They called Glienicker Brücke ‘bridge of spies’, but some of the spy drama was fictional.

But there was plenty of intrigue around the border crossing between Cold War enemies.

For almost 300 years a bridge between Potsdam and Berlin had linked the cities. Then, for 40 years, it divided them.

From 1949 it was officially called Bridge of Unity, but could only be crossed by approved military personnel holding special identification documents – and intelligence operatives being swapped for their enemies.

Its stone-and-brick predecessor had been designed by the great Prussian architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel and built between 1831 and 1834. This followed the upgrading of the road between Potsdam and Berlin to a 'model highway' with toll points including the bridge.

But the bridge spans of the Schinkel design allowed only the smallest boats to pass beneath, which did not allow full exploitation of the expanses of lake.

The truss bridge, built in 1907 to replace its wooden and 19th century stone predecessors and rebuilt in steel after World War II damage, spans the river Havel’s lakeland in tranquil park surroundings.

At Glienicker Brücke today, all is peaceful. There is no sign of the nervous tension that for four decades surrounded the place. Only a sign reminds us the bridge used to mark a military and national border: ‘Germany and Europe were divided here until 6pm on November 10, 1989.’

Steel bridge, Iron Curtain

That date was momentous, because East Germany’s 40-year Communist regime was collapsing at breakneck speed. A snap press conference, a lack of detail and an offhand response from a government press official to a journalist’s question triggered a rush to Berlin’s usually tightly monitored border posts. Overwhelmed, the guards started letting people through to West Berlin.

Next day, a convoy of East German Trabant cars crossed the bridge, the first private traffic in 40 years.

The Cold War was over. Better than at most places, the period had been defined by Glienicker Brücke.

The bridge was the most convenient place for prisoner exchanges. There, the Iron Curtain was least obvious and there was no Berlin Wall.

There was a checkpoint and boom at the East German end of the bridge, but only a line and a makeshift barrier lay between East Germany and West Berlin, the island within it. A metal band on the pavement now marks the spot.

For years the bridge carried the famous sign ‘You are leaving the American sector’. In the early 1960s loudspeakers either side of the bridge threw out propaganda messages. The bridge was constantly watched from surrounding vantage points.

The ends of the bridge have painted in slightly different green colours since the West Berlin Senate agreed to finance repairs and repainting in 1984.

Cold War espionage

Despite the bridge’s reputation, it was the scene of only three exchanges of personnel between the Cold War enemies, involving about 40 prisoners between 1962 and 1986. Not all were spies.

The first and most famous was when the CIA U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance pilot Gary Powers was handed back to US officials in 1962 in exchange for the Soviet intelligence colonel known as Rudolf Abel, actually a British-born KGB agent called William Fisher.

Part of the exchange with Powers was an American economics student, Frederic Pryor, who was released simultaneously at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin.

Fisher had been arrested by the FBI in 1957 after being betrayed by a defector. Powers’ aircraft had been brought down over the Ural mountains while on an intelligence mission. Powers’ story was dramatised by actor Lee Majors (in a TV film) and the exchange in the 2015 feature film Bridge of Spies.

In the largest mass exchange, 23 Americans were exchanged for three Soviets and one Polish agent in 1985.

In 1986, the Czech KGB agents Karel and Hana Koechel were exchanged for dissidents, reportedly being driven away in a gold Mercedes.

Most of the intrigue involved the negotiations, conducted by diplomats, intelligence officers and lawyers, who were involved in setting up the exchanges. But the scene, a quiet bridge on a Cold War frontier under the careful gaze of both sides, would have been nervous for both sides.

Other exchanges were set at the bridge in the pages of popular espionage fiction.

Escapes to freedom

Three East German citizens managed to escape to West Berlin by swimming across near the bridge in the early 1960s. One, Hubert Hohlbein, used a diving suit and snorkel in November 1963 to make an underwater night escape, which took about 90 minutes under the threat of fire by border guards.

Hohlbein found West Berlin police, who warmed him with blankets and called for medical attention. But that was not the end of Hohlbein’s escape story, as he joined a West Berlin network that helped 57 other people, including his mother, to escape East Berlin.

The bridge was also the scene of the return to East Germany of light aircraft used in escapes to West Berlin, as well as the body of a US officer shot while on a reciprocal liaison mission in East Germany in 1985. Major Arthur Nicholson was regarded by the US as the last victim of the Cold War.

In 1988, three East German refugees drove a truck through defensive barriers and across the bridge to West Berlin.

Glienicker Brücke remains a reminder of division and a symbol of reconciliation. Today, the only boundary it forms is between the German states of Berlin and Brandenburg.

Visiting Glienicker Brücke

At the Potsdam end of the bridge is the grand 19th century residence Villa Schöningen, which today maintains museum exhibitions on the stories of Glienicker Brücke.

The bridge is surrounded by palaces, including Schloß Glienicke on the Berlin side, and the Neogothic Schloß Babelsberg, which are part of the UNESCO world-heritage site Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin. The bridge can be reached by tram or bus from central Potsdam or by bus from Berlin.

Potsdam’s other highlights include the palace Schloß Sanssouci and Park Sanssouci.

For all the details, download Raven Travel Guides Europe’s Potsdam travel guide. For in-depth background on European travel topics, and more travel tips, explore the resources at the Raven Guides website.