Werra Bridge Vacha

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Coordinates: 50 ° 49 ′ 49 ″  N , 10 ° 1 ′ 25 ″  E

Bridge of unity
Bridge of unity
West side of the Werra bridge in the river area
Official name Werra Bridge Vacha
use Pedestrian and bike path
Convicted the former Reichsstrasse 84
Crossing of river Werra
construction Stone arch bridge
overall length 225 m
width 5.50 m
Number of openings 13
Clear width 9.60 m (max)
Construction height 0.5 m (at the top)
start of building before 1186
completion Middle Ages
After the establishment of German unity in 1990, the two traffic routes, which had been separate since 1961, were brought together again via this bridge.
opening 1346, 1603 (each completely renewed) and other constant renovations
toll No
location
Werra Bridge Vacha (Thuringia)
Werra Bridge Vacha

The Werra bridge Vacha , also known as the bridge of unity since 1990 , is a 225 meter long stone arch bridge from the Middle Ages that connects the Thuringian Vacha with the Hessian Philippsthal and spans the Werra . At the time of the division of Germany , the bridge was directly on the inner German border , which made it a symbol of the reunification of Germany after 1990 .

21st century construction

East side of the bridge

The 225 m long bridge consists of natural stone masonry and has eleven arches in the foreland area and three arches over the Werra. The clear widths are around 5 m in the foreland area and a maximum of 9.6 m in the river area, with pillar spacing of a maximum of 14 m. The width between the parapets is 5.5 m. The construction height of the masonry arch in the apex is 0.5 m and increases to 0.65 m in the transom . To reach the river islands, which existed until 1974, two stairs were built (named 1696), of which only the one on the east side (upper current) is accessible. The roundabout located on the west side (Unterstrom) had a counterpart directly opposite until the first half of the 19th century. This is exactly where the legendary cobblestone has been located since that time . The structure has been used as a pedestrian and cycle path bridge since the 2010s.

history

The Vacha Werra crossing is one of the fixed points on the ancient road that connected the Rhine-Main area with the area around Leipzig via the Thuringian Basin by the shortest route . This route is already mentioned in 786 north of the Werra as "hoha strazza". Vacha appears as a place of escort around 1145/68 in the Reinhardsbrunn Epistolar Codex.

Two-part bridge until 1603

West side of the city of Vacha with a view of the two stone bridges, represented by Dilich

In 1186 a Werrabrücke as part of the first time of the later as Via Regia designated trade route from Frankfurt to Leipzig mentioned "super ripam fluminis Werraha secus pontem Fuldensis opidi, quod Vache vocatum est" [ On the banks of the Werra at the bridge of the fuldaischen city Vacha ] At that time it served the most important sovereigns from Hesse and Thuringia as a venue for negotiations. Were present:

as well as many members of the lower nobility.

Originally there were two bridges, probably stone, which were partially destroyed by the Magdalen flood in 1342 . There is no timely record of the events and the subsequent reconstruction. The Eisenach historian Johannes Rothe (around 1365–1434) mentioned the events for the first time: “To Vache zu brach is die steynen bridge”. In 1585, Cyriacus Spangenberg reported in his Saxon Chronicle "The Werra ... broke into subject bridges and paths / trails and footbridges". Wilhelm Dilich wrote in 1605 in the Hessian Chronicle: “In 1342 the Werra knocked over the bridge at Vach when it ran into it.” Matthias Merian wrote in 1646: “In 1342 the Werra / now a stone bridge passed over it / when it ran into it Bridge knocked over ”. The formulation - "now there is a stone bridge over it" - had led the following chroniclers to assume that there was no massive bridge, but a wooden bridge. First to be found by Johann Just Winkelmann in 1697 and incorporated into Vacha historiography by Wilhelm Ernst Eberhardi in 1841.

The hospital of the Kreuzberg (Philippsthal) monastery, later called the special hospital , was mentioned in 1279. It was at the north end of the small bridge on Siechenberg .

In 1303, fields on the river island Wert near the bridge were bequeathed to the neighboring Kreuzberg monastery : “agros nostros sitos ex alia pontis qui vulgariter dicuntur der Wert” ( our fields should be on the other side of the bridge, they will be worth it [ analogous translation ]).

Between the city ​​wall and the bridge, the location of the city hospital was indicated in 1325: “extra muros oppidi nostri Vach pontem siti” [ a dry place outside the walls of our city across the bridge of our Vach ]. In 1327, houses near the larger bridge on the city side were “ in longo ponte ”reports.

The building was rebuilt as a stone bridge by 1346. In 1394 the northern small stone bridge was mentioned in a document “by Vache gein der cleinn stone bridge ubir on the sichin berge” [ The small stone bridges pass over the Siechen berge at Vache ]. Repairs to the bridge are reported in the first surviving city invoice from 1484. In the year 1527 it can be read: “11 schog 2 gnacken Claus Horningen spend uf the Gedingts several excavated stones in the crushing house, which are now to be prepared from then on at the Werhebroeckenn” [ 11  Schock , 2 groschen (has) spent Claus Horningen for several excavated stones in the crushing house, which are now also to be processed at the value bridges ]. Wilhelm Dilich drew the town and both bridges in 1591 and reworked them to the engraving from 1605 (see picture).

One-piece bridge from 1603

Crown stone on the 6th arch from the north (east side), with the year 1603 (the 16 is now difficult to read)
5th arch from the north (east side), with the year 1670 and the initials LM · AK

In the chronical description of Vacha, Wilhelm Dilich described the two-part structure of the building in 1591: "Tum vero Facum alluens duplicem pontem lapideum insula facta perlabitur" ( Then it [the Werra] flows past Vacha under a two-part stone bridge, as there is one Has formed island ). A keystone of the intermediate piece built on the island bears the year 1603 (see picture). Accordingly, the connection to a now seventeen-arch bridge was made between 1591 and 1603. A view from the steeple of St. John's Church shows the kinks in the structure that mark the two old bridges.

During the Thirty Years War , the Werra Bridge was damaged by enemy passages. In 1640, imperial troops lay in the Werra meadows in front of Vacha to repair the structure. Among them was Peter Hagendorf , a mercenary who wrote a well-known war diary .

After partial collapses, repairs and alterations followed, which ultimately reduced the number of arches to 14 openings. There were changes for example in 1696, 1753 and finally from 1802 to 1806. The cost estimate of the master mason Mathias Matday zu Buttlar from 1696 has been handed down. Considerable damage is found in it. The twelfth arch (from the city side) had completely collapsed. The vault of the sixth arch had to be broken out and erected anew, as well as the substructure of the two stairs and many pillars. The parapet (perimeter) also had to be repaired along the entire length of the structure. From October 25th to 28th, 1813, the French army, defeated in the Battle of Leipzig , withdrew via Vacha. Napoleon Bonaparte himself arrived in Vacha on the evening of October 27th from Eisenach and stayed in the Widmarckt (today town hall). The troops backed up at the bridge across the entire width of the valley floor to the neighboring village of Oberzella . This was remedied by the fact that the cavalry used the ford below the bridge .

Development in the 20th and 21st centuries

At the beginning of the 20th century, the building was part of Reichsstrasse 84 . In spring 1945, during the Second World War , two arches were blown up, the reconstruction took place in 1950/1951 reinforced concrete with sandstone - delusion .

Because of the course of the inner German border in the area of ​​the bridge, the structure was closed in the following decades until the border opening between Vacha and Philippsthal on November 12, 1989.

Since October 3, 1990, the structure has also been called the Bridge of Unity . In 1993 and 1994, extensive repairs were carried out, taking into account the preservation of monuments .

View of the Werra bridge and Siechenberg from the church tower (2010); The kinks in the structure mark the two old bridges.

Since 2003 the ecumenical pilgrimage route Görlitz-Vacha has been leading over the Werra bridge. This is where the Rhön Club - Jakobsweg through the Rhön towards Fulda connects .

On November 9, 2014, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a celebration took place in Vacha and Philippsthal. This also included a hike over the Bridge of Unity , led by the miners' chapel Unterbreizbach and the minister-president Volker Bouffier from Hesse and his colleague Christine Lieberknecht from Thuringia with the participation of a large number of citizens and visitors from both places. This event has been in the television broadcast.

Stonemason's mark on the bridge

Stonemason's mark on an arch of the Werra Bridge

Numerous stonemason's marks have been preserved in the area of ​​the old large bridge. They are particularly numerous on arches four to six. The shapes can be compared with those of the tower of the Johanneskirche (Vacha) (first half of the 13th century) and with those of the tower of the Wallenburg near Trusetal , the construction of which is certainly dated to the middle of the 13th century. The structures mentioned have single angles, double angle hooks, crosses and T-signs. The signs on the bridge can be found almost exclusively in the lower rising area of ​​the arches. An indication that the masonry still comes from the first bridge, which was destroyed in 1342.

Landmark

Boundary stone on the Werra bridge

In front of the northwestern bridge parapet of the Werra Bridge is a boundary or cross stone . The stone still shows the emblem of the imperial abbey of Hersfeld , which bordered here on the imperial abbey of Fulda .

A cross stone that marked both the state and the escort border (on the road between Vacha and Eisenach) was first mentioned in the 16th century. This situation can already be found in 1484 in a dispute between the Hessian and Saxon officials: "... shallich led from the brocken zcu Fache bit gein Ißenach allein uwern forest grace and sust nymantz own and zcu stand". In 1590 the cross stone was destroyed by unknown persons. The two escorts then agreed to share the costs incurred for the new construction, whereby the time of the installation is also reported: "which year (15) 62 of the escort halfway between then ... Duke of Sachssenn and Landgraven zue Heßen for the mark uf judgment"

Today's Kreuzstein was erected around 1700. Originally he stood in front of the Hoßfeldschen printing works (the "house on the border"). The incorrectly arranged letters GSW ( Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar ) on the right and KP ( Kingdom of Prussia ) on the left indicate that the stone was moved. The letters KP were added in 1866 at the earliest, as the Landgraviate of Hessen-Kassel was only incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia in that year.

In the last days of the war in 1945 the stone was knocked over by a Wehrmacht vehicle and the Hoßfeld family then stored it in their cellar. The lower part as a stump was removed in the summer of 1975 when the border line was re-measured by a German / German surveying team. When put back together, both stone halves were briefly placed in the Philippsthal courtyard from 1976 onwards . The stone has been in its current location, the northwestern bridge parapet, since October 6, 1994.

See also

literature

  • Wilhelm Dilich : Synopsis descriptionis totius Hassiae (complete description of all of Hesse). Edited by Monika Rener and Klaus Lange. Historical Commission for Hessen, Marburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-942225-19-9 .
  • Werner Landeck: The odyssey of the old Hersfeld boundary stone at the Vacha bridge. In: My homeland. Supplement to the Hersfelder Zeitung. July 1985, No. 19 Volume 31.
  • Olaf Ditzel: Festschrift - 650 years of the “Steinerne Werra Bridge” at Vacha 1342–1992 . Vacha 1992, DNB 958 578 486 .
  • Elmar Clute-Simon :, Vacha through the ages. Bad Hersfeld 1995, OCLC 174161967 .
  • Federal Ministry of Transport: Bridges of the federal highways 1995. Verkehrsblatt Verlag, Dortmund 1995, ISBN 3-89273-072-5 . ( Verkehrsblatt Document B 5133)
  • Elmar Clute-Simon: The house on the border. Bad Hersfeld 1996, DNB 960717218 .
  • Olaf Ditzel: Vacha - bridge of unity. In: Cultural discoveries in Thuringia. Volume 2, Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-7954-2252-3 .

Web links

Commons : Werra Bridge Vacha  - Collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Monumenta Germaniae Historia Dipl. Karol. No. 153
  2. ↑ Monumenta Germaniae Historica, epist. Sel. Volume V, p. 26f. No. 28
  3. ↑ Quotation printed in: Olaf Ditzel: The time of origin of the city of Vacha. 1991, original source: Gotha State Archives Certificate, signature QQ Ig No. 32 .
  4. ↑ Duringian Chronicle . 1421, p. 574, subsection 668 From the great water .
  5. ↑ Thorough and true description of the principalities of Hesse and Hersfeld. 1697.
  6. ↑ Historical Notes on the City of Vacha. 1841.
  7. ↑ a b Jürgen Seiffert: Werra Bridge Vacha. In: Stone bridges in Germany. Verlag Bau + Technik, 1999, ISBN 3-7640-0389-8 , p. 360.
  8. ^ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg, Best. M VI Hersfeld Kloster Kreuzberg, documents, 1279.
  9. ^ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg, Best. M VI Hersfeld Kloster Kreuzberg, documents, 1303 August 1.
  10. ↑ Landesbibliothek Fulda, Kopialbuch B6 Fol. 76 v No. 753.
  11. ↑ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg, holdings: Document 75 No. 269.
  12. ^ Hessisches Staatsarchiv Marburg, inventory: M VI Hersfeld Kloster Kreuzberg 1394 May 6.
  13. ↑ To the Gnacken
  14. ^ Hans Goller: Bills of the city of Vacha 1456-1539. Vacha 1965.
  15. ^ Wilhelm Dilich: Synopsis descriptionis totius Hassiae (complete description of all of Hesse). P. 120.
  16. ^ Peter Hagendorf - Diary of a mercenary from the Thirty Years' War.
  17. ↑ HstAMarburg Order 53f. No. 1524.
  18. ↑ Hans Lotz: Chronicle of the community Oberzella. 1998, p. 27.
  19. ↑ Lieberknecht in Vacha: November 9th is a lucky day .
  20. ↑ ThHStAWeimar, Reg. Cc 383
  21. ^ Hans Goller: Document book of the city of Vacha. II 1965, no.93.
  22. ↑ Olaf Ditzel: Festschrift - 650 years "Steinerne Werra Bridge" at Vacha 1342-1992. Vacha 1992.