Mülheimer Bridge
Coordinates: 50 ° 57 ′ 52 ″ N , 6 ° 59 ′ 43 ″ E
 Mülheimer Bridge
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| Convicted | Bundesstrasse 51 | |
| Subjugated | Rhine | |
| place | Cologne - Mülheim - Cologne- Niehl / Riehl | |
| construction | Suspension bridge with orthotropic deck girder | |
| overall length | 682.80 m | |
| width | 27.20 m | |
| Longest span | 315 m | |
| building-costs | 12.2 million DM | |
| start of building | October 13, 1949 | |
| opening | September 8, 1951 | |
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The Mülheimer Brücke is a suspension bridge over the Rhine and connects the Cologne districts of Mülheim and Riehl . It was the first bridge to be painted in the patina green color, which later became known as Cologne Bridge Green , and is the first bridge in Germany with an orthotropic deck .
Today's Mülheimer Brücke was opened in 1951; it is the third bridge in the same place. The first bridge was the Mülheimer Schiffbrücke , opened in 1888 , which was replaced in 1929 by a fake suspension bridge that was destroyed in World War II.
The Mülheim ship bridge (1888–1927)
Until 1927 Mülheim was connected by the Mülheim ship bridge with the Mülheim house on the left bank of the Rhine. The floating bridge was similar to the Deutz ship bridge, a construction made of wood that was placed on about 40 pontoons anchored in the Rhine. It replaced a ferry connection that had previously operated between the then city of Mülheim am Rhein and the city of Cologne. The new Rhine crossing was opened to traffic in 1888.
The first Mülheim bridge (1927–1944)
prehistory
With the incorporation agreement with the city of Mülheim on April 1, 1914, the city of Cologne committed to building a permanent bridge. Due to the First World War and the inflationary period, the first steps towards implementation were only taken much later.
A committee chaired by Hans Böckler and a jury appointed by him had selected the joint competition proposal for a monumental arched bridge with a span of 333.20 m from Peter Behrens , Friedrich Krupp AG and Franz Schlüter AG for the construction project . Supported by jury member Paul Bonatz , the then Mayor of Cologne , Konrad Adenauer , pleaded for a slimmer suspension bridge with suspension ropes from the Cologne-Mülheimer Carlswerk von Felten & Guilleaume , whose director, like Adenauer, belonged to the center faction in the city parliament of Cologne. Since Adenauer could not fall back on sufficient support from within his own ranks for this proposal, he convinced the politically opposing KPD faction of the idea of a suspension bridge. The violent disputes went down in the annals as the second Cologne bridge dispute with reference to the previous conflicts in the wake of the competition for the Deutz Bridge . They culminated on April 28, 1927 in a vote in the city council, in which the construction of a suspension bridge was decided with 47 to 36 votes.
Planning and construction
The start of construction on May 19, 1927, was followed by the closure of the Mülheim ship bridge shortly afterwards on June 20, 1927 and its dismantling. Mayor Konrad Adenauer opened the new suspension bridge on October 13, 1929, which was also used by the tram (see also the history of the Cologne tram ). The " Mülheimer Häuschen " restaurant had to give way for the construction of the new bridge .
construction
The building was designed as a fake suspension bridge based on a design developed by the Harkort company ( Georg Kapsch ) with City Planning Director Adolf Abel . The tensile forces of the suspension ropes were absorbed as compressive forces by the stiffened road girder. In this way, heavy anchor blocks could be avoided, which at the time were not considered feasible in the Cologne building site. In pictures of the old Mülheim suspension bridge, this type of construction can be recognized by the fact that the flanks run bluntly against the pylons. At that time it was the largest of all self-anchored suspension bridges with a mean span of 315 m.
During the Second World War , this first Mülheim bridge was destroyed by an air raid on October 14, 1944. The pylons were also bent over by the internal forces of this construction .
The bridge was already prepared to be blown up; this explosive was detonated by the bomb hit. In order to avoid further unintentional explosions of this type, for example, the Remagen bridge was ordered not to attach explosives to the bridge until the enemy had come closer than eight kilometers to the bridge. This order helped American troops capture the Remagen Bridge intact.
Data
- Location: river kilometer 691.9
- Weight: 14,800 tons
- Span: 315 meters
- Length: 682.80 meters
- Lane width: 17.20 meters
- Bike and footpaths: 2 × 5 meters
- Cost: around 10 million Reichsmarks
The post-war bridge (since 1951)
The new construction of the Mülheimer Brücke began on October 13, 1949 , based on a design by the Cologne architect Wilhelm Riphahn, with technical advice from Fritz Leonhardt . The steel constructor Walter Pelikan was also involved in the design and its training . The inauguration followed on September 8, 1951 again in the presence of Adenauer, who as Chancellor of the Federal Republic also opened the newly built Mülheim Bridge.
Since March 20, 2012, the two pylons and partly also the steel cables of the bridge have been illuminated by 112 energy-saving LED headlights.
The Mülheim Bridge is (as of January 2013) in need of considerable renovation. Due to the tight budget situation in the city of Cologne, the general renovation was postponed. The Mülheimer Brücke has been completely refurbished since 2018 and traffic restrictions vary depending on the construction phase.
construction
The new bridge uses the current pillars of the previous bridge and looks like the previous bridge. However, it was designed as a real suspension bridge, i.e. the ropes of the new bridge are anchored in the ground and the bridge girder no longer has to absorb the compressive forces of a fake suspension bridge. For this reason, an orthotropic plate was used as a bridge girder for the first time , so that it could be built particularly light and slim. In contrast to the previous bridge, the pylons are next to the deck girder, with the walkway running around the pylons.
extension
In 1976/77 the bridge decks were rebuilt with separate light rail tracks.
Data
- Location: river kilometer 691.9
- Weight: 5780 tons
- Span: 315 meters
- Length: 682.80 meters
- Width: 27.20 meters
- Cost: 12.2 million DM
literature
- Helmut Signon: Bridges in Cologne on the Rhine. First edition. Bachem, Cologne 1966
- City Conservator Cologne: Cologne: 85 Years of Monument Protection and Preservation, 1912-1997. Part 2: Texts from 1980 to 1997. Baches, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-7616-1388-1
- Walter Buschmann: The Cologne-Mülheimer Rheinbrücke, Rhenish industrial culture
- The new Cologne Bridge. Festive edition of the Kölnische Zeitung for the opening of the Rheinbrücke Köln-Mülheim on October 13, 1929. 8 pages with numerous illustrations and articles by different authors.
Web links
- Mülheimer Brücke - City of Cologne
- Extensive photo documentation from the construction of the bridge in 1951
- Pictures of the construction of the Mülheim bridge
Individual evidence
- ↑ It is legendary and cannot be proven that he persuaded the communists to use one of their arguments that there was not a single arch bridge in Leningrad . Ulrich Borsdorf: Hans Böckler - a historical leading figure of the German trade unions? Lecture at an event of the "History Discussion Group" of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation on February 20, 2001 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Hans Böckler's death.
- ↑ Roland May: Pontifex maximus. The architect Paul Bonatz and the bridges. Monsenstein and Vannerdat , Münster iW 2011, ISBN 978-3-86991-176-2 , pp. 207-209.
- ↑ www.bunkerarchaeologie.de
- ↑ geest-verlag.de ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Photo documentation "Mülheimer Brücke long since dilapidated". In: Kölnische Rundschau , section “Cologne”, accessed on January 8, 2013
- ↑ Press release of the City of Cologne on the general renovation of the Mülheimer Brücke from February 20, 2018
- ↑ Mülheimer Brücke in the traffic calendar of the city of Cologne
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The next bridge upstream: Zoobrücke |
Bridges over the Rhine |
The next bridge downstream: Leverkusen Rhine Bridge |