Long Bridge (Berlin-Köpenick)
Coordinates: 52 ° 26 ′ 40 ″ N , 13 ° 34 ′ 18 ″ E
| Long bridge | ||
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| use | Road traffic | |
| Convicted | Müggelheimer Strasse ( note ) | |
| Crossing of | Dahme | |
| place | Berlin-Koepenick | |
| construction | Arch bridge (three-span brick vault bridge ) | |
| overall length | 72.2 m | |
| width | 10.0 m (from 1933: 16.0 m; from 1998: 17.2 m) |
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| Longest span | 18.9 m + 18.7 m + 18.9 m | |
| Construction height | 0.94 m (carriageway slab, apex central arch) | |
| Clear height | 4.5 m for MW / 3.7 m for HW | |
| start of building | 1890 | |
| completion | 1892 | |
| planner | Gustav Tolkmitt | |
| location | ||
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Note: The adjacent steel temporary bridge from 1995/2008 also crosses Müggelheimer Strasse . |
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The Lange Brücke in the Berlin district of Köpenick is a road bridge over the Dahme . It represents an important traffic connection between the old town of Köpenick and the newer districts to the west and north-west. In the immediate vicinity of the bridge, on the right bank of the Dahme and south of the old town, is the castle island with the Köpenick castle .
Today's bridge was originally built in 1892 as a stone arch bridge - as a successor to earlier Dahmeüberwege, which were made of wood and whose existence is documented from the beginning of the 15th century. In the 1930s, traffic was adapted by means of a provisional widening using a "makeshift building"; In the late 1990s, the city administration had the bridge dismantled, completely refurbished and again widened with a modified construction. Since then, there has been a temporary steel bridge next to the historic bridge , which is still used today as a temporary measure. The historic stone bridge has been a listed building since 1992 .
For a long time, the Dahmebrücke was called the "Bridge of Sighs", which goes back to a legend about the cruel end of a pair of lovers from the Ascanian period (13th century). This bridge name and its origin are partly still known in Berlin today.
history
Earlier wooden bridges with hatches
Settlement of the area of today's district Berlin-Köpenick at the confluence of the Dahme into the Spree took place early. This is how the first simple bridges were built, as evidenced by a certificate from 1424 that the city of Köpenick was granted market rights. Among other things, Elector Friedrich I let it be known:
"In view of the poverty and the 'instability' at bridges, ditches, etc., in which his loyal citizens of Köpenick are, he wants to take care that the little town does not come into greater poverty and dilapidation."
The levying of bridge fees on land and on water later became a source of income for Köpenick.
On a copper engraving made by Caspar Merian in 1652 , a first pictorial representation of the dam bridge (crosses the Spree) and the long bridge (crosses the Dahme) still existing today is handed down. The long bridge can be seen there as a wooden yoke bridge without a railing and with a hinged middle section for the passage of the ships. There was a gatehouse on either side.
During the Seven Years' War , the Austrian general Andreas Hadik von Futak (1711–1790), who set out from Elsterwerda in the then Electoral Saxon town of Elsterwerda with 3,500 hussars towards militarily uncovered Berlin, collected as much war tax as possible on the way. However, the mayor of Köpenick, Georg Friedrich Cardinal von Widdern (1721–1804), managed to avoid the extortion of protection money from “Thousand Reichsdahler” as a “fire tax” for his city: He made the Long Bridge a defensive structure by whose middle part let open. The hussars already bivouacking on the other bank of the Dahme had to move on without having achieved anything. Under Hadik's contribution order of October 12, 1757, which Köpenick and other Brandenburg cities had received, Mayor Cardinal personally wrote his clearance note:
"By means of the lifting of the elevator bridge, General von Hadik was kept away, and he was not allowed into the city with his corps, nor did he receive a penny from the contribution required, but the city, thank God, was completely spared, which was noted down for notice . [...] "
Hadik had more success in his military action, which became known as the Berlin Hussar coup , shortly afterwards in Berlin. He held the Prussian capital for a day and "collected 215,000 thalers protection money from the local magistrate".
When Napoleon's troops withdrew from Berlin in 1813, they wanted to burn down the long bridge, which was still made of wood at the time, when they withdrew. The night before, however, the Köpenick citizens moistened the hay bale detonators already laid out by the French . They then only smoldered, but did not burn and the bridge was saved.
Stone Bridge (1892)
As a result of the growth of the city of Köpenick in the 19th century, both land traffic and excursion traffic by water increased sharply and the existing bridges over the Spree and Dahme increasingly proved to be obstacles. From 1890 the city administration provided sufficient money and construction capacity so that the two bridges could be rebuilt as stone structures and, above all, without flaps. The Potsdam hydraulic engineering inspector and building officer Gustav Tolkmitt (1847–1900) was commissioned with the planning and design , who later wrote the following:
“The required flow width was the same for both bridges, namely 54 m, and since the water levels also coincided exactly, both structures could have the same size and shape of the passage openings. Three openings of the same size and height were chosen, which are therefore all usable for shipping. As a result, he was greatly relieved that the previous waiting and pushing in front of the bridge had ceased, and even the sailors are quite satisfied with the new situation. "
The first stone Dahmebrücke in Köpenick was completed in 1892. The clinker brick arch bridge had three almost identical vaults from left and right, each 18.9 m and in the middle 18.7 m clear width. It had a length of around 73.0 m and a total width of 10.0 m. The foundation was carried out by means of a wooden pile foundation because of the boggy subsoil. The roadway was paved with stone and, in addition to the carriage traffic, also had to accommodate the Cöpenick horse railway . A cast-iron railing and tall iron bridge lights provided some decoration.
The historic stone bridge was placed under monument protection after the fall of the Wall in January 1992 .
Broadening through "makeshift construction" (1933)
Due to the high volume of traffic at this crossing, the bridge cross-section was provisionally widened from 10.0 m to 16.0 m in width in 1933. The Long Bridge remained intact during the Second World War . In April 1945 the Wehrmacht prepared to blow up the bridge in order to prevent the Red Army from advancing further at the end of the war. However, the Volkssturm man Karl Henkner did not carry out the order to blow up the Long Bridge, so that the Red Army shelling the old town of Köpenick, which otherwise would have been feared, did not take place. Due to the extensive effects of the Second World War and not least of all due to the “problems that a new bridge would cause at this point”, this “makeshift construction” lasted until the mid-1990s.
Temporary Bridge (1995)
When the historic bridge was to be renovated in the mid-1990s, a temporary bridge was built next to and north of the Long Bridge, which ensured the Dahme crossing during the construction period. So a two-piece, welded was steel - truss -construction with parallel belts out powerful profiles and lower side road made. The temporary overpass, which went into operation in 1995, was equipped with two lanes , a tram track and a pedestrian path . It was actually supposed to be dismantled after a few years, but has been preserved to this day to relieve traffic. In 2008 the temporary bridge was partially renewed.
Dismantling, complete renovation and widening (1998)
From 1995 to 1998 the stone bridge was completely repaired, which had become necessary for reasons of stability . The cost at that time was 8.5 million Deutschmarks . The bridge view was restored in its original form by dismantling the walkways on both sides, including the associated abutment extensions of the "makeshift building" from 1933. The entire masonry of the vaults, abutments and pillars was completely refurbished, with the filling of the vaults being excavated and renewed. The original shape was restored when the vaulted surfaces were designed with bright yellow or red clinker bricks . In addition, a broadening was m of the bridge cross-section to now 17.2, to which a cantilever on both sides Spann lightweight concrete plate was prepared and concreted.
Demolition (planned)
The Long Bridge was approved for demolition in mid-January 2020 by the Lower Monument Protection Authority of the Treptow-Köpenick District Office. The authority regrets what it sees as a "great loss". A replacement building should not be higher than the historic Long Bridge. It must also not have any coatings like the current temporary bridges. The visual axes from and to the old town, to the castle and the castle island as well as the Kietz will be restored. In order to accomplish the demolition, the temporary bridges will first be strengthened.
Today's bridge situation
The historic stone bridge from 1892, when expanded in 1998, has two lanes on the south side next to a sidewalk and serves the right-hand road traffic in the direction of Köpenick's old town. In addition, it has two more lanes on the north side, of which the inner one has a tram track and is currently used exclusively by the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), while the outer northern lane and a sidewalk at both ends are currently not connected to the rest of the street and are therefore unused. The "historic Long Bridge" crosses Müggelheimer Strasse over the Dahme.
The adjacent steel makeshift bridge from 1995 and 2008 is still in use because the historic bridge cannot accommodate all traffic. In addition to a pedestrian walkway, it has two lanes and a tram track, which are used for right-hand traffic in the direction of Berlin city center. The "Temporary Bridge Long Bridge" also crosses Müggelheimer Straße over the Dahme.
In the summer of 2012, the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment announced that the Lange Brücke was to be completely or partially rebuilt. However, the major construction project is currently still in the planning stage. In autumn 2017, the Senate Building Department announced that, in addition to other bridge and road construction measures, the new construction of the Long Bridge planned for 2018/19 had been postponed to later years.
At the beginning of June 2018, during tests on the northern temporary bridge, it was found that the load-bearing structure had reached a critical level of stability due to the steadily growing heavy traffic and that further measurements were required immediately, which is why 10 km / h was ordered on the bridge until June 8, 2018 were.
On January 15, 2020, the BERLINER WOCHE reported that the historic Long Bridge will be demolished and replaced by a new building. The building has already been removed from the list of monuments. A date for demolition and rebuilding has not yet been announced.
The legend of the "Bridge of Sighs"
According to an old legend, on the bridge over the Dahme at night time - according to some versions especially at the " witching hour " - "sometimes a heartbreaking sigh ", after which it was given the name "Bridge of Sighs" and retained it for centuries. After various narrative variations, one could see “a white veil floating” over the water between the fortress (later Köpenick Castle) and the Dahmebrücke at the same time as the “nightly sigh of anxiety” from the bridge .
A common version of this horror legend, which is contained in a similar version in Albert Burkhardt's collection of Märkische Sagen und Märchen , describes the events from the time of the Ascanians - who conquered the castle island with the castle around 1245 - as follows:
“A pretty princess from the Askanians is said to have lived in Köpenick Castle once, and she was eager to hunt. She fell in love with a handsome hunter who often visited her at the festival. In order not to be discovered, he took his way back through the river called Dahme and swam to the long bridge. He used to linger there a little longer and each time the princess's white veil waved a final greeting from the platform.
But the veil was to be the undoing of secret love. Because one night one of the princess's brothers saw the wave and a terrible vengeance was taken on both of them. As punishment for the disgrace she had inflicted, she had her sister walled up alive in the castle dungeon on the river bank , while the hunter was hung from a pillar on the bridge.
Since that time one has heard a long, long time every night a sigh of fear from the bridge and over the water between the fortress and the bridge one could see a white veil floating. That is why the long bridge that leads over the Dahme to the fortress was only called the 'Bridge of Sighs' back then. The lovers are said to have found peace only after a long hundred years, so that the name Bridge of Sighs gradually disappeared again. "
However, there is no real role model for the lovers from Ascan times. Whether the spooky horror phenomenon of the "sigh" actually occurred on the (earlier) Dahmebrücke or what rational cause it was based on cannot be proven.
literature
to the history of the bridge
- Gustav Tolkmitt : Arched Bridges in Coepenick. In: Zeitschrift für Bauwesen , (42) 1892, Sp. 355–372 ( online access to the article archive at the ZLB ).
- Eckhard Thiemann, Dieter Desczyk, Horstpeter Metzing: Berlin and its bridges. Jaron, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89773-073-1 , p. 105 ff.
to the legend
- The Bridge of Sighs. In: Albert Burkhardt: Märkische sagas and fairy tales. Illustrations by Ralf Lehmann. 2nd, modified edition. Altberliner Verlag Groszer, Berlin 1965, p. 248.
- The Bridge of Sighs. In: The Stralauer Fischzug. Legends, stories and customs from old Berlin. Ed .: Stephanie and Joachim Marzahn. Verlag Neues Leben, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-355-00326-3 .
- The Bridge of Sighs. In: The robber barons' conspiracy. Legends and fairy tales from Köpenick and the Müggel landscape. Selected and retold by Ekkehard R. Bader. Bock & Kübler, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-86155-032-6 .
- The Bridge of Sighs. In: Köpenicker legends. As told by Claus-Dieter Sprink. With drawings by Peter Schulz. Heimatmuseum Köpenick, Berlin 1998 ( online ).
- A tragic love. In: Berlin. Legends and stories. Selected and newly communicated by Siegfried Armin Neumann. With photos by Ulf Böttcher. Demmler Verlag, Schwerin 2004, ISBN 3-910150-64-0 , p. 77 ( online ).
Web links
- Long bridge (with picture / data and section ) - Brief description of the current bridge and the bridge renovation from 1995–1998, at the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment
- Entry in the Berlin State Monument List
- Köpenick - Long Bridge - aerial photo on Fotos-aus-der-Luft.de
- Köpenick - Long Bridge - Panorama photo on Kubische-Panoramen.de
- The Bridge of Sighs - version of the saga on the website of the motzbuch bookstore in Berlin-Schöneberg
Individual evidence
- ^ Eckhard Thiemann, Dieter Desczyk, Horstpeter Metzing: Berlin and his bridges. Jaron, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89773-073-1 , p. 105 ff.
- ↑ a b Martin Küster: The mayor, the general and the money . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 10, 2000, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 14-15 ( luise-berlin.de - Cardinal: Not a penny !).
- ↑ Quoted in: Martin Küster: The Mayor, the General and the Money . In: Berlin monthly magazine ( Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein ) . Issue 10, 2000, ISSN 0944-5560 , p. 15, 26 ( luise-berlin.de - Cardinal: No Heller! Footnote 3).
- ↑ a b c Uwe Steinschek: Scary Series 2: Is it haunted on the Bridge of Sighs? BZ , November 12, 2009, accessed October 20, 2012 .
- ↑ From an article in the Zeitschrift für Bauwesen , 1892. Quoted in: Eckhard Thiemann, Dieter Desczyk, Horstpeter Metzing: Berlin and his bridges. Jaron, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89773-073-1 , p. 106 ff.
- ↑ a b c Bridge construction 1990–1999 → Long Bridge. Brief description of the current bridge and the bridge renovation from 1995–1998, from the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development and the Environment , accessed on October 20, 2012 .
- ↑ Oliver Igel : Inauguration of the memorial plaque "Alide Ratsch". (No longer available online.) In: District mayor Oliver Igel on site - 2011. Berlin.de, November 30, 2011, archived from the original on June 20, 2012 ; Retrieved October 20, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c Peter Neumann: Long bridge becomes major construction site. Berliner Zeitung , July 28, 2012, accessed on October 20, 2012 .
- ↑ Monument Office approves the demolition of the Long Bridge. Retrieved January 20, 2020 .
- ↑ Klaus Kurpjuweit: Berlin construction materials list: The renovation of the bridges has to wait. In: tagesspiegel.de . Retrieved September 1, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Legends from Treptow-Köpenick → The Bridge of Sighs. Collection of old and new legends of Berlin on the website of the motzbuch bookstore , owner Wilfried Hepperle, Berlin-Schöneberg, Motzstraße, accessed on October 20, 2012 .
