The Prussians had themselves immortalized with four equestrian statues on Cologne’s Hohenzollern Bridge: Emperor Wilhelm II ceremoniously inaugurated the new building on May 22, 1911. Two railway bridge sections were intended to accommodate the rapidly increasing rail traffic, which was originally covered by two tracks on the cathedral bridge. Now there were four tracks. In addition, a road bridge section was initially built.
On March 7, 1936, 30,000 Wehrmacht soldiers symbolically marched over the Hohenzollern Bridge into the Rhineland, which had been demilitarized according to the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler thereby breached the treaty.
In wartime, the Hohenzollern Bridge was an important transport route for soldiers and military equipment and was therefore strategically very important. Therefore, the Wehrmacht blew up the bridge pillars on March 6, 1945 to prevent the Americans from advancing.
In 1948 it was initially temporarily rebuilt, but now without a road bridge, but with a footpath and cycle path on both sides.
Since 1989 there has been another railway bridge section, in particular to integrate the S-Bahn traffic. The original bridge superstructures can still be recognized today by their rivets. The “new buildings” after the war are bolted and welded.
Not only the bridge is supposed to hold, but also the eternal love that people promise each other with a love lock on the bridge railing and the key thrown into the Rhine. For years, thousands of love tokens have hung on the Hohenzollern Bridge and have since become another beautiful Cologne attraction and tradition.
Around 50 trains per hour cross the Hohenzollern Bridge, which has already experienced war, peace and numerous declarations of love.
We’re staying on the rails. At Cologne Central Station you can not only travel and shop, but also experience events. We’ll meet right opposite the legendary “Old Waiting Room”.
Image source 1 Image: Maral Iranpour, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Image source 3. Image: Hohenzollern Bridge after it was blown up by the Wehrmacht in 1945, by Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-P008041 / CC BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5474349
