Dreilinden checkpoint and Teltow Canal Bridge

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Area of ​​the control point with flagpole system
Side view of the bridge

The Dreilinden checkpoint and the Teltow Canal Bridge directly to the north are forerunners of the Bravo checkpoint and relics of a route between the AVUS and the Berliner Ring that existed until 1969 . On the border between West Berlin and the GDR , a checkpoint for transit traffic on West Berlin territory was set up there in the early 1950s . In 1969 the autobahn was relocated, which had previously crossed the border between West Berlin and the GDR several times. The remnants of the West Berlin checkpoint, including the Berlin part of the Teltow Canal Bridge, are on the Berlin list of monuments, the northern part of the bridge is an architectural monument in the municipality of Kleinmachnow .

location

Checkpoint (marked in red, bottom left), old motorway (light green band) and the current A 115. The former state border is shown in dark green.

The checkpoint is in the Berlin area of Albrechts Teerofen , part of the Berlin-Wannsee district . Albrechts Teerofen is only connected to the rest of Berlin by a narrow strip from the west of Kohlhasenbrück ; the areas bordering north, south and east are in the state of Brandenburg and belonged to the GDR from 1949 to 1990. To the north the border runs in the middle of the Teltow Canal , which the bridge crosses at canal kilometer 5.45.

The route of the old autobahn runs from the Berlin city limits on Königsweg to the north-west of today's federal autobahn 115, initially on Brandenburg territory (today the municipality of Kleinmachnow) between the border and the route of the main line, the first Prussian railway Berlin-Potsdam , which opened in 1838 . In the area of ​​the Dreilinden settlement, the motorway bends south, crosses under the main line and leads over the Teltow Canal into the narrow Berlin area strip near Albrechts Teerofen. The Dreilinden checkpoint belonging to West Berlin was located here. After crossing the city limits again, the old route in the Brandenburg area meets the current motorway again.

history

Use as a motorway

The structure of the bridge, which was restored between 1950 and 1954, has since changed the construction of the deck on the former border line
Bilingual notice board at the Allied checkpoint

The Reichsautobahn 51, which extended the AVUS from Berlin to the southwest, went into operation with the bridge over the Teltow Canal in 1940. In 1945 the bridge was probably blown up by the Wehrmacht . A temporary emergency bridge was built after the Second World War . As a result of the division of Germany, checkpoints for transit traffic were created . First, on April 1, 1948, the Soviet side set up the Nowawes checkpoint (after the old name of the Potsdam district of Babelsberg ). In 1950 the border crossing was named Drewitz .

On West Berlin territory there was the Dreilinden checkpoint for the German authorities and the Bravo checkpoint for the Western Allies . The northern half of the bridge, located on GDR territory, was restored in 1950–1951, the southern half followed in 1953–1954 with the help of funds from the Marshall Plan . The motto of the reconstruction was “The bridge to you! East and West Germany belong together ”.

Between Albrechts Teerofen and the city limits on Königsweg, the route ran on GDR territory without any checkpoints in this area. With the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, GDR security systems were expanded in the area of ​​the motorway. The border fortifications with protective fences and death strips ran southeast of the motorway route.

Relocation of the motorway

Wall on the border with the GDR on the old motorway north of the checkpoint (1988)

The GDR was very interested in abandoning the long section through its territory between the checkpoint and the border and until 1969 moved the motorway to a route that bypassed the West Berlin corner near Albrechts Teerofen. The GDR press only informed about this in - with the exception of the headlines - identical short reports:

“As ADN learns from the press office of the Ministry of Transport of the GDR, the construction work to speed up the traffic flow on the motorway between the Drewitz driveway and the GDR's state border with West Berlin is about to be completed. - The commissioning of the motorway section with an efficient border crossing point is planned for mid-October. "

The previous checkpoints at Dreilinden and Drewitz have been replaced by new checkpoints north and south of the Königsweg. The new checkpoints Dreilinden on West Berlin and Drewitz on the GDR side kept the names of the old ones, although the new GDR border crossing was no longer in Drewitz, but in Kleinmachnow. The allied crossing was still called Checkpoint Bravo .

Wall segments on the bridge, in the background the border crossing point of the Teltow Canal (1988)

On the old border bridge, the GDR set up wall segments at the border. Otherwise, the GDR border fortifications remained in their old location southeast of the old autobahn, so that the route was cordoned off from the GDR area, but not from the West Berlin area. The old motorway was preserved and ran in a strip of no man's land that was not used economically by either side. Especially west of the route in the direction of Kohlhasenbrück, the strip was several hundred meters wide.

Campsite on the old motorway route (1988)

On the Berlin part of the bridge, a campsite was located on the former checkpoint area. In 1971 most of the buildings at the control center were demolished; the rest stop building remained. In order to prevent unauthorized vehicles from driving on the bridge and the border, a barrier was built on the West Berlin side.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall , the section of the wall on the motorway bridge was also dismantled; the old motorway route and the bridge became accessible again. In the 1990s, the old autobahn on GDR territory was used at times as a film set, including for the television series Alarm für Cobra 11 . For this purpose, new road markings were made. In 1999/2000, the surface of the motorway was removed as a renaturation measure for the three-lane expansion of the A 115. Other structural relics such as the bridge over the motorway over the route of the cemetery railway and the bridge over the Stahnsdorfer Damm over the old motorway were removed.

In 2004 the campsite closed on the site of the previous checkpoint. In 2006 the Brandenburg part of the bridge was also placed under monument protection. At times, the access to the gate at the Sperrgraben was closed for security reasons and the crossing over the bridge was no longer possible. After protests, the Berlin Senate released the bridge again in August 2006. In 2005, the site of the control point was auctioned off by telephone to an anonymous bidder for a minimum of 45,000 euros. The area is shown in the zoning plan as "green space / forest area".

Efforts to lead the Berlin Wall Trail over the motorway bridge and part of the old route have so far (as of September 2016) been unsuccessful. However, the section is touched by the side route, the "Kleinmachnower Mauerweg".

buildings

Roadway on the bridge
Service station building
Vehicle barrier ditch

Monument protection

The control point and the Berlin part of the Teltow Canal Bridge are on the list of monuments of the State of Berlin as a whole. Specifically, the monument entry includes the bridge, the plateau of the checkpoint, the service station building and the vehicle barrier ditch in Berlin. The northern part of the bridge is on the list of monuments of the Potsdam-Mittelmark district .

The Berlin monument list entry honors the control point as “probably the only facility from the early days of German division that has been preserved, albeit greatly reduced” and reminds of a border regime from “before and in the first years after the Wall was built”. In the justification of the Brandenburg State Office for the Preservation of Monuments for the northern part of the bridge it says: "The bridge is important in terms of building and traffic history, and is also an impressive document of the history of German division".

bridge

The bridge is a solid wall girder construction with concrete abutments. Due to the topography of the area, not only the canal but also the southern foreland is bridged. The central pillar stands on the south bank of the canal. The two roads are to hump plates , which are supported by four lying on the central pillar main beams with cross members. The road surface has largely been preserved in the area of ​​the bridge and the control point, as has some of the road markings.

Checkpoint and rest stop

The control point is located on the southern part of the bridge, so that the control systems were built on a raised plateau west of the roadway. The actual control buildings are no longer preserved, but the lane markings and the sidewalks as well as a three-mast flag system for the flags of the Allies are still there.

The Dreilinden service station building in the area of ​​the former control systems on the west side of the motorway has also been preserved. The building is a timber frame construction on a solid base with a gable roof. Its core is the canteen building for truck drivers and checkpoint employees, which opened in 1952 and which has been expanded several times. It was designed by the architect Fritz von the building group of the state tax office. The last expansion stage comes from the architect Wolfgang Bürgel. After the checkpoint was closed, it was used as the campsite's restaurant; it has been empty since it was closed in 2004.

Barrier trench

The motor vehicle lock-up ditch on the West Berlin side between the former checkpoint and the canal is also listed. It is also secured by a fence with a door for pedestrians.

More remains of the old motorway

The pavement of the old motorway route in the no man's land between the canal and the new motorway was preserved for around three kilometers until the 1990s. It was then removed, but the route can still be seen. The most striking structure in this area is the overpass of the main railway line over the motorway. The gravel of the route that has not been used since 1945 is also still there. While the railway line has two tracks, the bridge is designed for additional tracks that were planned in the 1930s primarily for freight traffic.

Web links

Commons : Dreilinden control point and Teltow Canal Bridge  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Order at the zone boundary. Additional provision to the regime on the demarcation line and on the connecting routes between the Soviet occupation zone and the western occupation zones of Germany. In: Neues Deutschland , April 1, 1948.
  2. a b c d e f Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
  3. ^ Motorway section near Drewitz before completion. In: Neues Deutschland , September 19, 1969.
    Construction work on the motorway about to be completed. In: Berliner Zeitung , September 19, 1969.
    Date: mid-October. In: Neue Zeit , September 19, 1969.
  4. a b c Old bridge reopened. Berlin Senate clears the Wall Trail again. In: Potsdam Latest News , August 12, 2006.
  5. ^ Claus-Dieter Steyer: Secret about the border barrack - five years ago. In: Tagesspiegel , September 17, 2010.
  6. Information board on site
  7. 16.9 . / Kleinmachnower Mauerweg . Article of Potsdamer Neuesten Nachrichten , September 16, 2009 on the TeltowPark website, accessed on September 20, 2016.

Coordinates: 52 ° 23 ′ 47.5 ″  N , 13 ° 10 ′ 6 ″  E