Öffentliche Toilette Ludwigsbrücke

The Öffentliche Toilette Ludwigsbrücke occupies a small single-storey building beside the bridge approach in Germany. Pairs of bronze lions guard both ends of the bridge, which opened in 1895. The approach itself carries a grand staircase, a grotto-style fountain, and obelisks with bronze lamps, arranged as one entrance scene in 1894. Stone, water, bronze and movement meet there, and the toilet joined the ensemble some years later.

The building dates from around 1910 and follows historicism, a style that revived older architectural traditions. Its particular accent is chinoiserie: the European fashion for Chinese-inspired forms and decoration. Plaster covers the upper walls, edged with limestone frames, while the lower level stands in exposed limestone. A hipped roof completes the composition with its balanced shape and framed surfaces. War damage reached it in 1945, and a later reconstruction brought it back into use.

Today the same purpose continues, and the entrance sits on the bridge approach. On the roof ridge a little lantern still gives the modest structure a silhouette worth a second glance.