Schluetersteg
Coordinates: 52 ° 31 ′ 13 ″ N , 13 ° 23 ′ 6 ″ E
| Schluetersteg | ||
|---|---|---|
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| use | pedestrian | |
| Crossing of | Spree | |
| place | Mitte district | |
| construction | riveted iron truss bridge | |
| overall length | 50.0 m | |
| width | 4.0 m | |
| Longest span | 50.0 m | |
| Construction height | around 5 m | |
| Clear height | 5.0 m | |
| completion | 1890 | |
| planner | Otto Stahn | |
| closure | 1945, destroyed and remnants removed | |
| location | ||
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The Schlüter bridge was a pedestrian bridge over the Spree in direct proximity to the southwest Friedrichstrasse station in Berlin district of Mitte . It connected the Schiffbauerdamm on the north bank with Neustadtische Kirchstrasse on the south bank. The bridge was completed in 1890 based on a design by Otto Stahn and named after the sculptor and architect Andreas Schlueter . The reason for the construction of the bridge was the market hall IV , which opened on May 3, 1886, on Dorotheenstrasse, which not only supplied the residents of Dorotheenstadt but also those of Friedrich-Wilhelm-Stadt with food. The new bridge saved market hall visitors from Friedrich-Wilhelm-Stadt the detour via the Weidendammer Bridge or the Marschall Bridge .
Building history and construction
The four-meter-wide pavement, covered with wooden planks, was 50 meters long and rose slightly from the ends of the bridge towards the middle, allowing a passage height of five meters. It hung in a wrought-iron lens support - half-timbered construction (also called fish-belly support because of its shape ), which in turn was supported on both banks on pairs of pillars at a height of four meters. Eleven cross members, the middle one 6.35 meters high, stiffened the construction made of flat and angle iron. Wrought iron tendrils in neo-baroque shapes adorned the bridge railing and the crowning in the passage between these portal-like pillars clad with Bavarian granite. On the street side, a forged lantern hung from the pillars at the level of the supports, and candelabra-like wrought-iron structures emphasized their tips. While the bridge on the south bank connected directly to street level, on the north bank a staircase with seven steps overcame the difference in height to the Schiffbauerdamm. Because of the different heights of the banks, the northern pair of piers received an additional base made of only roughly hewn humpback blocks. The main girder was preassembled on the southern bank and brought into position with the help of a bridge . In this way, the obstruction to shipping has been reduced to a minimum. The heavy shipping traffic in this area of the Spree also made it necessary to dispense with intermediate pillars.
From the year 1929 the first staging of a rowing regatta “Across Berlin” was reported, which started at the Schlossbrücke in Berlin-Charlottenburg and whose destination was the Schlütersteg. The approximately 8.5-kilometer route was covered by the winners in less than an hour. From the following year, the competitions took place in the opposite direction, i.e. downstream. According to the report, there was the last race on the Spree in 1937.
In 1945, shortly before the end of the Second World War , the bridge was destroyed and its remains, which hindered shipping, were removed. A new pedestrian bridge added to the neighboring railway bridge replaces the Schlütersteg, which has not been rebuilt. Today the foundation of the pillars is the only remnant on the southern bank.
The bridge structure shown here should not be confused with the Schlütersteg of the same name in the Heiligensee district .
- Historical recordings
The location of the pedestrian walkway is easy to see on a postcard from 1900.
Northern pair of pillars, 1891
Prospects for reconstruction
On the occasion of the need to renovate the pedestrian section of the railway bridge at Friedrichsstrasse station, a freelance journalist asked in 2009 whether the reconstruction of the Schlütersteg would not be a more attractive alternative. A former employee of the Berlin building authorities quoted in the article considered the effort to be too great.
literature
- Eberhard Heinze, Eckhard Thiemann, Laurenz Demps : Berlin and its bridges. Transpress Verlag, Berlin 1987, p. 90, ISBN 3-344-00105-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Homepage of the rowing club "Wiking Berlin 1896", accessed on April 5, 2009
- ↑ Display of the Schlütersteg in Berlin on Google maps
- ↑ Ben Schwan: Rusting in the noble district . In: taz . March 19, 2009 ( taz.de ).