Bastion Hessen
The Hessen Bastion was a defensive structure of the former Magdeburg Fortress . It was built in 1688 and demolished at the end of the 19th century.
location
The building was located in Magdeburg in the northwest of the inner defensive belt of the fortress. It formed the hinge between the western and northern fronts and was flanked by the Halberstadt and Mark bastions . According to the current location, the bastion was in the area of the university square and the B1 tunnel.
history
Magdeburg already had a massive city wall in the 12th century, after which the defense systems were continuously improved and expanded to ward off enemy attacks. Extensive expansions took place at the beginning of the 16th century and after the end of the Thirty Years' War . In 1680 Magdeburg finally came under Brandenburg-Prussian rule and was declared a fortress city. After the Brandenburg Elector Friedrich Wilhelm, as the future sovereign, ordered the repair of the fortifications as early as 1666 , extensive expansion of the entire fortifications began in 1680. In a second construction phase starting in 1702, a wall of eleven bastions was built around the city , including the " Hessen " bastion , which was completed in 1688. Just like the “ Cleve ” or “ Minden ” bastions, its name should be a reminder of the growth in the area of Brandenburg since 1614.
The work was directed by Lieutenant Colonel engineer Hans Martin von Bosse. Most of the bastions were built to protect the existing city gates; in the case of the Hessen bastion, it was the Krökentor to the north . This had previously been protected by an upstream horn factory , which during the Thirty Years War could not prevent Magdeburg's conqueror Johann T'Serclaes von Tilly from invading the city through the Krökentor. First the old ramparts were removed and the Krökentor rebuilt. The bastion was built into the newly built wall. It was given a pentagonal floor plan, the tip of which was directed north. A quarry was in front of the bastion as a natural moat. The Magdeburg North Passage through the Krökentor was initially led around to the west of the bastion, after 1870 its course was relocated through the bastion. Inside the bastion, two levels were created, which were connected by stairs. There were several raised gun positions on the outer wall.
Between 1713 and 1740, under the direction of the Prussian engineer officer Gerhard Cornelius von Walrave, an outer wall with a further eleven bastions was built. The Hesse bastion moved into the second row, the so-called inner wall, in front of it was the Ferdinand bastion, which was oriented to the northeast. It was flanked by the lunette Hessen and the bastion Hessen . Although after the construction work in the 18th century Magdeburg was mentioned several times as the strongest fortress in Prussia , the fortifications proved to be insignificant in the war against Napoleon , because Magdeburg surrendered on November 8, 1806 without a fight to the advancing French troops.
During the time of the Kingdom of Westphalia established by Napoleon , Magdeburg was one of the most important fortresses on the French line of defense on the Elbe. Although Napoleon ordered the fortifications of Magdeburg's defenses, little was changed in the fortifications. The New Prussian fortress style of 1816 also left no traces on the Hessen Bastion, apart from retrofitting with modern war weapons.
The Hesse Bastion underwent a serious change in 1870 when the North Passage was led directly through the facility. With the imperial cabinet order of December 8, 1886, the abandonment of all fortifications in the empire was ordered. As a result, in Magdeburg, in 1888, work began to gradually dismantle the fortifications. It began with the northern front, to which the Hesse bastion also belonged. This fell victim to the laying out of Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz (today Universitätsplatz). The last remains were removed in 2005 when the B1 road tunnel was built.
literature
- Bernhard & Christiane Mai: Magdeburg Fortress , Janos Stekovics publishing house, 2006, ISBN 3-89923-098-1
Coordinates: 52 ° 8 ′ 20.4 " N , 11 ° 38 ′ 22.7" E