Germany: Bridge in Dresden collapses into Elbe river

31 comments

1. Deutsche qualität

2. I blame Bomber Harris

3. Fortunately, no one was injured

4. I guess the Schuldenbremse keeps taking its toll

5. How very, let’s say, ungerman.

6. WTF

7. I was on this bridge a month ago 😞

8. Well, but at least the budget is balanced and the debt is not growing. That’s the important part. Who needs bridges anyway?

9. Did Indrid Cold call before it happened?

10. what is it with bridges collapsing all of a sudden in the past few years? I don’t remember that happening this much or am I crazy?

11. Was it Russia’s doing?!

12. **[Minister president of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer:]** It’s a great pleasure, thank you.

    **[Interviewer:]** This bridge that was involved in the incident in Dresden this week…

    **[MP Kretschmer:]** Yeah, the one that collapsed into the river?

    **[Interviewer:]** Yeah

    **[MP Kretschmer:]** That’s not very typical, I’d like to make that point.

    **[Interviewer:]** Well, how is it untypical?

    **[MP Kretschmer:]** Well, there are a lot of these bridges around the world, and very seldom does anything like this happen … I just don’t want people thinking that bridges aren’t safe.

    **[Interviewer:]** Was this bridge safe?

    **[MP Kretschmer:]** Well I was thinking more about the other ones…

    **[Interviewer:]** The ones that are safe…

    **[MP Kretschmer:]** Yeah, the ones that don’t collapse into a river.

    **[Interviewer:]** Well, if this wasn’t safe, why did it have regular tram and foot traffic on it?

    **[MP Kretschmer:]** Well, I’m not saying it wasn’t safe, it’s just perhaps not quite as safe as some of the other ones.

    **[Interviewer:]** Why?

    **[MP Kretschmer:]** Well, some of them are built so they don’t collapse into a river at all.

    **[Interviewer:]** Wasn’t this built so it wouldn’t collapse into a river?

    **[MP Kretschmer:]** Well, obviously not.

    **[Interviewer:]** How do you know?

    **[MP Kretschmer:]** Well, ‘cause it collapsed into the river, and 500,000 people are cut off from warm water, in autumn. It’s a bit of a give-away. I would just like to make the point that that is not normal.

    **[Interviewer:]** Well, what sort of standards are these bridges built to?

    **[MP Kretschmer:]** Oh, very rigorous … structural engineering standards.

    …

13. CDU and FDP: This is fine. Need to balance the budget. As if this is a fucking private business.

    SPD: stick thumb up their ass, do what CDU and FDP.

    Linke: disintegrated like the bridge.

    BSW: let’s blame it on Ukraine. Peace with Russia will solve this.

    AfD: must have been lgbt Muslim foreigners, supported by the Grüne.

    Grüne: Wishing this shit Ampel Coalition would end.

14. Imagine being in tram on it if it had collapsed then. Yikes.

15. Watch someone blame western Germans/the government for not investing enough money in Eastern Germany. 35 years of pumping money is not quite there yet.

16. Unmade in Germany.

17. Is the older infrastructure from the former East Germany (DDR) in a worse condition?

    I’m just assuming that it would have been built to a different spec and under very different economics to former West German infrastructure of the same age.

    I know a lot of early post WWII infrastructure in general is reaching its end of life in a lot of places, but just wondering if there are significant differences. Building standards, choice of materials etc must have been quite different given the two former entities were run very differently.

18. the good old Schuldenbremse

19. Germany is a shithole

20. The status of “Made in Germany”

21. Did napoleon lose again

22. We’ve wandered 2 months ago under that bridge to see fabulous Parkway Drive there. Thank god it happened now when nobody was present there, and only some part of it..

23. Has AfD brought back the ghost of Bomber Harris?

24. Well that isn’t supposed to happen.

25. When you think things can’t get more embarassing for Germany (train disaster, societal collapse..)

26. *somethingsomething*LAZYITALIANENNEVERHAPPENHERE*somethingsomething*

27. I see a lot of maintenance in western Germany bridges and infrastructure (Bayern). I wouldn’t generalize what happens in Dresden to what happens in the rest of the country

28. A miracle nobody died or got injured

29. Sounds like UNESCO decision to remove Dresden from its WH list was sound

30. Well, one less bridge – did anyone call UNESCO yet asking to get the status of the Elbe river valley as a world heritage site back?

31. Is Germany having as many problems with infrastructure investment as the UK? Seeing very similar narratives.