Bornholmer Straße border crossing

The border crossing was a Bornholm road border crossing at the Berlin Wall 1961-1990, linking the districts of Prenzlauer Berg and Wedding in North Berlin about the evil bridge.

Naming and development

He has from its location on the Bornholm road that takes its name - named in 1903 after the Danish Baltic Sea island of Bornholm - by the then districts of Prenzlauer Berg and Wedding (now parts of the districts of Pankow and Mitte, the district healthy well ) runs. The Bornholm road is part of the outer ring road from the Berlin Zoning of 1862.

The 9th of November 1989 and the memory of it

After the broadcast live Statement Günter Schabowski at a press conference on 9 November 1989 that the East Germans would get the freedom to travel, the border crossing Bornholm was road the first border crossing in Berlin, where at 23.30 clock, passport controls have been set and the thousands GDR citizens took the opportunity to go to West Berlin.

During the evening, thousands of East German citizens gathered at the border crossing to get to West Berlin. The head of the border crossing street Bornholm, Lieutenant Colonel Harald Jäger asked his superiors after several times, is how to proceed, received from these, however, no or meaningless statements. After triggering the alarm chain, the statement (from about 21:20 clock ) single people came to approve the leave. The East German identity card, was designed for a stamp half on the photograph. This should prevent re- entry into the GDR - the people were also not informed. Thus, the problem was not fixed, however, more and more GDR citizens gathered in front of the border crossing Bornholm road.

The situation worsened further on site. Left alone by his superiors, let Harald Jäger, apparently angry about their behavior and resigned before the issue, contrary to the command position on 9 November 1989 23:29 clock arbitrarily open the border crossing point and adjust all passport controls. The transition thus became the first point at which the Berlin Wall was opened. The hitherto almost 1000 Travel willing who had gathered at the border crossing point, were allowed to emigrate to the West.

Together each November 9 at the evil bridge in the evenings Berlin residents as well as the two mayors of the city districts Mitte and Pankow to remember with a glass of sparkling wine at the events of 1989. On the first anniversary of the Berlin Wall, a memorial stone was erected east of the bridge on the site of the former border crossing point. This is made of a wall segment. Its inscription reads: since August 1961 opened at the bridge Bornholm street on the night of November 9 to 10 first time in 1989 the wall. The Berlin came together again. Willy Brandt "Berlin will live and the wall will fall. " In the western truss Bösebrücke there is a plaque with the inscription: Bösebrücke 1961-1989 DDR-Grenzübergang/war on 9 November 1989, the first border crossing the inner German border, at the the GDR border barriers fell.

Environment

Below the bridge closest train station Bornholm street of the Berlin S-Bahn, which was a ghost station at that time. On the grounds of the former border crossing was located after the German reunification temporarily a car commercial. After the sale of the site to an investor a supermarket was built on the area in mid-2011.

In the former wall below the Bösebrücke today runs a section of the Berlin Wall path at a small alley of Japanese ornamental cherry trees. These are a gift of the fundraiser Sakura Campaign a Japanese TV station as an expression of great concern to the events of the German reunification. The cherry trees are to bring peace and tranquility in the heart of Berlin, the Japanese wished for.

On 9 November 2010 the Bornholm road space of 9 November 1989 was consecrated on the eastern side of the evil bridge north, on which a picture gallery with photos of the wall opening is seen, will be remembered with the history of the border crossing on the evil bridge. Funding was provided out of the assets of the parties and mass organizations of the former German Democratic Republic. This place is no place in a large sense, as there are no buildings on it. It is rather a narrow 200 -meter terrain area next to the Bornholm road, which is bounded by the former hinterland Wall still present. From this pull through at irregular intervals stainless steel strips the flooring. At these is chronological commemorates the events of November 9, 1989. The memorial stone made ​​of a wall segment was transposed by the site of the former border crossing point on the redesigned site. Planted is the place with a special breeding Japanese ornamental cherry trees that in the spring, in mild weather but also blooms in November.