hope for. On the Oberbaum Bridge, there is an annual art fair known as the Oberbaum Art Brucke; since 1999 Die Wasserchlacht has attracted crowds from both Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg for water battles, despite the district merge of Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg in 2001. Twice in the past six years I have visited Berlin and both times I fell in love with the Oberbaum Bridge. From Calatrava’s central bay, the view to the west reveals a complex skyline consisting of buildings from almost every era, and to the east the tranquil river scenery of metropolitan Berlin fading to its eastern suburbs, with Jonathan Borofsky’s 100 foot tall sculpture Molecule Man on the river. I remember what it was like to walk through the lights and shadows of the colonnade under the railway viaduct in the afternoon, along with the many bikers and dog-walkers, beside the busy traffic of trams and cars, and feeling the frequent vibrations of the u-bahn trains above my head. Nothing, not even memories or tales, can replace the simple pleasure of walking on the Oberbaum. The reconstructed bridge may not live up to the expectations of some architects to unfold the future glories of the German capital, yet in its own right it has successfully drawn a closure to the past epoch and is paving the way to a future with fewer political burdens and plenty of life. C 1 Goldberg, Thorsten. http://www.goldberg-berlin.de 2 Ibid. 3 Cullen, Michael S. and Martin Kieren, Calatrava Berlin: Five Projects. Basel: Birkhauser Verlag, 1994 p34 4 Wise, Michael Z. Capital Dilemma: Germany’s Search for a New Architecture of Democracy. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998. p 156 5 Ibid. p 157
Cold War hardened. The Oberbaum Bridge became a checkpoint at the newly erected Berlin Wall. Political stalemate continued between East and West Germany, and the bridge continued to deteriorate. In 1974, the ruins of the two decaying towers were finally torn down by East Germany. In the 28-year gradual decay, public crossings were completely halted, except for the small numbers of West Berliners who were allowed to make brief visits to the East after paying a toll-fee. In the same period, spontaneous memorials of wooden crosses, flower bouquets and erratic boulders were often set up at the Kreuzberg end to commemorate drowned East Berliners who attempted to swim across the Spree to the West. A dead end to the story it might seem, yet the fortunes of the Oberbaum Bridge and Berlin detoured once again as unbelievable broadcasts on the fall of the Berlin Wall flooded the world news in November of 1989. Berlin was restored as the German capital in 1999, the same year that Germany entered into the Kosovo conflict with the NATO, signifying their first international military involvement since WWII. Ten years of reconstruction put Berlin back on track to becoming a political centre and cultural hub in Europe. New museums, memorials, wartime remnants and reconstructions such as the Oberbaum Bridge have turned Berlin into a living museum of its own complex identities and memories that silently manifest social revelations from the war experience. Perhaps the most vivid of all, both in memory and colour, is the East Side Gallery west of the Oberbaum Bridge. Tagged as a memorial for freedom, the East Side Gallery preserves 1.3km of the Berlin Wall, on which over a hundred murals depicting the story of the Wall were painted, in 1990, by international street artists. For most Berliners, however, getting on with ease on daily business in a unified capital already represents the best reward that they could
Calvin Chiu graduated from University of Waterloo with an M Arch in 2006. Since then, he has worked in the architectural industry in Toronto and London, UK.
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