Sweden Bridge

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Schwedenbrücke towards Leopoldstadt and Mediatower

The Schwedenbrücke is a bridge over the Vienna Danube Canal and connects the districts of Innere Stadt and Leopoldstadt .

Striking bridge (1368)

Already in the Middle Ages there was the striking bridge, a wooden bridge mentioned in a document in 1368 over the Viennese arm of the Danube, which was not yet regulated at the time . Strike bridge because animals were slaughtered (beaten) on it and inferior parts were sold on the spot as so-called jerk meat . The blood itself ran straight into the branch of the Danube, which ran underneath, which was also the cause of hygienic problems. This bridge, which was also a toll bridge, connected the city - until 1782 as the only permanent connection - with the Untere Werd , a large island in the area of ​​today's Leopoldstadt , and was located a little downstream of the Rotenturmstrasse . It had to be rebuilt again and again due to ice rushes and floods .

Ferdinand's Bridge (1819)

The Ferdinandsbrücke - a picture clock by Carl Ludwig Hofmeister from 1825, which existed from 1819 to 1909

To cope with the frequent problems with ice and floods, the striking bridge was replaced by the new Ferdinand's bridge in 1819 . It was a wooden bridge with a stone center pillar and two openings 30 m wide. Even then, it had lanes and sidewalks separated by barriers. It was named after the then Crown Prince, who ruled the Austrian Empire from 1835 to 1848 as Ferdinand I. In 1850 Leopoldstadt was incorporated. In 1860, after the demolition of the city ​​wall, the Franz-Josefs-Kai was completed, with an access to the bridge along the Danube Canal. In 1865 the Ferdinand Bridge was widened. From 1882 onwards, the tram ran over the bridge to Taborstrasse , initially as a horse-drawn tramway, and since 1900 with electrical operation. On August 6, 1901, the last part of the Viennese light rail system was the Danube Canal line with the Ferdinandsbrücke station (today Schwedenplatz underground station ).

From May 21, 1909, the bridge was dismantled in favor of a new bridge.

Ferdinandsbrücke / Schwedenbrücke (1911/1919)

The Ferdinand Bridge around 1911

On April 27, 1911, the new steel arch bridge (at that time the largest on the Danube Canal) was opened. Otto Wagner was responsible for the artistic implementation of the new bridge . Shortly before the opening of the bridge, which was scheduled for the end of April 1911, after a trip over the Franz-Josefs-Kai, the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, demanded clarification about the four pylons surrounding the bridge , which are very similar to chimneys . The actual task of the pylons was, among other things, the more favorable derivation of horizontal forces . The four pillar towers bearing allegories should not only symbolize the four elements , but rather express a connection between fire and light rail construction, water and Danube canal regulation, air and the hygienic importance of the collecting canals as well as of the earth and the architectural changes in the cityscape .

In 1919, as with Schwedenplatz (previously Ferdinandsplatz), it was renamed Sweden , in memory of the humanitarian aid that the country provided to Viennese children after the First World War .

During one of the air raids on Vienna in 1945, most of the Franz-Josefs-Kai and the bridge were destroyed by aerial bombs. In 1946, after provisional repairs, it was opened to traffic. 1945–1955 was the sector boundary between the Soviet sector of Vienna, to which the 2nd district belonged, and the inter-allied sector (1st district), in which the occupying power changed monthly.

Sweden Bridge (1955)

The Sweden Bridge

As the first prestressed concrete bridge in Vienna, the Schwedenbrücke was rebuilt in 1954/55 according to plans by Fritz Leonhardt and Adolf Hoch . The 78.8 m long and approx. 27 m wide frame bridge has spans of 12.2 + 55.4 + 12.2 m. It has three haunched hollow boxes connected by crossbars .

The water level at the Ferdinand or Schwedenbrücke, observed for many years, was used at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries to define Vienna's own height reference system . This so-called Vienna Zero corresponds to a level value of 4.00 m above the level zero point and a height of 156.68 meters above the Adriatic Sea . It is still used today for urban projects and the groundwater measuring points.

The last flood in August 2002 reached + 0.60 m above Vienna Zero. A hundred-year flood could be 50 cm higher, but thanks to the regulation of the Danube in the 19th and 20th centuries, it would hardly cause any damage to the city.

The Australian graffiti artist Lush Sux portrayed the American President Donald Trump with the hairstyle of the North Korean ruler Kim Jong-un and vice versa in one of his latest works (August 2017) under the Sweden Bridge .

gallery

  • Break bridge 1778

  • Ferdinandsbrücke and entrance to Taborstrasse , 1905

  • Schwedenbrücke and Marienbrücke to the west

  • Schwedenbrücke and Urania to the east

  • The Sweden Bridge at night

  • Information board on the bridge

  • Memorial plaque on the bridge

  • Lush Sux graffiti north pillar: Trump and Kim (August 2017)

literature

  • Otto Antonia Graf : Otto Wagner. Volume 1: The Architect's Work 1860–1902. Böhlau, Vienna (among others) 1985, ISBN 3-205-08657-0 .
  • Otto Wagner : Exposé on the project for the renovation of the Ferdinand Bridge over the Danube Canal in Vienna. Vereinigte Eisen-Konstruktions-Werke L. and J. Biró & A. Kurz, formerly Anton Biró and Albert Milde & Co., Vienna 1910.

Web links

Commons : Schwedenbrücke  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Emil Winkler: Technical guide through Vienna . Lehmann & Wentzel, Vienna 1873, p. 26 ( full text in Google Book Search).
  2. ^ Count: Otto Wagner. P. 594 ( books.google.at ).
  3. ^ Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the new Ferdinand Bridge. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 16760/1911, April 20, 1911, p. 8, center left. (Online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp
  4. ^ Graf: Otto Wagner , p. 506 ( books.google.at ).
  5. ↑ Construction news. Vienna. (...) The reconstruction of the Ferdinand Bridge. :  Wiener Bauindustrie-Zeitung. The prospective builder, year 1897, No. 11/1896 (XIV. Year), p. 119 below. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wbz.
  6. ↑ Municipal newspaper . Opening of the Ferdinand Bridge. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 16767/1911, April 27, 1911, p. 9, bottom right. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfpas well as
    local newspaper. Tram traffic over the Ferdinand Bridge. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 16768/1911, April 28, 1911, p. 10, bottom right. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp.
  7. ↑ Sweden Bridge . In: Structurae
  8. ↑ Trump and Kim Jong Un on the Danube Canal on wien.orf.

Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 43 "  N , 16 ° 22 ′ 44"  E