Görlitzer Brücke Closure Sparks Berlin Community Protests

Berlin's Görlitzer Brücke to Close on June 30 Amid Public Outcry

A Bridge Under Threat: The Fight to Keep Berlin's Görlitzer Brücke Open

Anyone traveling from Alt-Treptow's green spaces to Kreuzberg will eventually reach the canal. An old railway bridge crosses it at the height of Görlitzer Park—the Görlitzer Brücke. Four years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Deutsche Bahn leased it to the Treptow-Köpenick district. Where the death strip once ran, cyclists and pedestrians now pass freely.

"We want to go down to the cherry blossoms—hopefully they're still in bloom," say two walkers on the Kreuzberg side of Görlitzer Park. To get there, they'd have to cross the Görlitzer Brücke and descend to the Alt-Treptow side of the canal toward the Dreiländereck. They explain that on other days, they often cross from the "Görli" (as the park is locally known) and stroll along the old railway bridge all the way to Elsenstraße. Between dense rows of trees, a path runs nearly a kilometer parallel to Kiefholzstraße—almost like walking through a forest.

"The gravel mix is causing drainage problems and speeding up corrosion"

The gravel crunches underfoot and beneath wheels—and, according to Deutsche Bahn (DB), it's causing trouble. "The sand-and-gravel mixture impairs drainage and accelerates corrosion," a DB spokesperson explains. The primary issue, they claim, is the bike path built by the Treptow-Köpenick district on the bridge. Citing concerns over traffic safety on the four heritage-listed bridges, DB has terminated its lease with the district as of June 30. After that, the areas will be closed off by the railway company.

This would mean the end for Jimmy's falafel stand, which has been serving customers between the playground and the Lohmühlen wagon settlement on the Alt-Treptow side, opposite Görlitzer Park, since 2005. People sit on small blue camping stools, eating halloumi-falafel sandwiches—a fixture since 2005. The wide, long children's slide there would also disappear. When asked how she'd feel if the Görlitzer Brücke and the historic rail embankment on the Treptow side were closed, a passing cyclist shouts, "Shit!"

DB Would Transfer the Land to the Districts for Free

For Claudia Leistner, the district councilor for urban development in Treptow-Köpenick, a closure is unacceptable. "The Görlitzer Bridges must remain accessible as much as possible. The state of Berlin should urgently negotiate an interim solution with Deutsche Bahn and, in parallel, examine the possibility of taking over the sites," she demands.

Yet DB claims it is willing to transfer the land to the districts free of charge, according to a spokesperson. However, negotiations on the takeover have so far failed, DB told our website, while the Treptow-Köpenick district expressed similar sentiments in a press release. Meanwhile, on the Kreuzberg side, the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district assembly addressed the threatened closure of the bridges on Wednesday evening, passing a resolution with overwhelming majority opposition to the shutdown.

"This bridge is a living connection between two districts. Closing it would sever routes that have long been taken for granted by many people," said Pascal Striebel, leader of the Green Party faction in the district assembly. "Once closed, there's a risk it could stay that way for years. That's exactly why we must do everything we can to prevent it from happening in the first place." He added that the two districts are in discussions with each other.

But the crucial connection may need to be made at a higher level. "In this highly dense area, residents are being deprived of an important public space. There must be urgent high-level talks within the Senate to ensure these areas remain accessible to the public," demanded Treptow-Köpenick's district mayor. He has already reached out to Finance Senator Stefan Evers and Transport Senator Ute Bonde (both CDU). Which brings us to a time-tested recipe for failure in Berlin: the endless ping-pong between the Senate and the districts.