Oberbaumbrucke and the Ost Hafen

Since we spend so much time at Warschauer Strasse in Friederichshain (where work is), I decided to do a post about the area. Imagine that.

The Razorfish office sits on the East Berlin side of the Wall border. The longest stretch of remaining Wall fortifications sits a block away. The subway train bridge crosses over the Wall, providing the unique sense that you are crossing over the border to go to work. It helps with a little imagination, which I have a lot of. Right next to the RF offices is another city landmark, the Oberbaumbrucke.

The bridge name "Oberbaumbrucke" translates to "Over the Tree Bridge." In the days when merchants came up the river to sell things in the city, they had to pay a toll at the bridge. At night the tolls were not collected so to prevent people from slipping through, a large tree trunk with huge spikes driven through it was suspended from the bridge over the toll gate to form a barrier.

It is one of the most famous bridges in the city and frequently appears in the background of Berlin publicity shots, movie sets, and countless tourist selfies.

                        

Here is a side-by-side looking at the bridge in the mid-80s. US Amy jeeps patrol the Western side of the Spree border strip with the bridge in the background. Over the soldier's left shoulder is one of the pedestals on the bridge:

Same location, today:

Wider angle shot, with turrets on bridge now visible. On left across the Spree is the East Side Gallery, the longest remaining section of the Wall:




The Razorfish office is the peaked building in picture center, behind the bridge. Also in center is vertical gray border control guard tower. This picture is from the 80's when no money had been allocated to restoring the bridge (which did not happen until 1993) so the pedestals just had weeds growing where the turrets now stand:

The Razorfish office is contained in the Ost Hafen Speichern, which means the Eastern Port storage facility. Barge traffic since the early days of the city stopped here to unload goods, which prompted the construction of huge warehouses along this part of the river. The same thing exists on the other side of the city where the Spree and Havel rivers come in. "Our" building apparently was the prime transit point for eggs into the DDR, as in all eggs that were consumed in the planned East German economy came through our building at one point. We're on the 4th and 5th floor on the left side of the building.

Picture taken from the Oberbaumbrucke looking East to the port and the current Razorfish building.

Earlier, the area saw intense fighting at the Soviets closed on the city from the East at the end of WWII. Many of the warehouses were destroyed and they became cleared lots and railroad transfer points for the DDR. Today a couple schwank hotels have been built on top of the old railroad lines along the port in the empty lots where nothing was built after the war rubble got cleared away.

In a nod to history, when they redid the bank "promenade" in front of the office (pulling up the rail lines that ran alongside the barge docks) they put down a design that mimics the path of the old lines:

And some of the lots are still empty, specifically the ones down towards the Elsenbrucke at the far end of the above shot:

This is a former railroad grade that angles down into a now blocked-off tunnel underneath the train and road bridges at the Eastern end of the Hafen. They took the pains to pull up the track but then nothing happened with the lot so it reverts back to nature. And used spray paint cans.

The former East Berlin, Friederichshain area: crumbling pieces of warehouses spray painted on empty lots with block apartments in the distance. Apartments that are now getting refurbished and commanding high prices, forcing the spray painters to now travel longer distances in to make their marks.