Beueler Schanze
The Beueler Schanze was a weir system on the right bank of the Rhine from Bonn . It was built in 1583, demolished in 1713 and was often contested during this time. Numerous conquests of Bonn emanated from her.
history
Today's Konrad-Adenauer-Platz in Beuel , a district of Bonn, was not always as peaceful, albeit a busy place, as it is today. In earlier times there was heated argument here and not about gaining the right of way. It is located in a place that has only recently become a traffic hub and business center thanks to its location in front of the Rhine bridge . In the past, this area with vineyards, vegetable fields and fields belonged to the small, insignificant village of Combahn , which stretched like an elongated rectangle from the Rhine across between Vilich-Rheindorf and Beuel. A hill was built here from which the city of Bonn was shelled.
First construction in 1583
The first fortifications on the banks of the Rhine in Beuel were built by the Bavarian soldiers who hurried to the aid of Archbishop Ernst of Bavaria in the 1583 Truchsessian War . These positions served to dominate the Rhine and to cut off the royal seat from the waterways.
Four years later, Martin Schenk von Nideggen , who was allied with the Netherlands, which had defected from Spain (he had seized Bonn with a coup on the night of December 23, 1587), had a hill built on the Beueler Ufer to protect the city of Bonn from attacks should secure from the east. Work began on January 12, 1588. According to a contemporary report, Martin Schenk wanted to build “a huge, wide jump” and build it with a wide moat, evidently the oxbow lake of the Rhine, which in the course of today's Limpericher Straße over the Friedrich-Breuer- Road towards Vilich-Rheindorf ran, surrounded. The earth walls extend to about today's Von-Sandt-Straße on both sides of Konrad-Adenauer-Platz, where only the older field name "Auf dem Hahnen" refers to the former walling overgrown with hornbeams. In March 1588 the city of Bonn was besieged by the Spanish army under the command of the Prince of Chimay, Karl von Croy, in order to drive Schenk von Nideggen out of the city. After heavy fighting, the Beueler Schanze fell into the hands of the attackers in August 1588, and Bonn was stormed a month later.
Expulsion of the French occupation in 1689
A hundred years later the Beueler Schanze was again fiercely contested. An imperial army under the command of Elector Friedrich III. von Brandenburg had moved to the Rhine to drive the French, allied with Kurköln , out of the archbishopric. In order to gain a clear field of fire for the riflemen and gunners on all sides, the besieged had all houses pulled down and all trees felled within a quarter of an hour's walk. None of the few half-timbered houses of the old Combahn remained. Under the Brandenburg General Hans Albrecht von Barfus , the Brandenburg, Dutch, Münster and Paderborn regiments took up position in front of the hill. It so happened that during the bombardment, a Munster grenade struck the powder magazine of the hill and tore a breach in the defenses with an explosion from the inside. The remnants of the crew were then overwhelmed in the assault.
Elector Friedrich III. came over from Graurheindorf , where he had set up his quarters, to himself lead the preparations for the attack on the royal seat of Bonn. Gun after gun was now in position on the bank and aimed the barrels in the direction of the opposite city. According to an eyewitness report, there were 78 cannons. On the evening of July 24th, 1689, the bombardment began from the Beueler Schanze, which completely destroyed most of the city of Bonn. Only about 40 houses survived the firestorm. On October 9, 1689 the assault of the ground troops began. The next day the French asked for an armistice. The capitulation was signed on the 12th.
The end of the hill in 1713
Two decades later, the alliance between the Elector of Cologne and France again led to a military conflict. A French fortress builder, a student of the famous Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban , took on the task of building the Beueler Schanze from scratch. He had the fortress built in the shape of a pentagon and provided with crescents and bastions. The French named the new hill “Fort de Bourgogne”.
According to a plan from 1703, the fortifications on the Combahn-Beueler Rheinufer had a width of 750 m and inland a depth of up to 480 m. The entire area of today's Konrad-Adenauer-Platz with the adjacent streets was in the area of this fortress. For the first time, the facilities of the ski jump were made of massive construction, as were the city fortifications on the other side of the Rhine, mostly made of basalt , an extremely resistant material for the conditions at the time.
Now it was an allied army made up of the English, Dutch, Prussians and imperial troops who marched against Beuel in March 1703 and began the siege of Bonn . The city and the "Fort de Bourgogne" in Beuel were now enclosed on all sides. The leader of the English troops, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, was in command of the siege units . The Dutch fortress engineer General Menno van Coehoorn was entrusted with the command of the army that was to attack the Fort de Bourgogne . On May 9, 1703, he gave the order for an artillery attack. From four in the morning until late at night, projectiles from 52 cannons and 18 mortars rained down on the fortress. After this cylinder of fire, three battalions and 400 grenadiers advanced from their positions, stormed the ramparts over ladders and took possession of the fortress in a bloody scuffle. That same night, guns were aimed at Bonn on the banks of the Rhine. From May 12th Bonn was again shot at from the Beueler Schanze and shortly afterwards conquered. The surrender was signed on May 16. This victory meant the end for the Fort de Bourgogne. It was razed as stipulated by the Peace Treaty of Utrecht , which ended the war on April 11, 1713.
literature
- Bernhard Bertram: Archaeological finds - witnesses to the history of the Beuel-Kampf district for the Beueler Schanzen , Beuel 2001,
- Ignatz Schmitz-Reinhard: Kreissparkasse on the floor of the Beueler Schanze . Special edition of the Beueler Stadtnachrichten 1962
- Dietrich Höroldt (ed.): History of the city of Bonn - Volume 3 - Bonn as the capital and residence of the Electorate of Cologne. 1597 - 1794 , Bonn 1989