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[help] Identifying a photo from Bremen, Germany, ca. 1955
Hello, Internets. My sister is scanning old family photos. We’re trying to identify the bridge pictured below. My grandfather took the photo, probably in 1955, we believe in Bremen, Germany. Can anyone help us with the bridge name, location or historical info?
© 1955, Dr. L.E. Lake, Sr.
This work by Dr. L.E. Lake, Sr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Posted: 6:37 pm Tue February 02 2010 |
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Cora
February 3rd, 2010 at 6:55 pmI actually am from Bremen and I have never seen this bridge before.
I do know that the old bridges across the Weser were damaged first by WWII and later by ice drift during the winter of 1946 and replaced during reconstruction. But this bridge doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen in vintage photographs, nor does it match surviving fragments of the old bridge. Besides, I’m pretty sure it would already have been gone by 1955.
Nor does the shape of the river and the buildings ashore look like Bremen. The tram is the only thing that might be Bremen (ours are red and beige and a similar model in the 1950s), but then lots of German cities have trams.
Nonetheless, I’ll show the photo to my parents who are old enough to remember the old bridge.
Nancy Wirsig McClure
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:47 pmThis comment is a placeholder so I get notified when there are other comments on this post…. because that bridge is Awesome Cool.
Cora
February 4th, 2010 at 5:12 amI showed the photo to my Dad and it’s definitely not Bremen.
In fact, my Dad is sure that it’s Hamburg, precisely the alte Elbbrücke (old bridge over the river Elbe), most probably shot from the Harburg side of the river. The bridge and the steel arcs still exists, flanked by newer bridges, but the front with its distinctive turrets is gone, probably fallen victim to 1960s modernisation mania.
My Dad also positively IDed the tram as the type used in Hamburg in the 1950s. There’s also a vintage Volkswagen Beetle, but I’m sure you already recognized that.
Jay
February 4th, 2010 at 6:25 amThank you, Cora. Have passed this on to my sister and my dad. You’re awesome!
Cora
February 4th, 2010 at 3:27 pmYou’re welcome.
Some more information I gleaned from my Dad about the bridge (he used to work in Hamburg harbour):
First of all, in one of those weird naming instances, this is actually “neue Elbbrücke” (new Elbe bridge) built in 1887 and it crosses the Norderelbe, the north arm of the river Elbe. The turretted front must have been torn down soon after this photo was taken, probably because it was too narrow for the traffic and no one saw Victorian buildings as worth preserving in the 1950s and 1960s (postwar rebuilding did more damage to German cities than bombs in many cases). During the same time, a second bridge was built alongside this one for car traffic, while trams, busses and taxis continued to pass across the old bridge. The tram line was removed sometime in the 1970s – another bit of postwar idiocy. The steel arches are painted bright blue these days.
Wikipedia has an entry about the bridges of Hamburg with photos what it looks like today. Only in German unfortunately.
Did your Dad work at one of the US consulate in Bremen or Hamburg?