Glienicke Bridge

The Glienicke Bridge, also called the 'spies bridge', is a bridge over the southern arm of the Havel between the German cities Potsdam and Berlin . The Glienicke Bridge was in the days of the Cold War on the border between West Berlin and the German Democratic Republic and gained worldwide fame by the agents exchange onFebruary 11 1986 in which the Soviet - dissident Anatoly Shcharansky and some other prisoners from the Eastern bloc were exchanged for five secret agents who were imprisoned in the west.

The bridge was built between 1906 and 1907 to replace an old bridge from 1831 that was not calculated on the increase in motorized traffic at the beginning of the 20th century . The old bridge was a month already passed by 11,400 cars. In 1937 the Glienicke Bridge, as part of the Reichsstraße one of Aachen via Berlin to Konigsbergexpanded to four lanes. During the war in April 1945, the bridge was badly damaged and was no longer usable.

In November 1947, was resumed to repair the bridge and on 19 December 1949, the bridge was reopened under the name Brücke der Einheit (bridge unit). Middle of the bridge marked a white line the border between West Berlin and the GDR. In 1952 the bridge was closed to traffic and on 3 July 1953, the bridge was completely closed to passenger traffic. Only military vehicles of the Allied occupation forces could still pass the bridge.

For the agents to exchange 1986 was already twice before come to an exchange agent at the Glienicke Bridge: On 10 November 1989, one day after the fall of the Berlin Wall , the bridge was opened for passenger traffic.
 * 1) On 10 February 1962, the Soviet spy was Rudolf Abel against the US U-2 -piloot Gary Powers exchanged
 * 2) On 11 June 1985, 23 political prisoners from the GDR exchanged four Eastern bloc spies.