Yorckbrücken

View into Yorckstrasse with the Yorckbrücken from the east, September 2013

Aerial view of the eastern part of the Yorckbrücken, April 2017

The Yorckbrücken in Berlin are a 500-meter-long section of Yorckstrasse that was once spanned by around 45 railway bridges . They are located in the Schöneberg district on the border with Kreuzberg .

history

Establishing the street line

Originally, James Hobrecht wanted to create a straight boulevard between Charlottenburg and Kreuzberg in his development plan from 1862 , a belt street based on the Parisian model in the course of the Bülow and Gneisenaustrasse , which was later referred to as the " General Train ".

The rapid expansion of the railway facilities at the Potsdam and Anhalter freight station south of the Landwehr Canal in the 1870s and 1880s prevented these plans from being implemented. The main line of the Berlin-Potsdam-Magdeburg Railway ran in this area since 1840 and the main line of the Berlin-Anhalt Railway Company since 1841 . In 1875 the Berlin-Dresden railway line was added. The steady increase in traffic required extensive extensions to the railway systems. With the exception of the relatively small Dresden train station , the stations for passenger transport were located north of the Landwehr Canal, which opened in 1850, but the facilities for the installation and maintenance of locomotives and wagons as well as the freight stations and loading ramps developed south of the canal.

In the decades of controversy , the conflicting interests of urban planners and those of the railway companies that were initially still operating in the private sector became clear. The city planners wanted to move as little as possible from the original axis and to realize the piercing through the railway area with the same street width of 60 meters as in the rest of the representative Gürtelstraße. The private railway companies, on the other hand, wanted to build as few of the expensive bridges as possible, aimed to reduce the road cross-section and continued to try to delay the construction of the bridges as far as possible.

Ultimately, it was decided that the extensive railway systems would be bypassed by the Yorckstraße - originally called Blücherstraße - around 400 meters further south than planned. At this point the terrain rises to the south by around five to eight meters towards the Teltow ridge . Despite the shift to the south, it was still necessary here to build a large number of bridges. The street width in the area of the bridges was specified to be 26.5 meters.

Construction of the bridges

Sheet metal girder bridges with Gerber girder joints and Hartung columns at the Anhalter freight yard from around 1890/1900, April 2006

On the Yorckbrücken in their original state, different design and technical solutions of the three private railway companies involved and the architects and designers commissioned by them can be seen.

The actual start of construction of the Yorckbrücken has not yet been conclusively clarified. In a publication prepared for the Tempelhof-Schöneberg district office, sources are cited from which a point in time around 1883 for the start of construction of the underpass, which was then still known as Blücherstrasse, can be derived. The completed underpass was renamed in 1885 and incorporated into Yorckstrasse. There is an annual report of the management of the Berlin-Anhaltische-Eisenbahn for the year 1873, in which it is reported that the foundation work for the Yorckstrasse underpass has started. In addition, the structural features of the oldest remaining bridge on the Dresden Railway differ significantly from the bridges built after 1880, especially since this railway company was insolvent as early as 1877 and was then barely able to finance bridge structures. As has since been researched from the bridge files, the last remaining bridge on the Dresden Railway dates from the opening year of this railway in 1875.

Most of the Yorck bridges were designed by the architect Franz Schwechten and - known as the "poet engineer" - Heinrich Seidel for the Berlin-Anhalt Railway. The sheet metal girder bridges were supported on foundations faced with yellow clinker bricks and cast-iron Hartung columns . It is very likely that Greppin bricks were used for facing the bridge abutments and embankment walls .

The Yorckbrücke No. 10 connects the Ostpark with the Bottle Neck Park, 2014

For the bridges of the Berlin-Potsdamer Bahn and the Berlin-Dresdener Bahn, other bridge girders and bridge supports were used, among others by Emil Hartwich .

A total of 45 track axes crossed Yorckstrasse (as of March 2014). Thereof:

9 bridges still in operation - four for the S-Bahn, four for long-distance and regional trains and one bridge for the connection to the German Museum of Technology in Berlin ,
24 bridges still exist, but no longer in operation and
12 bridges no longer available.

Of the 45 track axes, nine track axes belonged to the route of the Berlin-Potsdam Railway - also known as the "Stammbahn" - including the Wannseebahn and the Südringpitzkehre in the western part of the Yorckbrücken until the 1930s . After the construction of a new Großgörschenstraße S-Bahn station directly on Yorckstraße, seven track axes remained here.

The remaining 36 track axes east of Bautzener Straße belonged to the Anhalter Güterbahnhof including the long-distance line and the suburban line of the Anhalter Bahn - including the Dresdener Bahn, which had its own station on today's Gleisdreieck site until 1882 , before its traffic was handled by the Anhalter Bahnhof, which went into operation in 1880 has been.

Later development

In the decades that followed, the bridges were rebuilt, expanded, moved, or reinforced or replaced due to increased load requirements.

As part of the expansion of the railway network in Berlin ( mushroom concept ) for the commissioning of the new north-south connection to the main train station in summer 2006, the access from the south was also renewed. In the years 2000 to 2002, a four-track pillar-less bridge in steel composite construction was built over Yorckstrasse for this route . For this, one of the old sheet metal girder bridges with portal frame supports from the 1930s had to be demolished, which crossed Yorckstrasse at an angle of around 70 degrees.

In 2013, work began on replacing the abutments and superstructures of the S-Bahn tracks on the Wannsee Railway at Yorckstrasse station (Großgörschenstrasse).

The bridge ensemble is now a listed building .

Bridge constructions

S-Bahn bridge of the Wannseebahn with renewed pendulum supports, September 2013

Sheet metal girder bridges with rolled steel portal supports of the Anhalter and Dresdener Vorortbahn from the 1930s, April 2006

The S-Bahn bridges of the Wannseebahn in operation at Großgörschenstrasse station still have the old sheet metal girder bridges - built after 1880. However, the originally cast-iron supports were replaced by welded steel supports in the 1980s after the BVG took over the S-Bahn to ensure traffic safety .

The two S-Bahn bridges in operation for the Anhalter and Dresdener Vorortbahn and three neighboring bridges were not built until the 1930s. These are heavy riveted sheet metal girder bridges that rest on sturdy, portal-like riveted supports made of rolled steel profiles. The exact dating of these five bridges is currently uncertain. In a publication by the preservation of monuments , the year of construction is 1932 or 1934. However, in this area there were extensive changes and a reconstruction of the Yorckstrasse S-Bahn station shortly before the north-south tunnel of the S-Bahn went into operation in 1939, which also affected the bridges.

Of the no longer used sheet metal girder bridges, 16 rest on the ornate cast-iron Hartung columns , which were built after 1880. This type of bridge is typical of the Wilhelminian era , when the railway system in the Berlin area was expanded on a large scale. These bridges that still exist are located in the eastern area of the Yorckbrücken and formed the access to the Anhalter freight yard. The long-distance railway bridges to the Anhalter Bahnhof that no longer exist today were originally built in this form.

To the east of Bautzener Strasse, not far from the Anhalter and Dresdener Vorortbahn there is a special old sheet metal girder bridge with open track girder grating, diagonal reinforcement and another cast-iron column variant that dates back to the time before the introduction of the Hartung columns - see picture . The pillars of this bridge have slight fluting , simple jewelry rings in column center and also with scrolls provided capital . The bridge established the connection between the warehouses south of Yorckstrasse and storage areas or loading streets north of Yorckstrasse and was part of the Dresden Railway's facilities. The sheet metal layers that were installed between the capital and the bridge girder are striking. Possible reasons for this could have been the settlement of the foundations or the planning intention to subsequently bring the bridge to the clearance height for trams and double-decker buses specified later . This is the oldest bridge in the area of the Yorckbrücken and the only remaining one of the original inventory of the Dresden Railway, which was opened in 1875. According to recently found documents (building file 2296), this bridge also dates from 1875. It was renovated in 2012 (see below) and is referred to as bridge 5 according to the current count.

Demolition plans vs. Monument protection

Wannsseebahnbrücke, since 1939 a long-distance railway bridge of the Potsdamer Bahn, still with the wrought-iron railing, January 1992

The refurbished bridge 5 floats into support at the Bautzener Strasse intersection, August 2012

Sheet metal girder bridge of the Dresden Railway from 1875, east of the Bautzener Straße. This was redeveloped as bridge no.5 in 2012, September 2013

Since only ten bridges are required for the ongoing operation of Deutsche Bahn and the Berlin S-Bahn , DB Netz, as the previous owner and infrastructure operator , wanted to demolish the remaining bridges due to the high costs of maintenance and traffic safety.

This was opposed by the interests of the monument protection authority in preserving this unique bridge ensemble that characterizes the cityscape, from which the development of bridge construction technology between 1875 and 1939 - now even until 2003 - can be read. The Yorckbrücken have been a registered monument since 1993 , which means that there is a general conservation requirement.

In 2006 the ornate wrought-iron railing of the westernmost bridge - formerly the Wannseebahn, later the long-distance railway track from the Potsdam train station - was removed and stored. This seriously affected the appearance of the bridge ensemble.

An intensive public discussion made it clear that there was an urgent need for action. The Tempelhof-Schöneberg District Office supported this process with several reports, a monument protection brochure and the inclusion in the Open Monument Day 2008.

According to information from the district office in September 2008, concrete measures and dates for securing and restoring the bridge ensemble were agreed in negotiations between the monument protection authority and Deutsche Bahn, and financing was secured. Between 2009 and 2011, five bridges and the bridge abutments that were particularly worthy of protection were to be renovated. These include the outermost bridges, which should receive the old railings again, as well as other bridges that are particularly valuable in terms of building history or building technology.

In August 2012, bridge no. 5 - according to today's count - was the first bridge east of Bautzener Straße to be restored in accordance with historical monuments. It belonged to the Dresden Railway and, built in 1875 (building file 2296), is the oldest surviving bridge in the ensemble. In the next step it was extensively illuminated as part of a lighting concept for initially seven bridges.

Parts of the former railway area north and south of the bridges, which is now covered by ruderal vegetation , have now been developed as green and recreational areas and made accessible to the population through new access points. On September 2, 2011, the first eastern part of the park was opened at Gleisdreieck . Under the Yorckbrücken one of the main entrances leads into the green area with a barrier-free ramp.

The Yorckbrücken were included in the concept of the park so that the areas north and south of Yorckstrasse can be connected with each other. After the bottleneck park in the south was cleared, bridge no.10 was quickly prepared as a direct bicycle and footpath connection to the east park in the north and opened to traffic on April 17, 2014; the bridges for three other connections had to be renovated beforehand.

At the turn of the year 2013/2014, Deutsche Bahn and the Senate Department for Urban Development signed a contract for the gradual takeover of the Yorckbrücken into the ownership of the State of Berlin.

On 30./31. On January 1st, 2016, bridges 11, 14, 15 and 17 were lifted from their supports in the Park am Gleisdreieck and transported to a storage area in the immediate vicinity. It was planned to renovate the superstructures there and to return them to their old position in September 2016 and to connect them to the network of parking paths, after which the final renovation of bridge no.10 should take place. However, it turned out that renovation on site was not possible in accordance with the current building regulations and the requirements of the monument protection, an agreement on the further procedure was only reached in mid-2018 and the bridges were transported to a special company. In 2019, the four renovated bridges were lifted back into place and the connection between the parts of the park was initially established temporarily via bridge no.17, in return, bridge no.10 was dismantled and renovated by February 2020. In spring 2020 bridges 11, 14 and 17 will finally be connected to the park via the “Yorckpromenade”, bridge no. 15 completes the monument ensemble and is not used as a crossing.

literature

Rainer Knothe: Anhalter Bahnhof - development and operation. EK-Verlag, 1997, ISBN 3-88255-681-1 .
Larissa Sabottka: The iron bridges of the Berlin S-Bahn - as-built documentation and analysis. Published by the Berlin State Monument Authority. Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-7861-2463-9 .
Volkmar Draeger: How's the old house doing? Neues Deutschland Verlag und Druckerei, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-9807073-7-7 , pp. 171–174: The Yorckbrücken - a monument. The influence of the railroad on urban development.
The Yorckbrücken - a traffic engineering monument of Berlin's railway history. District Office Tempelhof-Schöneberg of Berlin, Berlin 2007.