Today the Kennedy Bridge The Bonn bridge was inaugurated 70 years ago

Bonn · This November, 70 years ago, people in Bonn and Beuel celebrated the inauguration of the new Rhine bridge. The majority of people in Bonn were very skeptical at first.

 Thousands cross the bridge shortly after the ceremonial blessing by Cardinal Joseph Frings.

Thousands cross the bridge shortly after the ceremonial blessing by Cardinal Joseph Frings.

Foto: GA/GA-ARCHIV

"De Bröck is widde do!" (The bridge is back again!) On 12 November 1949, Lord Mayor Peter Stockhausen called out these five long-awaited words to the crowd of thousands of people on both sides of the Rhine on a stormy autumn morning. With the inauguration of the new and only Bonn Rhine Bridge (Kennedy Bridge since 1963), thousands of people ended their daily struggle for a place on the ferry boat and their fear of not getting to work in time due to fog, high water or to operational malfunctions.

For many people in Bonn, the pain that they had felt since the old bridge was blown up by the German Wehrmacht on the evening of 8 March 1945 as senseless destruction, and the long-term separation between the two banks of Bonn was also over.

"The ribbon is cut – the banks are united," was the headline in the General-Anzeiger. The lifeline of the city began to throb again from that day and the people of Bonn and Beuel celebrated. Colourful garlands and strips of pennants flew above the streets and the new bridge itself was decorated with a sea of flags in all colours. At both bridgeheads was a folk festival atmosphere with sausage stalls, drink stands and merry-go-rounds. The legendary Cardinal Josef Frings (who came from the Beuel side like Chancellor Konrad Adenauer) blessed the new bridge and in the evening there was a half-hour-long firework display.

Initially, the majority of the people in Bonn were very skeptical. "They won’t be finished in years; God knows when the bridge will be ready for traffic,” said many at the start of the work. But after an incredible construction period of only eight months, the bridge was ready and waiting.

And the little bridge manikin (the Bröckemännche) was also there again, which was restored by the Bonn sculptor Jakobus Linden. He wrote a typical Rhineland bill to the city of Bonn: “Dem Bröckemännche de Botz jeflick” (The bridge man has got new trousers). The little statue was ceremoniously unveiled and pointed south instead of towards Beuel. After Bonn had just beaten Frankfurt in the race to become the capital, the rumour quickly spread that the sculpture had been deliberately “turned” to this position. In reality however, it was due to the fact that there was no brickwork above the road surface into which the "Bröckemännche" could have been built as before.

(Original text; Bernd Linnarz, translation John Chandler)

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