Friedrichsort Fortress

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The fortress Christian Pries before 1648
Aerial view of the Friedrichsort Fortress (1971)

The Friedrichsort Fortress is a former Danish fortress in the Friedrichsort district of the city of Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein . It is located on the west bank of the narrowest part of the Kiel Fjord (the so-called Friedrichsorter Enge ) at the exit to the Baltic Sea near the entrance to the Kiel Canal . It is the only sea ​​fortress in Germany and is a listed building.

The fortress was strategically placed on a headland surrounded by water on two sides to protect the city of Kiel. It was shaped like an irregular pentagon with five bastions . The fortress was surrounded by a moat . Post traffic between Kiel's old town and the fortress had existed since the 17th century and was carried out by a postman and a boat driver.

Today the fortress is Kiel's only gated community, at least the characteristics for this are fulfilled. The fortress has a diameter of about 300 m. It has been partially removed and heavily overgrown and is surrounded by a dike built to protect the low-lying area . The moat in the south and east and the ramparts in the south, west and east have been preserved. The fortress has been privately owned since 2006 and can only be entered during guided tours. The main area is completely fenced in and accessed via a gate system. The fortress is mainly used by commercial enterprises, partly from the creative industries.

history

Christianspries fortress

Information board on the history of the Friedrichsort Fortress
The location of the Friedrichsort Fortress on the Kiel Fjord (map from 1888)
Information board (2) on the history of the Friedrichsort Fortress

From 1632 the Danish King Christian IV had a fortress built by Axel Urop in the southeast of the Duchy of Schleswig at the narrowest point of the Kiel Fjord in order to secure Kiel and thus the south of his empire against the Swedes during the Thirty Years' War . The fortress was named fortress Christianspries . In order to supply them, in 1632 he acquired the Bülk , Knoop and Seekamp goods from Cai von Ahlefeldt .

At the beginning of the Torstensson War in December 1643, the fortress was conquered by Swedish troops and held until the end of the war with the Peace of Brömsebro in 1645. In 1648 the fortress was built by the Danish King Friedrich III. , Son and successor of Christian IV., Razed .

Friedrichsort Fortress

In Danish time

From 1663 the fortress was commissioned by Friedrich III. rebuilt by Henrik Ruse and renamed Fortress Friedrichsort (or Friedrichspries ) in order to secure the Kiel Fjord again against Swedish ships. From then on, the fortress also had a church room .

The fortress reached its greatest extent by 1790 - especially through the landside fortifications in the north and west. The fortress was surrounded by two moats in which there were further ravelins , some of which were connected to the main fortress by curtains . There were other entrenchments in front of the moat. In the south and east, the fortress borders the Kiel Fjord, partially separated from it by a low strip of beach. On the land side to the west and north, the fortress is surrounded by low-lying land. The entrance was in the south.

Swedish troops occupied the fortress in 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars and released it again after the Peace of Kiel on January 14, 1814.

During the Schleswig-Holstein uprising in 1848, the Kiel vigilante occupied the Danish fortress and held it until the end of the uprising in 1851. The command was held by the officer Werner Siemens sent by the Prussian Army to support him, who developed the first functional remote-controlled sea ​​mines together with his brother-in-law, the Kiel chemistry professor Himly , to defend the port of Kiel . They were laid across the fjord in front of the fortress, connected with ignition cables, and prevented the Danish Navy from entering the fjord and shooting at the city from close by.

In Prussian times

After the Duchy of Schleswig came to Prussia as a province as a result of the German-Danish War in 1867 , the fortress was rebuilt. The ramparts were redesigned, the buildings inside the fortress were replaced by earth-protected casemates , some of which are still preserved today, and the direction of defense of the fortress was aligned with the Kiel Fjord. In addition, buildings used by the military were built to the west and north of the fortress.

After the First World War , the fortress had to be razed in accordance with the provisions of the Versailles Treaty , whereby the earth of the northern ramparts was first poured into the moat and ammunition stores were destroyed. In addition, the casemates were exposed and used as free-standing buildings.

From 1935 the fortress was used by the German Navy . After the start of World War II , many of the fort's buildings were destroyed by bombing.

After 1945

Eastern moat and wall of the "Crown Princess" bastion of Friedrichsort Fortress
Southern casemate

After the end of the Second World War, the remaining casemate buildings were used as accommodation for refugees . From 1957, the remaining buildings of the fortress were used by the German Armed Forces , which maintained a marine signal point and a salute battery there. In the late 1950s, the north-eastern bastion was removed to create an access road. The western moat was filled in in 1965 to make room for the neighboring industrial company MaK . In 1966 the remnants of the fortress were placed under monument protection. In 2004 the Bundeswehr gave up the fortress.

Since the 1990s there have been attempts to convert the fortress into a public place. Except for a few tours and events, this has not yet been successful. The fortress has been privately owned since 2006 and serves as an address for various start-up companies. The site is still enclosed by high fences, barbed wire and a well-secured gate. Entry to the site is only possible with a guided tour. Experiencing and perceiving the history of the place, as provided by the monument protection act in its preamble, is therefore only possible with difficulty. The fortress thus fulfills the characteristics of a gated community. In the long term, the city of Kiel would like to buy the building from owner Caterpillar and reconstruct the historic fortress. The securing of the substance began in 2017. A beer brewery has been located in the vaults of the southern casemate since August 2017. In 2019, the city of Kiel bought 34 hectares of commercial space north of the fortress.

literature

  • Georg Spielvogel, Gerd Schöneich: Fortress and barracks in Friedrichsort . Krausdruck, Altenholz 2001.
  • Jann M. Witt: The Friedrichsort Fortress: Local history on the Kiel Fjord . Ed .: Friends of the Friedrichsort Fortress. Kiel 2012, ISBN 978-3-00-037821-8 .
  • K. Meißner: Development potential of the Friedrichsort fortress . Ed .: State Capital Kiel, City Planning Office. Kiel November 2014 ( Online [PDF; 7.3 MB ; accessed on May 22, 2019]).

Web links

Commons : Friedrichsort Fortress  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pieper-Wöhlk, Hannelore. Wöhlk, Dieter .: Pries and Friedrichsort, two districts of Kiel in transition . Sutton, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86680-835-5 , pp. 113 ( worldcat.org [accessed May 21, 2020]).
  2. Maximilian Zerrle: GeoHilfe. In: GeoHilfe - Gated Community - Definition, Features, Example. Maximilian Zerrle, accessed on December 23, 2019 (German).
  3. ^ Association of Friends of Fortress Friedrichsort e. V. Retrieved May 16, 2019 .
  4. ^ Meißner: Development potential of the Friedrichsort Fortress . 2014, p. 34 .
  5. ^ Meißner: Development potential of the Friedrichsort Fortress . 2014, p. 74 .
  6. ^ Landesarchiv Schleswig-Holstein, Department 65.1, No. 513
  7. ^ Pieper-Wöhlk, Hannelore. Wöhlk, Dieter .: Pries and Friedrichsort, two districts of Kiel in transition . Sutton, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86680-835-5 , pp. 117 ( worldcat.org [accessed May 21, 2020]).
  8. See, for example, the brief description on the Internet portal www.kiel-friedrichsort.de
  9. Siemens describes the episode in detail in his memoirs. (Original publisher Julius Springer 1892), new edition: FinanzBuch Verlag, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-95972-001-4
  10. ^ Gerd Stolz: The Schleswig-Holstein Navy 1848-1852. Boyens, Heide in Holstein 1978, ISBN 3-8042-0188-1 , p. 18 ff.
  11. ^ Association of Friends of Fortress Friedrichsort e. V. Accessed August 10, 2018 .
  12. ^ Association of Friends of Fortress Friedrichsort e. V. Retrieved May 22, 2019 .
  13. ^ Friedrichsort Fortress. Retrieved May 16, 2019 .
  14. Jochen Reiss: 111 places in Kiel that you have to see: travel guide. Emons Verlag GmbH, 2015 .
  15. Fortress as a tourist magnet. Retrieved May 16, 2019 .
  16. ^ Association of Friends of Fortress Friedrichsort e. V. Retrieved May 16, 2019 .
  17. Anke Spoorendonk, Minister for Justice, Culture and Europe: Law for the Protection of Monuments (Monument Protection Act) of December 30, 2014. Schleswig Holstein, December 30, 2014 .
  18. Maximilian Zerrle: GeoHilfe. In: Gated Community - Definition, Features, Example. Maximilian Zerrle, accessed on December 23, 2019 (German).
  19. Karen Schwenke: First Steps in Reconstruction. In: Kiel News . April 28, 2017. Retrieved July 30, 2017 .
  20. Petra Krause: Soon beer barrels are rolling out of the fortress. In: Kiel News . July 12, 2017. Retrieved March 28, 2018 .
  21. City of Kiel buys future area in Friedrichsort. December 18, 2019, accessed May 5, 2020 .

Coordinates: 54 ° 23 ′ 29 ″  N , 10 ° 11 ′ 10 ″  E