2

Red Coexistence

The Oberbaum Bridge connects Friedrichshain with Kreuzberg and was for a long time part of the often deadly border between East and West Berlin.
Some hundred years before, wooden footbridges blocked the Spree River at this point, at the level of the old Berlin city wall. The narrow opening in the middle was closed every night with a thick tree trunk, studded with many nails for better defense. It was called “Oberbaum” (the upper tree) because there was another one at the other end of the city, and served to collect tolls, people had to pay at every conceivable corner back then.
No longer able to cope with the traffic, a sturdy, neo-Gothic arched bridge was built starting in 1894 after several temporary wooden models. Two towers frame the central arch, modeled after a tower in the Prenzlau city wall and built from typical red bricks like it. Bear and eagle, the heraldic animals of Berlin and Brandenburg, gaze peacefully from the tower tops at the reunited city.