Göltzschtalbrücke
| Göltzschtalbrücke | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| use | Rail transport | |
| Convicted |
Leipzig – Hof railway line ( Saxony-Franconia main line ) |
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| Crossing of | Göltzschtal | |
| place |
Reichenbach in Vogtland , Netzschkau Saxony
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|
| construction | Arch bridge | |
| overall length | 574 m | |
| width | 7.93-23 m | |
| Number of openings | 29 (on the top floor) | |
| Clear width | 11.34–14.16 m (from bottom to top), upper central arch 30.87 m | |
| height | 78 m | |
| start of building | May 31, 1846 | |
| opening | July 15, 1851 | |
| planner | Johann Andreas Schubert | |
| location | ||
| Coordinates | 50 ° 37 '21 " N , 12 ° 14' 37" E | |
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The Göltzschtalbrücke in the Saxon Vogtland district is the largest brick bridge in the world. The viaduct with a total of 98 sheets is regarded as landmarks of the Vogt contiguous and spans two tracks on the railway yard Leipzig the valley of Göltzsch between locations Reichenbach in Vogt country (district Mylau ) and Netzsckau .
Together with the similar but smaller Elstertal Bridge , the Saxon-Bavarian Railway Company began building the 78-meter-high arched bridge in 1846 . In the following year, the Saxon-Bavarian State Railroad took over the construction and completed both bridges on July 15, 1851 at the same time. This makes them one of the oldest testimonies to the history of the railways in Germany .
The bridge gave its name to the Mylau stop station, which opened in 1895 and was renamed Göltzschtalbrücke station in 1903 . Two branch lines ended there, coming from Reichenbach Oberer Bahnhof and Lengenfeld (Vogtland) .
history
Planning and construction
During the construction of the Leipzig – Hof railway line , which runs from Leipzig via Plauen and Hof to Nuremberg as the Saxony-Franconian main line, one of the greatest challenges had to be overcome in the Göltzsch valley . Since the Saxon-Bavarian Railway Company had little money at its disposal, an attempt was made on January 27, 1845 by means of a competition in all major German magazines with prize money of 1000 thalers to find a cheap way to build the bridge. 81 suggestions were received, but none of them could prove by means of static calculations to be able to cope with the loads of the planned rail traffic. The prize money was then divided into four proposals, but none of them actually realized.
- Competition proposals
Three-story design by Wilhelm F. Götze
Design with wide arches, wooden construction and brick pillars
The head of the examination commission, Professor Johann Andreas Schubert , then, taking into account his own experience with static calculations, especially during the construction of the viaduct in Leubnitz, which was completed in the summer of 1845, himself designed a possible solution and also used individual suggestions from the suggestions received. This made the bridge the first statically calculated bridge in the world. The planner envisaged bricks as the main building material - which was very unusual at the time - because there were large deposits of clay in the region and bricks could therefore be procured cheaply and quickly. He only planned to use granite in a few particularly heavily used areas .
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The foundation stone was laid on May 31, 1846. After the start of construction, the planning had to be changed because some technical difficulties arose. Among other things, the found ground in the valley was not as firm as previously assumed, which is why the originally planned even arches were replaced by a central and much larger arch according to a design by chief engineer Robert Wilke.
The Göltzschtalbrücke was an unusual major construction site for its time. 50,000 bricks in the unusual Dresden format = 11 3 ⁄ 4 ″ × 5 3 ⁄ 4 ″ × 2 3 ⁄ 4 ″ (in Saxon inches = 2.36 cm; this corresponds to 27.73 cm × 13.57 cm) were used for the construction every day × 6.49 cm) fired by almost 20 brickworks along the railway line. The scaffolding consumed 23,000 trees, others speak of 230,000 tree trunks. A total of 1736 workers were employed in the construction. 31 workers died in accidents during construction. The bridge was inaugurated on July 15, 1851 in the presence of Prince Albert of Saxony , and it was opened to general traffic on July 16, 1851. Since its completion, the Göltzschtal Bridge was the highest railway bridge in the world; it is considered the world's largest brick bridge.
“The chief engineer Major Wilken handed the rift of the Göltzschthalbrücke over to Prince Albert, who handed it over to State Minister Behr , who in turn handed it to the director of the Saxon-Baier State Railroad, Government Councilor Schill, whereupon State Minister Behr expressed his feelings for the King of Saxony in an uplifting manner and those present raised threefold cheers for the king, reverberating in the mountains. To the sound of the music and the gunfire and the cheering of the crowds pouring in from all sides, the train crossed the bridge and , after about 20 minutes past the Herlasgrün stop , reached the Elsterthalbrücke, where it was also, as well as on the all the way, there was no lack of joyful greetings. Immediately after crossing this last bridge, a new stop was made, near a point which affords the most splendid view of the beautiful surroundings of the Elsterthal and on which the king has already lingered several times with particular pleasure, hence the name of the Friedrich August stone leads. Here, in the same way as with the Göltzschthalbrücke, the handing over of the crack of the Elsterthalbrücke, whereupon Prince Albert, on behalf of the king, expressed his thanks with gracious words to those who had now been active in the now completed work and the government councilor Schill the insignia of the Comthur cross , the Major Wilken and Hofrath Hoffmann (the former director of the railway) presented the Knight's Cross and the departmental engineers Kell and Thost with the Small Cross of the Order of Merit. Government councilor Schill then spoke about the importance of the now completed building, mentioning that the Göltzschthal bridging required 275,000 cubic cells and 26 million blocks of bricks, the Elsterthal bridging 119,000 cubic cells and 11½ million blocks of bricks. Minister of State Behr drew attention to the blessing of the Most High in uplifting words, whereupon the ceremony ended with the blowing off of the melody: 'Now all thanks to God'. Shortly afterwards the train arrived at Plauen train station at around 10½ o'clock amid festive cheers, where the communal guard of this city was posted. "
Involved people
- Johann Andreas Schubert (1808–1870) - head of the examination commission, design of the bridge and calculation of the statics
- Senior engineer Robert Wilke (1804–1889) - implementation planning and site management
- Engineer Ferdinand Dost (1810–1888) - site manager
- Pharmacist and chemist Heinrich Carl - mortar development
- up to 1736 workers at the same time, 31 of whom lost their lives while the bridge was being built
Another story
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In 1930 the roadway was widened with the help of a new reinforced concrete roadway and provided with a parapet.
The demolition planned by the Wehrmacht in the last days of the Second World War did not take place.
The brickwork was renovated from 1955 to 1958, and smaller work such as the installation of sheet steel covers was carried out until 1977.
Current
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The Göltzschtalbrücke is now part of the so-called Saxony-Franconia Magistrale . It allows tilting technology trains to travel the winding route at up to 160 km / h, otherwise at 120 km / h.
Signposted paths wind along the bridge, on which the size of the building can be experienced. Until 2013, there was a tethered balloon near the bridge that could rise to a height of 150 meters. From there, the view extended to the nearby Netzschkau Castle and Mylau Castle . The balloon operation, which had ceased in mid-August 2007, was resumed in July 2011 and is now at a standstill again (as of 2015). A resumption of operations is currently not planned. There are two beer gardens at the foot of the bridge.
The open space in front of the bridge is partially used for open-air events such as Philharmonic Rock, Rock for a colorful Vogtland, etc. The bridge offers an impressive backdrop, especially when it is illuminated in the evenings.
The bridge is notorious because in its 150-year history, people have repeatedly committed suicide by jumping into the depths. In August 2001, three young people from nearby Reichenbach in Vogtland fell to their deaths. The documentary Teuflische Spiele , released in 2002, shows the lives of the bereaved friends and their attempts to understand what happened. After eight suicides in eight months in 2002, the bridge is now under increased surveillance by the federal police.
In the years 2006 to 2008 a new access system for maintenance work was built. The DB Netz invested 2.2 million euros.
In June 2009 the Federal Chamber of Engineers declared the bridge to be the second historical landmark of civil engineering after the Niederfinow ship lift (2007) .
In the course of the electrification of the Reichenbach – Hof section, the bridge could only be used on a single track from mid-2010 to early 2012. As part of the work, a new track support structure was installed to increase the clear width between the railings from 9.0 meters to 10.6 meters, which consisted of 650 semi-precast reinforced concrete parts. The 22 catenary masts were arranged in the pillar axes and emphasized by designed pulpits. To avoid snow drifts in winter, a railing filled with grating elements was erected, which, when viewed from a distance, gives the impression of a closed parapet. A work and protective scaffold up to 78 meters high and weighing 800 tons was installed for the construction work.
In July 2020, the city council of the large district town of Reichenbach in the Vogtland unanimously decided to apply for the Göltzschtal bridge as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . It would be the third world heritage site in the Free State of Saxony after the Erzgebirge mining region and the Fürst-Pückler-Park Bad Muskau
View from the captive balloon
Technical specifications
| height | 78 m in partly 4 floors with 98 vaults | |
| length | 574 m with 29 openings, largest clear width of an arch 30.87 m |
|
| width | superstructure |
|
| fourth floor of arches | 7.93 m | |
| below | 23 m, 76 transverse vaults | |
| Number of bricks | 26,021,000 | |
| Sand consumption | 17,089 m³ | |
|
Volume of the masonry |
Brick masonry | 71,671 m³ (52%) |
| Ashlar masonry | 48,261 m³ (36%) | |
| Quarry stone masonry | 15,745 m³ (12%) | |
| total | 135,676 m³ | |
| building-costs | approx. 2.2 million thalers (6.6 million gold marks ) |
|
Varia
- The beer bottle labels of the Sternquell brewery currently (as of April 2021) show a picture of the Göltzschtal bridge (which is not mentioned by name) - and thus confirm the fame of this landmark of the Vogtland.
See also
literature
- Hans-Jürgen Barteld: Göltzschtal viaduct under current. In: Railway magazine. Vol. 49, No. 8, 2011, ISSN 0342-1902 , pp. 36-38.
- Peter Beyer : The construction of the Göltzschtal- and Elstertalbrücke 1846 to 1851. Its relations to the productive forces and the environment in the Saxon Vogtland and its neighboring areas. In: Sächsische Heimatblätter . Vol. 30, Issue 1, 1984, pp. 1-16.
- Peter Beyer: The creation of the railway connection between Saxony-Bavaria with the large bridges in Göltzsch- and Elstertal 1836-1851. In: Sächsische Heimatblätter. Vol. 47, Issue 3, 2001, pp. 139-155.
- Peter Beyer, Jürgen Stritzke: The Göltzschtalbrücke (= historical landmark of civil engineering in Germany. Vol. 2). Federal Chamber of Engineers, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-941867-00-0 .
- Friedrich Kohl: Description of the Göltzsch and Elsterthal bridges in Voigtland, Saxony, as well as the Britannia tubular bridge and the chain bridge over the same arm in England and the inclined plane in Baiern , published by August Schröter, Plauen 1854 ( link to the digitized version )
Movie
- The wonder of the Göltzschtal. Documentary, Germany, 2017, 29:45 min., Script and director: Stephan Heise, production: MDR , series: Der Osten - Discover where you live , first broadcast: January 9, 2018 on MDR, synopsis by MDR, online video available until January 9, 2019.
Web links
- www.goeltzschtalbruecke.de - private homepage with pictures and information about the bridge
- Video Goeltzschtalbruecke - video of the renovation and electrification of the bridge
- Göltzschtalbrücke. In: Structurae
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Peter Beyer, Jürgen Stritzke: The Göltzschtalbrücke (= historical landmark of civil engineering in Germany. Vol. 2). Federal Chamber of Engineers, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-941867-00-0 , pp. 66–67.
- ↑ Uwe Mühlhausen: Leubnitzer Viadukt has a big sister. The 172 meter long structure served as a model for the construction of the Göltzschtal bridge in Vogtland. In: erzgebirge.de , 2010.
- ↑ The laying of the foundation stone for the Göltzschthal Bridge. In: Illustrirte Zeitung , June 27, 1846, p. 2 (online at ANNO ).
- ↑ a b Wilfried Rettig: The railways in Vogtland. Volume 2: secondary and narrow-gauge lines, railway systems, accidents and anecdotes. EK-Verlag, Freiburg (Breisgau) 2002, ISBN 3-88255-687-0 .
- ^ Karl-Eugen Kurrer : History of structural engineering. Corrected reprint. Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-433-01641-0 , pp. 50-52.
- ^ DB Museum (Ed.): A Century Under Steam: The Railway in Germany 1835-1919 (= history of the railway in Germany . Volume 1 ). Nuremberg 2005, ISBN 3-9807652-1-0 , p. 50 .
- ↑ Daily news. In: foreigners-sheet of the imperial and royal capital Vienna / foreigner-sheet and tag-news of the imperial and royal capital Vienna / foreigner-sheet / foreigner-sheet with vedette / foreigner-sheet with military supplement Die Vedette , July 18th 1851, p. 2 (online at ANNO ).
- ↑ Notice. In: Leipziger Zeitung , July 15, 1851, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
- ^ Kingdom of Saxony. In: Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung , July 17, 1851, p. 3 (online at ANNO ).
- ^ Title for Göltzschtalbrücke. In: n-tv .de , June 24, 2009.
- ↑ The Göltzschtalbrücke on Wahrzeichen.ingenieurbaukunst.de
- ↑ DB Mobility Logistics AG (publisher): Starting signal for electrification of the Reichenbach – Hof line: construction work will begin on July 10, 2010 . Press release from July 1, 2010.
- ↑ Electrification Reichenbach – Hof . In: DB ProjektBau GmbH (Ed.): Infrastructure projects 2014: Building at Deutsche Bahn . DVV Media Group / Eurailpress, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-87154-505-4 , p. 52-53 .
- ↑ Göltzschtalbrücke: application for UNESCO world cultural heritage decided. In: MDR. July 6, 2020, accessed July 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Hans-Jürgen Barteld: Göltzschtalviadukt energized. In: Railway magazine. Vol. 49, No. 8, 2011, pp. 36-38, here p. 38.