page_title: Oberbaum Bridge
section_title: Border crossing
hierarchical_section_title: Oberbaum Bridge / History / Border crossing
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Grenzübergang Oberbaumbrücke nach der Maueröffnung
context_page_description: The Oberbaum Bridge is a double-deck bridge crossing Berlin's River Spree, considered one of the city's landmarks. It links Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg, former boroughs that were divided by the Berlin Wall, and has become an important symbol of Berlin’s unity.
  The lower deck of the bridge carries a roadway, which connects Oberbaum Straße to the south of the river with Warschauer Straße to the north. The upper deck of the bridge carries Berlin U-Bahn lines and, between Schlesisches Tor and Warschauer Straße stations.
  The bridge appears prominently in the 1998 film Run Lola Run.
  The bridge also appears prominently in the TV Series Berlin Station.
context_section_description: When the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 the bridge became part of East Berlin's border with West Berlin; as all the waters of the River Spree were within the Friedrichshain limits, the East German fortifications extended up to the shoreline on the Kreuzberg side. As a result, the West Berlin U-Bahn line was forced to terminate at Schlesisches Tor. Beginning on 21 December 1963, the Oberbaum Bridge was used as a pedestrian border crossing for West Berlin residents only.
  Three brief openings of the bridge occurred by the summer of 1966. A permanent opening for pedestrians came with the 1972 Four Power Agreement for Berlin. A building for the East Berlin control authorities was built directly on the eastern bank of the Spree, across the street from the Oberbaumbrücke. The part of the subway viaduct crossing the Stralauer Allee at the bridge was completely demolished. The towers were demolished in the 1970s. Since the border on the Kreuzberg shore (Gröbenufer) ran along the Spree, several children from Kreuzberg drowned on the Oberbaum bridge because rescue personnel from west side could not reach them, and this was prohibited from the east side. In response to this an agreement on rescue operations in the event of accidents in Berlin's border waters was signed on October 29, 1975. In 1976, an emergency call column was installed on the southern bridgehead, after whose activation drowning help was provided.
  The coat of arms of the district Friedrichshain–Kreuzberg with the Oberbaumbrücke
  The Oberbaum Bridge, which formed part of the Friedrichshain coat of arms since 1991, was also included in the coat of arms of the new Berlin district of Friedrichshain–Kreuzberg after the district merger.
caption: Crowds at Oberbaumbrücke after the breach of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.
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