This was not the first bridge to span the Havel River connecting Potsdam, the capital of Brandenburg, and the Wannsee district of Berlin. The first bridge was made of wood, constructed in about 1660 to facilitate access to hunting grounds near the ancient village of Stolpe. After several expansions to manage increased traffic, in 1907 a design contest was held resulting in a modern, iron bridge. Nearly forty years later, just months before the end of World War II in Europe, the retreating German army planned to blow up the bridge to slow the advance of the Russians, but an unexploded shell accidentally did the work for them, causing severe damage and rendering the bridge useless.
Reconstruction of the bridge was not completed until 1949. By then, Berlin had been divided between East and West and a white line painted mid-way on the bridge to designate the separation.
In 1952, East Germany closed the bridge to citizens of West Berlin and West Germany and closed the bridge to East German citizens after the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Only allied military personnel and foreign diplomats had access to this symbol of a defeated and divided Germany.
Named after nearby Glienicke Palace, Glienicke Bridge became the location for several significant prisoner exchanges during the Cold War, beginning with the first swap on a cold February morning in 1962 when Soviet spy Rudolf Abel walked across the bridge from West Berlin to Potsdam and American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers approached West Berlin from Potsdam – one crossing that white line to freedom, the other to an uncertain fate behind the Iron Curtain.
Glienicke Bridge entered popular culture in 2015 when the movie, “Bridge of Spies” was released in theaters throughout the United States starring Tom Hanks as James Donovan, the attorney who negotiated that famous exchange. This is more than a typical Hollywood spy-thriller. It tells the story of a man who was recruited, reluctantly, to defend Rudolf Abel against charges of spying for the Soviet Union. Donovan had been the assistant to Justice Robert Jackson during the Nuremberg trials held to prosecute Nazi war criminals. He was dedicated to the American ideals of justice, equal protection of the law and due process as enshrined in the United States Constitution. In the case of Abel, that dedication prevailed over those who would subvert those ideas to secure a quick and popular verdict against a Soviet spy.
Embedded in this story is an encounter between Donovan and a U.S. government agent who attempts to solicit information from Donovan but is rebuked by Donovan’s assertion that conversations between him and his client are “privileged.” The agent presses him, “Aw, come on, counselor. I understand the attorney-client privilege. I understand all the legal gamesmanship…but I’m talking to you about the security of your country…We need to know what Abel is telling you…We don’t have a rulebook here.”
Here Donovan makes a critical observation, leading to perhaps the most poignant statement of the film. He queries the agent, stating his name, noting he is of German extraction. Then Donovan identifies his own background – Irish, on both sides. “I’m Irish.” he says, “You’re German, but what makes us both Americans? It’s just one thing. One. The rulebook. We call it the Constitution, and we agree to the rules and that’s what makes us Americans.”
As a nation of immigrants from its inception more than four hundred years ago, at times we wrestle with what it means to be an American. We are not defined by ethnicity, religion, caste or specific cultural traditions. While our diversity is an important source of our strength, it is also a potential source of division.
The glue that binds us is, as portrayed so eloquently by Tom Hanks as James Donovan, is the Constitution, designed to create a “more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty.” Augmented by a list of specified freedoms, equal protection of the law and due process secured in the Bill of Rights, the Constitution is the lodestar of America and the ultimate source of its promise of “the American Dream.” It is the “rulebook” for all of us.
Sadly, surveys consistently reveal that a majority of Americans do not know the basic purpose of the Constitution, much less its contents. A majority cannot pass the basic civics test that all immigrants seeking U.S. citizenship must pass before being granted citizenship. Need to brush up? Check out this interactive Constitution.