Dömitz Fortress
The fortress Dömitz is a fortress in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . The plant is strategically located on the Elbe in the city of Dömitz .
history
Military use until 1894
Protected by the Elbe , a round castle was built on a flood-free spot in the 13th century . Little is known of the buildings that were built from field stones and bricks . The foundations of a round tower have been proven during excavations in the fortress courtyard. The building substance of the main hall and a tower a few meters further to the west are still present in the lower area of today's museum building.
The Mecklenburg Duke Johann Albrecht I had the largest fortress in Mecklenburg built between 1559 and 1565 in order to secure the southwest border of Mecklenburg and the Elbe crossings. The entire system was planned by the Italian Francesco a Bornau . It was built in just six years, for which Johann Albrecht I had a brick factory built in the vicinity and even employed bricklayers from Italy to compensate for the labor shortage in the surrounding area. The citadel has a pentagonal plan with 5 bastions . The bastions are named Kavalier, Held, Dragon, Griffin and Burg (starting at the entrance gate and continuing clockwise) . All bastions have casemates . The curtains between the bastions are up to nine meters high.
During the Thirty Years War , the place and fortress served as a base for changing parties, including Tilly and Wallenstein . In 1635, the entire place was burned down as part of the Battle of Dömitz . Since the middle of the 17th century at the latest, the city was fortified by a rampart with a moat in front of it, as can be seen from the city maps of that time. From 1705 the fortress was also used as a madhouse and prison. In 1719, Duke Karl Leopold moved his seat of government to Dömitz before he had to leave Dömitz in 1723. In 1755 the asylum and madhouse were expanded. In the second half of the 18th century, the Greif bastion was significantly rebuilt. Their casemates were given three gun positions in each of the two flanks, and the entrance was prepared for direct entry by wagons. In 1809 battles took place in Dömitz as part of the wars of liberation against Napoleon . The fortress and the city were shot at and taken by Dutch and French troops. In 1830 the madhouse was moved to Schwerin. The writer Fritz Reuter , who wrote in Low German , spent the last part of his imprisonment at the fortress from 1838 to 1840 . He was released on August 25, 1840. In his book Ut mine fortress stid ("From my fortress time") he reports about this time. The prison has not been used for civilian inmates since 1843.
During the reign of Grand Duke Friedrich Franz II , the fortress was again extensively renovated in the middle of the 19th century. The outer walls of the bastions and curtains were repaired or partially rebuilt. The brick flanks of the Drache bastion have been replaced by steep earth embankments. For additional defense, an intermediate wall with a drawbridge and loopholes was built between the bastion and the inner courtyard. During the construction of the railway bridge over the Elbe in 1870, the Berlin-Hamburger Eisenbahn- Gesellschaft was issued the following construction requirements in order to be able to defend the bridge against an enemy crossing the Elbe : “The Elbe bridge at Dömitz must not be more than 2000 paces away from the Dömitz citadel and must contain a swing bridge , similar to the bridge at Hämerten . In addition, two river pillars are to be provided with demolition mines and the access to both sides of the bridge is to be secured by drum-like closures with watchtowers . "
In 1894 the military stopped using the fortress.
Civil use from 1894
Shortly after the fortress was abandoned, some of the buildings were extended with apartments or used as administrative buildings. The former building of the asylum and asylum was demolished and a dam was built in place of the access bridge at the entrance to the fortress using the rubble. A fairground was built in the courtyard in the 1920s.
In 1953 a museum on the region and city of Dömitz was opened in the commandant's house. Due to its close proximity to the inner-German border , Dömitz was in the restricted area and the citadel was not accessible to foreign visitors. This only changed in 1973 with the introduction of small border traffic . The inner courtyard, the local history museum and the Burg Bastion were again accessible to the general public. In 1975 the citadel was placed under monument protection. The border fortifications on the Elbe side, however, were further expanded. The glacis was partially leveled and the windows of the bastions walled up, which led to an increase in moisture and the associated frost damage in the masonry due to the lack of ventilation.
After the reunification , the citadel was renovated and has since been used as a museum and event location for cultural purposes. In the meantime, with the exception of the casemates of Bastion Held, all areas are accessible to visitors again. Several exhibitions on the history of the fortress and the town of Dömitz are shown in the local history museum. In the tower building there is a gallery with changing art exhibitions. Concerts and theater performances take place regularly on the open-air stage in the courtyard. In 2013 the access dam was replaced by a bridge construction with a drawbridge . In 2015, the exhibition rooms in Bastion Greif with the exhibition "Basically" were put into operation. Together with the armory, it belongs to the visitor information center of the UNESCO Elbe-Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania River Landscape Biosphere Reserve , which has been located at the fortress since April 2013.
Museum building in the courtyard of the fortress
Curtain wall and bastion dragon
Cannons in a casemate (reconstruction)
Intermediate wall at the Dragon bastion
Bastion hero
literature
- Roland Kutzki : The fortress Dömitz. Can urban development funding help with redevelopment? In: Hans-Rudolf Neumann: Preservation and use of historical citadels . Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2002, ISBN 3-8053-2987-3 .
- Jürgen Scharnweber: Dömitz fortress in 1000 year old Mecklenburg . Köhring, Lüchow 1995, ISBN 3-926322-18-7 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Law collection for the royal Prussian states, 1870, booklet 30. No. 7685 .: Concession and confirmation document, regarding the construction and operation of a branch railway from Wittenberge via Dömitz and Lüneburg to the connection to the Osnabrück - Bremen - Hamburger Eisenbahn, by the Berlin - Hamburger Eisenbahngesellschaft and an addendum to the statute of the latter. 16 June 1870.
- ↑ Biosphere reserve opens in April environmental exhibition “Basically” in the casemates of Bastion Greif on Dömitz Fortress. In: Ludwigsluster Tageblatt. (Online version from January 22, 2015)
Coordinates: 53 ° 8 ′ 32.5 " N , 11 ° 14 ′ 44.4" E