traffic over the Gleimtunnel steadily decreased and was finally stopped with the closure of the freight station Eberswalder Strasse by the Deutsche Reichsbahn on July 11, 1985. When the border was moved in 1988, an 80-meter-wide strip came west of Schwedter Strasse and thus also the easternmost section of the Gleim tunnel to the East Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg . The Gleimtunnel had previously been completely located in the West Berlin district of Wedding . In September 1990 the Gleimtunnel was initially reopened to pedestrian traffic.
After extensive renovation work on the tunnel ceiling, the passage was reopened to car traffic in October 1993. There were extensive protests by residents against this opening, but they were in vain. The children's farm, which has also been required since the beginning of the 1990s, was created northeast of the Gleim tunnel, but this area is to be released for use as living space.
construction
Seen from the west, the Gleim tunnel is divided into the area of a steel girder grid and four individual steel track bridges in the east. The western girder grid can also be divided into four structurally independent groups. Two of these groups are trapezoidal and have different numbers of pendulum supports. The structure thus follows the widening of the track system from the circular railway in the north to the end of the station in the south. Specifically, it looks like this from the west:
- Grating group 1: 6 pendulum supports on the north side, 7 pendulum supports on the south side
- Grating group 2: 5 pendulum supports on the north side, 5 pendulum supports on the south side
- Grating group 3: 7 pendulum supports on the north side, 7 pendulum supports on the south side
- Grating group 4: 12 pendulum supports on the north side, 13 pendulum supports on the south side
- Single bridge (three-span girder) 1: 2 pendulum supports on the north side, 2 pendulum supports on the south side
- Single bridge (three-span girder) 2: 2 pendulum supports on the north side, 2 pendulum supports on the south side
- Single bridge (three-span girder) 3: 2 pendulum supports on the north side, 2 pendulum supports on the south side
- Single bridge (three-span girder) 4: 2 pendulum supports on the north side, 2 pendulum supports on the south side
Due to the two trapezoidal grating groups, the Gleimtunnel has 78 pendulum supports.
The transitions between these groups of girder grids and the individual bridges are covered so that the impression of a coherent bridge tunnel is created.
present
The Gleimtunnel represents an important west-east connection in the Berlin road network. As part of Gleimstraße, it connects Brunnenstraße near Gesundbrunnen with Schönhauser Allee .
Although the maximum speed in the entire course of Gleimstrasse and thus also in the tunnel is 30 km / h, the tunnel is very busy, especially in the morning and evening. The road surface in the Gleimtunnel consists of cobblestones . It is only sparsely lit and - like other tunnels - must be driven with the lights switched on. Separated by guard rails, there are footpaths and bike paths on both sides. The maximum height for buses and trucks is 3.80 meters. Despite its passability, the Gleimtunnel not only separates two districts, but also different lifestyles, due to its darkness and massive dimensions. While there are practically no shops or restaurants on the western side of the Gleimtunnel , to the east of it there are diverse and extensive restaurants, shops with opening times until 10 p.m. and a traditional cinema.
As the eastern part of the Gleimtunnel building was not allowed to be entered, it separated the Mauerpark, located on the eastern part of the former railway site, into a southern and northern part. A residents' initiative has been campaigning for years to build a lightweight bridge over this part of the Gleim tunnel that can be used by pedestrians and cyclists. A provisional crossing option has been available since August 2008; the Mauerpark is no longer divided. The western part of the former railway site, used commercially by various small businesses, is connected by a road above the tunnel.
In the summer of 2002, a temporary art project as a light installation titled Light Helpers , created by Sven Kalden, was opened on both sides of the footpaths and bike paths . The lamps and motion detectors installed at that time were dismantled after around two years of operation.
The lamps were part of the light installation by artist Christian Paschedag. From September 2007, the tunnel was shrouded in red and blue light with this installation. The electricity for this project is financed with donations. The installation has now been dismantled.
The Gleimtunnel is a listed building . Along with the Yorckbrücken, it is the last major railway bridge structure in Berlin from around 1900, which has been completely preserved in its original design to this day. Such structures shaped the cityscape of Berlin in many places , but were replaced by new buildings as part of modernization measures.
Due to a dispute about the expansion of the immediately adjacent Mauerpark, on which the investor Vivico Real Estate wants to build a residential area, after considerable differences of opinion between the citizens' initiative network BIN-Berlin and the building city council of Berlin-Mitte Ephraim Gothe, a compromise solution is to relocate the building area to one Considering terrain north of the Gleim tunnel. However, half of the listed Gleim tunnel would have to be demolished for this. However, this is vehemently rejected by all political parties in the Pankow district and all citizens' initiatives.
From 2007 to 2013, the Gleimtunnel served once a year as the venue for the Gleimtunnel party , which takes place on October 2nd . This multicultural and free event took place under the motto of crossing borders - the meeting of East and West - the meeting of two different neighborhoods, as well as the common celebration on the day of German unity . From 8 p.m. on October 2, the passage was closed to motorized traffic. Dancing people gathered to oriental beats and electro music. The Gleimtunnel Party was organized by the Intercultural Encounters project and financially supported by the Socially Integrative City program.
During a storm on July 27, 2016, the Gleimtunnel was flooded after heavy rainfall, causing some parked cars to float up and partially wedged into one another. The tunnel was then closed until further notice. Ambiguities in ownership and responsibilities delayed the repair and reopening. On January 13, 2017, the tunnel was opened to car traffic again, pedestrians and cyclists were able to pass again beforehand. From January 2019 to April 2020, the tunnel was again closed to car traffic.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ New Germany , August 7, 1990.
- ^ Decision on Mauerpark of the district office in the middle. (PDF; 19 kB) (No longer available online.) 2012, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved August 23, 2012 .
- ↑ alex: Gleimsteg. Friends of the Mauerpark e. V., 2007, accessed July 5, 2008 .
- ↑ Christian von Lessen: Building a bridge in the Mauerpark . In: Der Tagesspiegel , August 12, 2008.
- ↑ Light helper. (PDF; 676 kB) (No longer available online.) 2002, archived from the original on January 14, 2005 ; Retrieved July 5, 2008 .
- ↑ Uwe Aulich: Mitte is looking for a new solution to the Mauerpark . In: Berliner Zeitung , December 8, 2009.
- ↑ Uwe Aulich: Sharp criticism of the Mauerpark plan - citizens' initiatives pass thousands of objections . In: Berliner Zeitung , September 24, 2010.
- ↑ Storm in Berlin: reopening of the Gleim tunnel not in sight. In: Berliner Zeitung . July 28, 2016, accessed July 30, 2016 .
- ↑ Klaus Kurpjuweit: Nobody wants to be the owner of the Gleimtunnel. In: tagesspiegel.de. Retrieved August 2, 2016 .
- ↑ News in brief - Railway . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . No. 2 , 2017, p. 32 .
- ↑ Closed to car traffic until March 2020 - Gleimtunnel opening is postponed. In: Der Tagesspiegel , December 16, 2019.
- ↑ Gleimtunnel reopened for cars . Website of the city of Berlin, April 2, 2020.
Coordinates: 52 ° 32 ′ 47 " N , 13 ° 24 ′ 1" E