Oberbaumbrücke
In Oberbaumbrücke once stood a double-deck crossing over Berlin’s River Spree, linking Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg—two areas that had been separated by the Berlin Wall, long after the city began using this stretch as a controlled boundary. Here, an excise wall was built in 1732, and a wooden drawbridge functioned as a gate to the city. The name “Oberbaumbrücke” came from an upstream barrier: a heavy tree trunk covered in metal spikes, used to block the river at night against smuggling, where Baum could mean both “tree” and “boom” in this context. By 1879, the wooden bridge had been heavily modified and, at 154 meters, it was Berlin’s longest but still overwhelmed by traffic. A new stone bridge opened in 1896 after two years of construction, timed for the Berlin Trades Exhibition. …
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