With the banks, the bridge brings to the stream the one and the other
expanse of the landscape lying behind them. It brings stream and bank
and land into each other's neighborhood. Martin Heidegger, 1951
buildings often carry symbolic messages. Probably the most obvious one
is transported by bridges, transforming landscapes, countries, or
people, which had been separated before, into neighbors. But, in
contradiction to their constitutional idea of peace, bridges can also
develop into symbols of a dangerous threat or domination. This is what
happens especially in wartime. Shortly after coming into power in the
summer of 1933 Adolf Hitler ordered the construction of the
Reichsautobahnen, a vast motorway system for Germany. Work on one of the
most extensive infrastructure projects of its times was started the same
year under supervision of the Inspector General for German Roadways,
Fritz Todt. Due to the concept of a street network avoiding
intersections at the same level, bridges became a central constituent of
the motorway project. Furthermore, besides their technical task,
motorway bridges also developed into an important element for
propaganda. In fact, even if many of the approximately 5000 motorway
bridges built under the Nazi regime cannot be valued as outstanding
constructions, the comprehensive quality of design in nearly all the
structures--reaching from small culverts to gigantic viaducts--played a
key role for the international enthusiasm towards the German motorways.
Against many widespread beliefs, the aspect of war preparation only
played a marginal role during the first years of motorway construction.
But, as the war approached, this situation rapidly changed and
especially the bridge builders got increasingly involved in the war
machinery. In 1938 Todt was ordered to build a 400-mile-long line of
defensive forts and tank traps. Works on this so-called Westwall were
supervised by an extraordinarily effective branch office of the
Inspectorate General, soon known under the name Organisation Todt (OT).
At first only needed for their general engineering skills, many of the
bridge builders soon returned to their original profession. Being
distributed by the OT on bridge building brigades, they followed on the
heels of the forward moving army, rebuilding bridges that had been
damaged during the fighting. Surprisingly, the works on the motorways
were not totally stopped when the war broke out, and the plans for the
motorway network were even extended with every victory of the German
army. Thus, also the architects involved in the motorway project had
plenty of planning to do. But, the expression of their bridges underwent
a decent change. From sober and harmonious engineering structures they
developed into gigantic monuments of a conquering, militarized country.
When the war tide finally turned, most of these projects still were
nothing more than hypertrophic dreams--dreams that finally turned into
the nightmare of the destruction of German bridges by the own retreating
army. It is the aim of the author to discuss the involvement of German
bridge builders in the war process through exemplary projects.
Therefore, the paper would mainly focus on the works of some key figures
for German bridge building of that time, such as the architects Paul
Bonatz and Friedrich Tamms, and the engineers Karl Schaechterle,
Gottwalt Schaper and Fritz Leonhardt.hry 2451/29945Conference co-sponsored by the Institute of Fine Arts; Canadian Centre
for Architecture, Montreal; and Princeton University's School of Architecture