The main directions taken by road bridges in Germany in the twentieth century

Using the example of German bridge construction and its international connections, this paper describes how the successful refurbishment and strengthening of road bridges benefits from a knowledge of construction history. The author focuses on the knowledge about chains of development for prestressed concrete, steel–concrete composites and steel and divides these into an innovation phase before World War II and a post-war establishment phase. It is shown that the key progress took place in prestressing and in the construction of continuous superstructure cross-sections irrespective of the material. It therefore becomes clear how, in Germany, prestressed concrete bridges came to prevail for common spans and how a related form of construction, cable-stayed bridges, became the favourite for large bridges in the country.