Gerickesteg
Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 13 ″ N , 13 ° 21 ′ 1 ″ E
| Gerickesteg | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| use | pedestrian | |
| Crossing of | Spree | |
| place |
Berlin district Moabit |
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| construction | Steel two-hinged arch bridge, strutless post framework | |
| overall length | about 70 m | |
| width | 5.0 m | |
| Longest span | 52 m | |
| building-costs | 133,000 marks | |
| start of building | 1914 | |
| completion | 1915 | |
| planner | Bruno Möhring | |
| location | ||
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The Gerickesteg is a pedestrian bridge over the Spree east of the Bellevue S-Bahn station . It serves mainly the access to the light rail from Moab residential area between Alt-Moabit and Spree River. The bridge was built in 1914/1915 based on a design by Bruno Möhring and, after being damaged in the Second World War, simply restored.
prehistory
With the construction of the light rail at the end of the 19th century, a four-track bridge over the Spree was built east of the Bellevue S-Bahn station . In the middle of the bridge, a public footpath was created to access the S-Bahn station from the northern side of the Spree, which was named Bellevuesteg . At that time it was popularly known as the “Buller Bridge” due to the noise of the trains passing over it. With increasing traffic loads on the light rail, damage to the railway bridge occurred and a reconstruction was necessary. This was carried out from April 1917 to December 1918 and ruled out any further joint use by pedestrians. In order to maintain the accessibility of the city station, a separate pedestrian bridge was planned and implemented before work on the city railway bridge began.
construction
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Bruno Möhring designed the pedestrian bridge as an arched bridge with crescent-shaped arched girders. In this way, a span of 52 meters could be achieved without intermediate supports that would hinder shipping. The five-meter-wide walkway was hung low into the arch, leaving a clearance of four meters for shipping. The bridge spans the Spree at right angles between the Heligoland and the Holsteiner Ufer.
The structures for stairs and abutments on both sides of the bridge were made of concrete and clad with dolomite porphyry and granite . The stair balustrades are raised like pillars on the bridge side and crowned with an Art Nouveau lantern. The sculptors Georg Roch and Hermann Feuerhahn designed the decorative jewelry in the form of masks on the parapets .
Construction on the bridge began in October 1913, and it opened on January 30, 1915 after a year, and the name Bellevuesteg was retained. The building costs amounted to around 133,000 marks (adjusted for purchasing power in today's currency: around 402,000 euros).
On May 31, 1920, the Bellevuesteg was renamed Gerickesteg. This happened on the occasion of an anniversary in honor of the Berlin merchant and city councilor Wilhelm Gericke (born January 19, 1838, † June 12, 1926). Because of his commitment to the development of Moabit and his services as a member of the Canal Deputation, the vernacular also called him "King of Moabit".
Damage and recovery
Like around 20 other bridges in Berlin, specialists from the Wehrmacht also blew up the Gerickesteg in the Second World War towards the end of the Battle of Berlin in order to hinder the advance of the Red Army . The southern end sank into the Spree, but remained intact and could be lifted in 1947. Major damage mainly affected the staircase structures. The complete restoration took place in 1949/1950 in a simplified form. The architectural decorations by Roch and Feuerhahn were not renewed and Möhring's Art Nouveau lanterns were replaced by simple lights. In 1987, the building was renovated to mark the 750th anniversary of Berlin .
A special feature is that the Gerickesteg has been illuminated with gas lamps since it was built in 1914/1915 . This applies to the four pylons on the two entrances and exits to the bridge as well as to the two pendant lights mounted on the footbridge. Most recently, all six lights were equipped with completely new gas lighting technology in December 2008. The gas is operated through a pipeline that is mounted on the bridge. The gas lights have been out of service since the end of 2010 due to a defective gas pipe, and in February 2011 they were even dismantled. The Senate Department for Urban Development is planning to provide the Gerickesteg with electric lighting, which should change the character of the bridge in such a way that the protection of historical monuments will be called into question. In the medium term, the Senate Administration wants to remove almost all Berlin gas lights.
literature
- Eckhard Thiemann, Dieter Desczyk, Horstpeter Metzing: Berlin and its bridges. Jaron Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89773073-1 , p. 116.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Julius Straube : Straube's overview plan of Berlin in a ratio of 1: 4000, sheet IV. C. Institute and map publishing house by Julius Straube, Berlin, 1908
- ↑ a b Eckhard Thiemann, Dieter Desczyk, Horstpeter Metzing: Berlin and his bridges , Jaron Verlag, Berlin 2003, p. 116, ISBN 3897730731
- ^ Kuhnke: The reconstruction of the land piers of the light rail bridge over the Spree at the Bellevue station in Berlin . In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung , Volume 40, Issue 73 (September 11, 1920), pp. 458–462
- ^ Fritz Hedde: Newer pedestrian bridges in the city of Berlin / The Bellevuesteg . In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung , vol. 35, issue 65 (August 14, 1915), pp. 429–432
- ↑ Landesarchiv Berlin Kerstin Bötticher: The First World War in Documents Source collection of the Landesarchiv Berlin. In: www.landesarchiv-berlin.de. Landesarchiv Berlin, 2017, accessed on January 21, 2018 .
- ↑ Historic gas lamps are disappearing from Mitte . In: Berliner Morgenpost , February 19, 2011; Retrieved February 25, 2011