The Isolation of Stadtamhof

MAGYARUL

In the summer of 1945, a US Army project sent a film crew to document everyday life in post-war Germany, obviously with a focus on the destruction of war, but sometimes with some interesting moments. At the beginning of the aerial footage of USAAF Special Film Project #186 documenting the area around Regensburg, we get a bird's eye view of Stadtamhof from the rear of a plane flying north to south, then after the famous Stone Bridge we see Regensburg and the aftermath of the devastating bombing of its railway station. At the beginning of the film, we see three unfinished pillars in a fenced-off pond, the first stage in the transformation of the town of Stadtamhof into an island on the Danube.

The pillars of the Protzenweiher Brücke in Stadtamhof, summer of 1945 

(Source: National Archives and Records Administration

At first glance, the pond appears to be an artificial structure, the work of the human hand accentuated by the half-finished pillars of a bridge that leads nowhere. The location is Regensburg's old rival, Stadtamhof, on the north bank of the Danube, originally part of Bavaria, which was only administratively annexed to the imperial city of Regensburg on 1 April 1924. In the foreground of the picture you can see the church of St. Mang and the large monastery of the Augustinian canons, which is about 1,000 years old and lies to the east of the main road forming the axis of Stadtamhof, to the south the Danube, which bypasses the Oberer Wöhrd in Regensburg, and to the east the river Regen, which gives the town its name, border the district. 

A view on Regensburg from the Winzer Hills,
with the Oberer Wöhrd in the center and, Stadtamhof to the left

Stadtamhof has always had a direct link to the Danube, as has Regensburg and to a lesser extent to the hilly area behind it, crowned by the Trinity Church of Steinweg, which towers above the Danube valley. The Steinweg and Stadtamhof were not built together until recent times, and a wide field on either side of the main street of Stadtamhof leading to the ancient stone bridge (Steinerne Brücke) in Regensburg has always been preserved on old maps. During the Allied air campaign during the Second World War, this area was a fairground (Dultplatz), where town fairs were held. These fairs flourished especially from 1875 onwards, when the mayor of neighbouring Regensburg banned them, often covering the whole of the main street in Stadtamhof. There was, however, an older, more colloquial name for the area, which, as opposed to the socio-geographical name, refers to the environment in which this fairground was established at the time, and which was retained by the town planning in the name of the bridge that was later built; Protzenweiher, i.e. an area of water (Weiher) where toads (Protzen, or Brotzen) lived.  

The still existing creek north from Stadtamhof on a western oriented map from 1797.
(Source: mapire.eu)

From a geomorphological point of view, this area was probably originally a branch of the Danube, which may have been filled by the late Middle Ages (Hochmittelalter), and archaeological evidence of this has been found. In other words, Stadtamhof was founded on a high plateau, on a flattened island in the Danube, bordered by the Danube to the south and a low marshy floodplain to the north. The geomorphology of the area is illustrated in the following picture, taken in 1970 during a Danube flood on Stadtamhof's main street, looking north towards the church of Steinweg (with the Regensburg Cathedral to the south). The foreground of the picture is higher up, with cobblestones visible, while the area also slopes down towards the north. The Protzenweiher was recorded as being frequently flooded by the Danube, and the water remained in the form of lakes and ponds for a relatively long time, filling in the lower-lying areas, and in winter it also served as a natural skating rink. These floods caused serious disruption to navigation on the Danube, as the arches of the Stone Bridge blocked the river in its entire section, making it impossible for boats to cross underneath, while the Protzenweiher was also blocked in the other direction. 

Flood in Stadtamhof in 1970 with a view towards Steinweg. (Source) 

It is not only east-west traffic that has been disrupted by the floods, but also north-south traffic. In 1784, the road between Stadtamhof and Steinweg was the victim of a major flood on the Danube, and it is important to note that it was not a bridge but a brick embankment, although it was known locally as a bridge (Waisenhausbrückl). The remains of two older similar crossings were found when excavation work began in March 1973 on a new shipping route through the Protzenweiher field, known as the Europakanal. A bridge may have existed here before, but it is certain that when the Stone Bridge was built in 1146, spanning at least two, but more likely three, branches of the Danube, it was not considered necessary to build a bridge over the Protzenweiher branch, the embankment, on which there was almost certainly some kind of culvert to allow the higher water levels to pass. This culvert can be seen on the 1797 map section above. Soon afterwards, this culvert disappears from the maps, as during the Napoleonic Wars, Stadtamhof, which had no fortifications, suffered serious damage, with large parts of the town burnt down by cannon fire from French and Austrian troops. The ruins of the burnt buildings were not taken far, and the nearby Protzenweiher was filled in. This anthropogenic accumulation of 'sediment' is thought to have been constant throughout history, and may have accelerated in times of war.

Stadtamhof in 1943. Source: GoogleEarth

A 20. századra a dunai hajóforgalom növekedése miatt Regensburg híres-nevezetes kőhídja egyre inkább akadályává vált a folyami közlekedésnek, Regensburg vált a nemzetközi dunai hajózás végső kikötőjévé, ugyanis a teherhajók már nem fértek át a vaskos pillérek között. Azonban a város jelképének számító nyolc évszázados hidat mégsem bonthatták le ilyen prózai indokkal, ezért alternatív nyomvonalat kellett találni a hajók számára. Kapóra jött a Stadtamhof és Steinweg közötti szabad terület, ahol még épületeket sem kellett lerombolni egy új csatorna kedvéért, legfeljebb a vásártérnek kellett új helyet keresni. A csatorna építése már az 1930-as években megkezdődött a Regen folyó felőli kotrással, 1939-1940 között elkészültek az új híd pillérei is, de ezek valamilyen oknál fogva nem a Kőhídra vezető út nyomvonalára kerültek, hanem egy utcányival keletebbre, ahol néhány épületet el kellett volna bontani, azonban ezek 1945-ben még álltak. Az építkezést a második világháború kitörése megakasztotta, de Protzenweiher híd acélszerkezetét 1953-ra sikerült befejezni, azonban a zsilip nem épült ekkor még meg, és a félkész híd 15 éven keresztül kihasználatlanul állt. 

By the 20th century, the increased volume in shipping on the Danube meant that Regensburg's famous Stone Bridge became more and more of an obstacle to river traffic, and Regensburg became the terminal port for international Danube shipping, as larger cargo ships could not fit between the thick pillars. However, the eight-century-old bridge, the symbol of the city, was not to be dismantled for such prosaic reasons, and an alternative route for the ships had to be found. The free space between Stadtamhof and Steinweg was a perfect choice, where no buildings had to be demolished to make way for a new canal, and the only thing that was needed was a new site for the market square. The construction of the canal had already begun in the 1930s with the dredging on the Regen river, and between 1939 and 1940 the piers of the new bridge were completed, but for some reason they were not placed on the route to the Stone Bridge, but a street to the east, where some buildings would have had to be demolished, but were still standing in 1945. Construction was halted by the outbreak of the Second World War, but the steel structure of the Protzenweiher Bridge was completed by 1953, but the lock was not built and the unfinished bridge stood unused for 15 years. 

The almost finishec Canal in July of 1974. (Source: Bundesanstalt für Wasserbau)

The next "first step" of the Europakanal construction was made in March 1973, and at the same time the Regensburg hydroelectric power station was built further west, at the western tip of the Oberer Wöhrd, and started to operate in 1977, the year before the canal was completed. Its dam raised the Danube level by 4.7 metres, swelling the river for 21 kilometres. The canal's 12-metre-wide lock may not seem large, but it provides a bypass for the Danube-Main-Rhine canal traffic, allowing shipping to bypass Regensburg.

The different levels of the Europakanal (left) and the Danube (right)

The Stadtamhof district gradually lost its through traffic, with the Nibelungen Bridge, opened in 1936, playing a major role. On 3 May 1978, it officially became an island in the Danube, accessible only by bridges. In total, there are seven bridges leading to the island, but four of them are pedestrian bridges, including the Stone Bridge, from which car traffic was first banned in 1997 and then, after the World Heritage Site was awarded, buses and taxis from 1 August 2008. The decision to turn one of the 'main streets' of world history into a pedestrian thoroughfare was taken in recognition of the serious damage to the structure of the historic bridge caused by the 1903-1945 tram traffic and heavy vehicles. The Protzenweiher Bridge was, however, built at the eastern end of the lock chamber, right where the US Army had filmed the foundations in 1945. After 1972, the fairground (Dultplatz) was moved east of Stadtamhof, and today this concrete parking lot makes up the entire western part of Stadtamhof Island.  

The lock of the Europakanal in Stadtamhof

Today, around 6000-7000 ships pass through the lock each year. However, the tower at the eastern end of the lock chamber is empty and the lockkeepers have moved away as the system is operated remotely. This tower was built symmetrically, as it was always planned that there would be a second canal and lock. But this never materialised in the end, and probably never will, as the toadfrog swamp has since been built up to the sluice on both sides. 

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)