Jannowitzbrücke

The Jannowitz Bridge (Jannowitzbrücke) is a historic crossing over the Spree in Berlin-Mitte that connects the Luisenstadt and Stralauer Viertel neighborhoods. Its history goes back to 1822, when cotton manufacturer Christian August Jannowitz founded a joint-stock company to finance the first wooden trestle bridge. The name was officially assigned in 1825, after Jannowitz personally guaranteed the company's liabilities. Because the wooden structure could not withstand the growing traffic, it was replaced in 1881 by an iron truss bridge that also had room for the horse-drawn tram. For the construction of today's U8 subway line, this structure was replaced in the early 1930s by a new arched truss bridge with a suspended roadway. It stood until World War II, when it was blown up to hinder the advance of the Red Army.

The present-day fourth Jannowitz Bridge was built between 1952 and 1954 in East Germany as a flat steel-girder deck bridge. It reuses the intact abutments of its predecessor and spans the Spree without any intermediate piers in the riverbed, so that it carries no load onto the subway tunnel running beneath it. After German reunification, the structure was extensively renovated, with the tram tracks removed and the space optimized for pedestrians and cyclists. Today the bridge is an important traffic hub, monitored by one of the busiest bicycle counting stations in Berlin. It also marks the western boundary of the Mediaspree development project and lies directly alongside the Berlin Stadtbahn, the elevated commuter rail line.

At the Jannowitz Bridge, you'll find a dense mix of historic infrastructure and modern urban development. Beneath the bridge, the U8 subway line crosses the Spree, and Jannowitzbrücke station played a special role in the city's history. During the era of the Berlin Wall, it was a so-called ghost station, which trains passed through without stopping. Shortly after the fall of the Wall, the mezzanine between the subway and S-Bahn served as a border crossing point. Today the station is once again a central transfer point, integrated into the renovated S-Bahn station. The immediate surroundings also include the Jannowitz-Center, the Chinese Embassy, and cultural venues such as the Univers art gallery in the Stadtbahn arches, which make this a lively place to meet.