Celebrations of Emperor Franz

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The fortress of Kaiser Franz in Koblenz-Lützel with the southern end of the main reduit (left) and the throat tower (right)
Festival of Kaiser Franz, aerial photo (2016)
The courtyard of the throat tower
Access to the main moat in front of the main entrance

The Feste Kaiser Franz , also called Feste Franz , was part of the Prussian fortress Koblenz and the main work of the Feste Kaiser Franz system . The fortress on Petersberg in today's Koblenz district of Lützel was completed in 1822. After its demolition in 1922, large remains of the fortress were blown up in 1959. The two lateral ends of the semicircular redoubt and the throat tower at the foot of the Petersberg have been preserved. It was named after the Austrian Emperor Franz I , an ally of Prussia in the Holy Alliance against Napoleon in the Wars of Liberation .

history

Construction and further expansion

The plant, planned by General Ernst Ludwig von Aster as early as 1814 , was built between 1816 and 1822 according to plans by the Prussian engineer officer Claudius Franz Le Bauld de Nans . In November 1818 the fortification on the Petersberg was named after Emperor Franz I. The fortress was occupied with troops in 1823.

Due to damage to the building and the risk of collapse, the left valley wall was moved about six meters towards the inner courtyard in 1834–1835. The passage into the Reduithof was moved from casemate block 1 to block 2. Further measures followed in 1841–1843 with the stabilization of the slope-side wall of the postern by building up nine pillars, as cracks appeared in the vault, and in 1861 with the drainage of the moat on the left.

In the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, the POW camp II for French soldiers was built on the Petersberg. The prisoners who died here were buried at the foot of the Petersberg in the newly created French cemetery in the area of ​​the Marceau monument .

As the last major renovation work, the reduit facing the work yard was given a jacket in 1876–1877, which was accessible inside through two hollow passages. This is how the military reacted to the improvements in gun technology that had taken place up to that point.

As a result of the Franco-Prussian War, the fortress of Koblenz took second place due to the win of the French fortresses in the realm of Alsace-Lorraine . After the parts of the Koblenz fortress on the left bank of the Rhine were classified as less important in January 1886, the fortress in Lützel was finally given up in 1890, together with the entire Kaiser Feste Franz system , but the facilities initially remained under military administration.

Grinding

After the First World War , the Kaiser Franz fortress, like the other Koblenz fortifications, had to be deconsolidated in accordance with Article 180 of the Versailles Treaty . Before that, it was occupied by American troops in 1919. Far-reaching work was planned such as B. the removal of the three moat weirs, the destruction of various cavities and powder magazines. With the exception of the counter scabbard in the right face and part of the wall in the front, all the moat walls were destroyed, most of the walls were removed and the moats filled. Work on the fortification began at the end of November 1920 and was accepted on November 25, 1921 by representatives of the Inter-Allied Military Control Commission . With the blowing up of the ceiling of war powder magazine I and the filling of the open cavity, the work was finally finished on July 20, 1922. The impressive remains of the Reduit including the throat tower ( revers caponier ), the main gate with the adjoining postern , the mortar battery in the workshop and the outer wall of communication to the Bubenheimer Flesche , which still serves as a retaining wall due to the height difference to the terrain below, have been preserved.

Further use and demolition

After 1930 the city of Koblenz took over the area. At that time, homeless people had already settled in the Reduit. Various plans for redesigning the softened area were not implemented. During the Nazi era , a labor camp for foreign foreign workers was set up on the site, while Sinti and Roma were interned in the Reduit in 1938 , who were deported to Auschwitz via the main train station in 1943 and gassed there. During the Second World War , the caves in the fortress served the people of Koblenz as air raids to protect them from air raids on Koblenz . An anti-aircraft gun was set up on the first casemate block to protect the freight station . On December 28, 1944, a bomb hit the communication to the Moselflesche and kills 35 (?) People.

After the war, one of Koblenz's many slums was built here. This let the city dissolve in 1958 after the residents had been relocated to a block of flats built especially for this purpose in the nearby Mittelweiden. The Reduit was blown up as part of a pioneer exercise by the German Armed Forces from January 19 to 23, 1959 to make it uninhabitable. The rubble stayed in place. Today only the two lateral ends of the semicircular structure bear witness to its former size. In contrast, the caponier (throat tower) at the foot of the Petersberg with the only completely preserved fortress oven in the entire fortress of Koblenz, the communication to the Bubenheimer Flesche and the main gate with the adjoining postern were spared.

Remedial measures

South entrance into the main reduit

A first initiative to secure the remains of the fortress arose from the interest in the Koblenz fortifications in the early to mid-1980s, which had been aroused by the efforts of Hans-Rudolf Neumann. As part of an ABM 1984–1985 mainly clearing work and a. carried out in the area of ​​the plant entrance with the aim of transforming the area of ​​the former festivals from a fallow land into a park landscape. However, this work was soon stopped and no further plans were implemented.

In February 1997, committed citizens interested in the fortress, who founded the Friends of Feste Kaiser Franz eV on June 27, 1997 , began cleaning up the factory entrance. This work was continued over two years, with the postern being opened, cleared and cleared of rubble and the forecourt and the surrounding area cleared of greenery. In 1999 the throat tower of the fortress was finally taken over, whereupon the association relocated its work here, also due to a lack of staff. In the years that followed, the building was made accessible and rubble was removed, and the inner courtyard was opened and partially uncovered. From 2001 to 2004, the Koblenz construction hut worked on the Kehlturm, which further exposed the courtyard, cleaned the banquet of the tower of greenery and other work in the tower such as B. carried out an attempt to reconstruct a wooden ceiling in the entrance area. After the dissolution of the Bauhütte, Carmen gGmbH, a Caritas institution , was able to continue the work until the end of 2010. This mainly took care of the earth removal on the shoulder in preparation for the renovation measures as well as u. a. for further earthworks in the courtyard of the redoubt.

From 2006, work was intensified on securing the valley tower. In 2009, the renovation work received an enormous boost from funding from a federal program for the German World Heritage Sites . By the end of 2011, an emergency roof was erected on the throat tower, the heavily damaged vaults below were grouted , a large part of the ailing ceilings on the first floor were replaced and the subsurface in the area of ​​the tower was additionally stabilized. These measures were carried out under the direction of the monument office of the city of Koblenz. The association then shifted its work to the area between the factory and reduction entrance. Extensive green cuttings were carried out here, other areas of the facility were cleared, the former separation ditch in front of the postern was dug to a depth of around two meters and a new steel bridge was installed over it. In the postern forecourt, a new floor covering was also applied to prevent further green growth in the future. To secure the system from further vandalism and illegal waste disposal , the association had a new gate system installed on the driveway in 2009. He is currently working on the renovation of the war bakery and the fortress oven in the Kehlturm.

On the plateau of the Petersberg, on the left side of the throat of the Kaiser Franz Fortress, the city of Koblenz has been working on the creation of a fortress park since 2018. After the renovation of the throat wall, which was reduced during the demolition in 1921, the subsequent leveling work damaged a passageway below the site, which served as an underground connection between the postern and the redoubt before the demolition. This corridor is currently (as of December 2019) being renovated or reconstructed. During these measures, a war powder magazine came to light that was supposed to be destroyed during the softening process.

System festivals Kaiser Franz

The system Feste Kaiser Franz in the 1880s

The main task of the system was to secure the march road passing here as well as the Rhine and Moselle crossing. It was also important to secure the city ​​of Koblenz from direct fire. The Moselflesche and Bubenheimer Flesche plants were connected to the Franz Fortress by means of cavities (communications). The system with its outdated fortresses was finally abandoned in 1890; The facilities remained under military administration for the time being. The Neuendorfer Flesche, the Moselflesche and the Rheinschanze were leveled and partly built over. The remaining works were deconsolidated on the basis of the Versailles Treaty in the period from September 1920 to July 1922 in two stages. With the exception of the jumps, remains of all the works are still there today.

The following engineer officers were involved in the establishment of the Franz system in the development phase until around 1827:

The system Emperor Franz was besides the main work Feste Kaiser Franz from the other fortifications:

Military facilities in the area of ​​the Feste Kaiser Franz system

After 1850, under the protection of the Kaiser Franz system, some military facilities such as B. the freight station with the wall enclosure of Lützel, the peace laboratory in Neuendorfer Feld and the artillery depot in the throat of the fortress of Kaiser Franz.

A crenellated wall protected the newly built freight yard and the town of Lützel-Koblenz. A total of two capons and a log cabin were integrated into this. In October 1889 the enclosure was abandoned. However, there is no news about the dismantling of the plant. The last remains can be seen today in Deichstrasse and in the courtyard of the house on Deichstrasse 1.

The former peace laboratory was built in 1869/70. Until its abandonment after 1889, it was used for ammunition production, which was subsequently continued in the specially constructed buildings in the courtyard of the Kaiser Franz fortress. After the unsuccessful attempt to sell the site, the former institution was occupied with troops in 1908 and was subsequently given the name Neuendorfer Feld infantry barracks . The barracks were finally sold in 1930 and had to give way to residential development. There are no residues.

The artillery depot in the throat of Feste Franz was built after 1867 with the construction of the first carriage house (No. 9). Five more houses were to follow by 1908. In the Second World War, two houses and a service building were destroyed and not rebuilt. The remaining buildings were taken over by the Bundeswehr after 1969, which maintained the site administration here. The further fate of the carriage houses remains uncertain. It is to be feared that with a final clearance of the area by the Bundeswehr, the days of the houses will be numbered. This would mean that this ensemble of depot and fortress, which is unique in Koblenz, would be lost.

In order to store the powder safely in times of peace, several peace powder magazines were initially built in Neuendorfer Feld, which were relocated to the Rübernacher Schanze and Bubenheimer Flesche after 1890. There are no remains of these powder magazines.

construction

The Feste Kaiser Franz is a work based on the polygonal system that was newly introduced at the time of construction , the wall of which was oriented towards the west with two obtuse angles. On the throat side in the east lies the semicircular main reduit, which is connected by walls to the Kehlreduit (throat tower) at the foot of the Petersberg.

The entire fortress structure was equipped with a flat, walkable earth roof, the drainage of which worked in the so-called chapel system with channels between the vaulted caps and the water was drained off via gargoyles on the facades. Around 1850 it was replaced by the Dosdanierungssystem, in which the water was collected in inverted pyramids (Dosdanen) and directed down into the earth via drip wells in the partition walls between the casemates.

Main entrance

Main entrance

Access was via a driveway secured by two guards, which leads to the main entrance in the south at the end of the valley on the left flank. The front wall of the moat of the former main trench with semicircular openings and opposite the crenellated wall on the slope side has been preserved. The input to the Eskarpenmauer to underlying Poterne is a monumental aperture edged, in the pilasters a high architrave wear. A bas-relief with a throat swinging out above shows a Prussian eagle with outspread wings, below which the following text is carved:

" Veste Kaiser Franz / built under Friedrich Wilhelm III / in the years 1817–1820 "

At the postern forecourt you can still see the former driveway of the tunnel leading to the moat of the front ditch. At the other end of the postern another gate leads through the preserved southern end of the main reduit into the inner courtyard.

Throat tower

Throat tower
Casemate for the cannons on the upper floor of the throat tower

The securing of the throat assumes a caponier on trapezoidal ground plan at the foot of Peter Berg in the form of a free-standing three sides tower with slightly east segmentbogig curved end wall, which is connected via a staircase in the courtyard with the redoubt. From here it was originally possible to enter the war powder magazine I under the Reduithof through a large doorway.

The three-storey throat tower from Grauwacke , with an inner courtyard from the second storey onwards, is connected to the steep slope with slightly buckling one or two storey flanks. At the top, it ends with a simple cornice made of red sandstone and an attic-like pinnacle parapet . The corners are also jagged of red sandstone and the outline of the nicks in brick masonry. The arrangement of the cannon slots corresponds to the division inside. There are four casemates with barrel vaults on each of the two upper floors . There are two deep folds on the outer wall for inserting a beam wall , which should protect against fire. The ground floor has no notches and is not arched, but has small air openings. The war bakery, established in 1828, is located here, with an oven that has been preserved to this day in the rear western room of the southern flank. This one also installed wells has not survived.

The individual floors are connected by a central straight staircase, which has not been preserved from the ground floor to the first floor and which ends today in the inner courtyard. On the inside facing the courtyard, the casemates have large arched doors with flanking rectangular windows, so that the shape of a serliana results. The roof area of ​​the Kehlturm is connected to the courtyard at the level of the powder magazine of the main reduit below via a two-armed staircase with a semi-cylindrical sweeping platform.

War Bakery

Oven in the throat tower

In 1828 the Prussian military set up a war bakery with an oven in the basement of the Kehlturm, which was supposed to support the garrison bakery in the event of a siege. Further war bakeries were built in Fort Grand Duke Konstantin and in the barracks connected to the Rhine . In the latter, the engineer-lieutenant August Wilhelm Beise had an oven built by him in 1827, which probably served as a model for the system in the fortress of Kaiser Franz. The oven there is the only one still preserved in the entire fortress of Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein.

The approximately 4.5 m deep and 3.9 m wide, pear-shaped stove of the oven is lined with Bell tuff . The base of the hearth rises from the so-called mouth hole, a closable opening at the front of the stove, to the rear by approx. 6 °. The draft in the furnace should be encouraged with this slight incline. The inflowing air was diverted from the combustion chamber by six puffs arranged in the rear semicircle and conveyed back via the stove into a chimney which opens into a chimney. The chimney could also be closed to increase the draft. With this construction, the stove became evenly hot so that the bread could bake out uniformly.

The air supply was regulated via the mouth hole, which could be closed by a metal slide running on three rollers on the side. The slide, which consisted of two parallel metal plates, was filled with ashes for insulation. The six smoke flues could also be closed with sliders. The construction is now heavily rusted due to the decades of high moisture exposure in the throat tower. A light hole to the right of the mouth hole was used to control the heating and the baking progress.

The space in front of the oven probably served as a bakery. A kettle for heating the baking water was on the left in the corner of the bakery next to the oven. The bakery was the only room in the basement to have a window so that the moisture generated during baking could be drained to the outside. Below the window there is also a small opening in the outer wall, through which smaller rubbish and the mopping water could be disposed of in the ditch around the tower. The floor in the bakery was covered with red sandstone slabs to prevent the wooden floor from rotting and possible fires.

The bread dough was probably prepared in the oven antechamber, which was then placed in the room above the oven (the kitchen of the Emperor Franz Feast) to go into. After the sourdough had risen, the portions (approx. 250 pieces) were divided up and "shot" into the heated oven by the so-called "shooter" within a quarter of an hour. After a baking time of around two hours, the "shooter" pulled the baked bread out of the oven within a further quarter of an hour. To avoid upset stomachs among the soldiers, the bread had to be stored in the bread chamber for the next 24 hours. If necessary, the oven was reheated to bake another batch of bread. In this way, around 1,000 loaves of bread could be baked a day, in the event of war even up to 1,500 loaves.

In addition to the oven and bakery, other rooms in the basement were used for the war bakery. Immediately next to the bakery was the flour chamber and, one room further, a well for the water supply. Coals and wood were stored in the rooms to the right of the oven. The entire right side of the valley tower basement served as a bread chamber.

Communications

The Feste Kaiser Franz was connected to the neighboring Moselflesche and the Bubenheimer Flesche via two communications . The latter is largely preserved from the north end of the main reduit on the 300 m long route to the destroyed Bubenheimer Flesche.

Monument protection

The Kaiser Franz festival is a protected cultural monument according to the Monument Protection Act (DSchG) and entered in the list of monuments of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . It is located in Koblenz-Lützel in the monument zone Feste Kaiser Franz .

The Kaiser Franz Festival has been part of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002 .

See also

literature

  • Thomas Tippach (Diss.): Koblenz as a Prussian garrison and fortress city economy, infrastructure and urban development . 2000 (series: urban research, series A: representations volume 53), ISBN 3-412-08600-2 .
  • Klaus T. Weber (Diss.): The Prussian fortifications of Koblenz (1815-1834) . (Series: Art and Cultural Studies Research) 2003, ISBN 3-89739-340-9 .
  • Rüdiger Wischemann: The Koblenz Fortress. From the Roman fort and Prussia's strongest fortress to the largest garrison of the German armed forces , Koblenz 1978 (note: outdated in many ways, but still the best representation for an overview).
  • Peter Kleber / Matthias Kellermann: Military facilities in the area of ​​the Feste Kaiser Franz system , in: Feste Kaiser Franz. On the history of the fortress and the Feste Franz system in Koblenz-Lützel. Festschrift for the 10th anniversary Feste Kaiser Franz eV, ed. from Feste Kaiser Franz eV, 4th edition, Koblenz 2017, pp. 65–74, ISBN 978-3-934795-55-6 .
  • Matthias Kellermann: Feste Franz in Koblenz-Lützel - a search for traces, in: Feste Kaiser Franz (as before), pp. 18–46.
  • Matthias Kellermann: New research on the festivals Kaiser Franz and the system Franz , in: Feste Kaiser Franz ... a part of the fortress Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein, ed. von Feste Kaiser Franz eV, 2nd, revised and expanded edition, Koblenz 2010, pp. 23–30.
  • Matthias Kellermann: The decongestion of Koblenz after the First World War , in: The end of the fortresses. Opened - dragged - forgotten? Published by the German Society for Fortress Research, editor: Daniel Burger , Regensburg 2009, pp. 167–181 (Fortress Research Volume 1), ISBN 978-3-7954-2299-8 .
  • Matthias Kellermann: Die Friedenspulvermagazine in Neuendorfer Feld near Koblenz , in: Fortress Journal 37th Journal of the German Society for Fortress Research (DGF), July 2010, pp. 52–55.
  • Matthias Kellermann: The military bakeries of the Prussian fortress Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein. On the history of the Koblenz military bakeries with special consideration of the war bakery in the Feste Kaiser Franz. Published by Feste Kaiser Franz e. V., Koblenz 2018, ISBN 978-3956384141 .
  • Ulrike Weber (edit.): Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany. Volume 3.3: City of Koblenz. Districts. Werner, Worms 2013, ISBN 978-3-88462-345-9 .
  • Feste Kaiser Franz. ... a section of the fortress Koblenz and Ehrenbreitstein . Published by Feste Kaiser Franz eV, editor: Matthias Kellermann, 2nd edition, Koblenz 2016. ISBN 978-3-95638-403-5 .

Web links

Commons : Feste Kaiser Franz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Weber, The Prussian Fortifications of Koblenz (1815–1834), page 230f.
  2. ^ Weber, The Prussian Fortifications of Koblenz (1815-1834), page 238.
  3. Funding project for the large fortress in Koblenz. Retrieved December 26, 2019 .
  4. Ulrike Weber (edit.): City of Koblenz. City districts (= General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate Directorate for Monument Preservation [Hrsg.]: Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany. Volume 3.3 ). Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2013, ISBN 978-3-88462-345-9 , p. 205 .
  5. Ulrike Weber (edit.): City of Koblenz. City districts (= General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate Directorate for Monument Preservation [Hrsg.]: Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany. Volume 3.3 ). Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2013, ISBN 978-3-88462-345-9 , p. 208 .
  6. Ulrike Weber (edit.): City of Koblenz. City districts (= General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate Directorate for Monument Preservation [Hrsg.]: Cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany. Volume 3.3 ). Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 2013, ISBN 978-3-88462-345-9 , p. 206 .
  7. Cf. on this: August Wilhelm Beise: New method, the ovens, both for baking healthy bread, as fuel to save, with special consideration of the use for master bakers and master masons . Koblenz 1832 ( digitalniknihovna.cz ).
  8. General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - district-free city of Koblenz (PDF; 1.5 MB), Koblenz 2013

Coordinates: 50 ° 22 ′ 14 "  N , 7 ° 35 ′ 30"  E