Kehl Fortress
Kehl Fortress , located in Baden-Württemberg , was built from 1683 at the time of the French Kingdom.
17th century
During the Thirty Years' War, the village of Kehl was developed as a bridgehead across from Strasbourg and to secure the Rhine bridge as a ski jump and not destroyed. During the Dutch War , the Kehler Schanzen were captured on July 17, 1678 by French troops under Marshal de Créquy and completely destroyed. In the Peace of Nijmegen , Kehl was ceded to France, and Strasbourg became French in 1681. Then Kehl was expanded as a fortress by the French engineer Tarade according to plans by the military architect Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban from 1683 to 1688. The population of Kehl then settled further east in the new "village of Kehl".
After the end of the War of the Palatinate Succession , the Kehl Fortress fell to the Holy Roman Empire through the Peace Treaty of Rijswijk in 1697 and was given to Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden-Baden as an imperial loan with the villages of Kehl and Sundheim by Emperor Leopold I (HRR) in 1698 , but retained The emperor and empire pre-empted the right of occupation. 1,200 soldiers of the Swabian Empire were stationed in the imperial fortress .
18th century
During the War of the Spanish Succession , the fortress was besieged by Marshal of France Villars from February 20 to March 9, 1703 with 25,000 men and the support of the Strasbourg artillery (42 cannons and 11 mortars). The only 2,265 strong crew (with 28 cannons) under Colonel Baron Enzberg capitulated on March 11th. By 1714, France had built Strasbourg and Kehl into one of the strongest fortresses in Europe that dominated the Rhine crossing. With the Peace of Rastatt and Baden in 1712, the Kehl fortress and the Philippsburg fortress reverted to the empire.
During the War of the Polish Succession , the occupation of Kehl was reinforced. On October 12, 1733, French troops crossed the Rhine and from the 19th attacked the fortress with 15,000 men, which was defended with honor by 1,306 district troops and 106 Austrian infantry under the Württemberg field marshal lieutenant Ludwig Dietrich von Pfuhl , but on October 29th capitulated. The troops (approx. 1,200 men with 2 rounds of ammunition per man and 4 guns) withdrew under French escort on October 30 in the direction of Stuttgart. The French did not follow suit, however, and even went back across the Rhine on November 11th. The fortress remained in French hands until the end of the war and was returned by the Preliminary Peace of Vienna in 1735.
In the long period of peace that followed, the Swabian Empire wanted to grind down the fortress in 1751 in order to save costs. This was initially prevented by the margrave's objection, but on October 1, 1754 it was abandoned by a Reich decision and only a weak Baden crew of 15 officers remained, which was reduced to 10 in 1773.
During the First Coalition War , Kehl was partially repaired in March 1793, the assembly point for the troops of the Swabian Empire and the fortifications. They were shot at from September 12-14 from the French bank of the Rhine, destroying them and seriously damaging the city. On the orders of Lieutenant General Friedrich Karl Heinrich von Stain from the Wolfegg District Infantry Regiment, the fortress was cleared after the Rhine bridge had been set on fire and destroyed.
From 1795 the corps of the Swabian Empire covered the Rhine crossing and the area around Kehl as part of the Austrian Upper Rhine Army. On the night of June 24, 1796, the main French armed forces under General Moreau crossed the Rhine. “Since the Swabian outposts had been withdrawn from the Rhine islands due to the high water level , the surprise was successful. Although the village of Kehl could be recaptured by the Swabian district troops during the following fierce battle, the Swabian corps had to give up the fight after heavy losses. 37 officers and 693 men were killed, 12 cannons , 2 howitzers and 22 ammunition wagons fell into French hands. ”Kehl was re-entrenched by the French so that they were able to repel an attack on September 17th. A siege by 34,900 man force under Austrian Feldzeugmeister Latour but they could not withstand, and the French General Desaix surrendered on January 9, 1797 Kehl, which was badly damaged by the constant shelling. (See the case of Kehl ) 14,000 Austrians under Field Marshal Lieutenant Starray remained in Kehl and the surrounding area. After Moreau had crossed the Rhine below Strasbourg on April 20, 1797, Kehl capitulated. In the Peace of Campo Formio , the Rhine was set as the border.
With the beginning of the Second Coalition War , French troops under Jourdan Kehl occupied without a fight on March 1, 1799 and stayed there until the peace treaty in 1801. Although Moreau had started to grind the fortifications (peace condition), the 1,500 deployed workers only managed to do so on a small piece of the wall. According to the provisions of the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss , Kehl came to the newly created Electorate of Baden , which was allied with France in the Confederation of the Rhine .
19th century
In 1805, Emperor Napoleon planned to rebuild the fortress. When this happened slowly, he had Kehl annexed in 1808. Within a year the Vauban fortress was restored and earthworks and redoubts between the Rhine, Kehl-Sundheim and Kehl-Auenheim were created. Before the start of the Russian campaign in 1812, the fortress was reinforced by additional external works .
After Baden changed to the Alliance of Austria , Russia and Prussia in 1813, Baden troops besieged the fortress on January 4, 1814. It was handed over on May 3rd, when Paris had already fallen. The 1st Battalion of the Grand Duke No. 3 Infantry Regiment was stationed there. After the provisions of the Peace of Paris , Kehl fell back to Baden, but the fortress was to be razed. This was done by several thousand workers under the Baden engineer and Lieutenant Colonel Tulla . The new town of Kehl was then built on the vacated site according to Friedrich Weinbrenner's plans . The remains of the fortress, which come to light again and again during construction work in the Kehler urban area, still bear the name "Vauban" fortress today.
In the period between the Peace of Westphalia and the end of Napoléon's rule, Kehl's owner changed 14 times, the fortress was destroyed five times and just as often rebuilt or repaired.
During the Franco-Prussian War initially Baden troops (1st Battalion, 6th Baden Infantry Regiment and a cavalry division) occupied Kehl, which were assigned to the Siege Corps for Strasbourg under General August von Werder . During the siege of Strasbourg until September 27, large parts of Kehl were destroyed by French fire from Strasbourg (only German city destroyed in this war). After the Treaty of Frankfurt in 1871, the surrounding area of Kehl was in the newly built fortress Strasbourg included in the years 1874-1878 were initially three forts Fort Kirchbach in Sundheim (: created east of the Rhine 48 ° 32 '50.4 " N , 7 ° 50 ′ 25.4 ″ E ), Fort Blumenthal near Auenheim ( 48 ° 36 ′ 21.8 ″ N , 7 ° 50 ′ 40.6 ″ E ) and Fort Bose near Neumühl ( 48 ° 34 ′ 30.4 ″ N , 7 ° 51 ′ 27 ″ E ).
20th century
From 1911 to 1913, the forts Marlen ( 48 ° 32 ′ 11.3 ″ N , 7 ° 49 ′ 52.6 ″ E ) and Kinzig ( 48 ° 33 ′ 32.9 ″ N , 7 ° 51 ′ 5.2 ″ O ) created. After the end of the First World War , however, the forts were not dismantled , as stipulated in the Versailles Treaty , but continued to be used by the French troops who held Kehl as a bridgehead.
Articles 428 to 430 of the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 also stipulated the creation of French bridgeheads on the right bank of the Rhine. The town of Kehl and 28 other localities formed the `` Kehl bridgehead '', in which civil administration was exercised by German authorities, but military sovereignty lay with a French commander under the Rhineland Commission . Kehl was occupied by French troops from January 20, 1919 to June 30, 1930. In 1930, the forts on the right bank of the Rhine in Strasbourg were partially razed, with Fort Bose being completely destroyed. After the occupation of the Rhineland , the 1st Company / MG Battalion 5 of the Wehrmacht was stationed in Kehl in 1938 .
Kehl formed a focal point in the Westwall , which was expanded in 1938 , for which purpose bunkers were built in and around the forts Blumenthal and Kirchbach. Kehl was in the so-called Red Zone , which should be evacuated when war broke out. After the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, the population was evacuated to the Black Forest on special trains on the night of September 3 to 4, and was only allowed to return after the occupation of Strasbourg by German troops on June 19, 1940.
Allied troops occupied Strasbourg on November 23, 1944 , the following day Kehl was evacuated by the civilian population and by the Wehrmacht on April 13, 1945, and occupied by French troops on April 15. After the end of the war, Kehl did not belong to the French occupation zone, but was incorporated into the city of Strasbourg. The clearance was only made in accordance with the Washington Agreement in 42 partial releases from July 29, 1949 to April 8, 1953. All fortifications were destroyed after the end of the Second World War, with the site of the former Fort Kirchbach still being within the property of the French army .
Others
The fortress in literature:
- Sidonia Hedwig zunemann: Poetic roses in buds, Erfurt 1738, pp. 494–497. On the siege and conquest of the imperial fortress Kehl ( full text in the google book search)
References
See also
Web links
- Fortifications in Baden-Württemberg
- Martin Klöffler: Fortress inventory , Düsseldorf 2008 (PDF file; 148 kB)
- Kehl in the Brockhaus Conversations Lexicon
- Christophe Renkewitz: Kehl special case 1939-1953 ( Memento from March 2, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 61 kB)
literature
- Hans-Joachim Harder: Military History Handbook Baden-Württemberg , editor of the Military History Research Office , Kohlhammer Verlag Stuttgart, 1987, ISBN 3-17-009856-X .
- Adolf von Schempp: The relations of the Swabian district and Duchy of Württemberg to the imperial fortress Kehl during the first half of the 18th century. In: Württembergische Vierteljahreshefte für Landesgeschichte, XVIII. Born in Stuttgart 1909.
- Adolf von Schempp: Kehl and the Swabian Circle towards the end of the XVIII. Century. Based on archival documents , In: Württembergische Vierteljahreshefte für Landesgeschichte, NF 28. 1919. (1920.) P. 167–264.
- Without author: The special fate of the city of Kehl in connection with the Second World War 1939/1946 , Federal Ministry for Expellees, Refugees and War Victims , Bonn 1968.
- Carl-Helmut Steckner: The Kehl Fortress. In: Hugo Schneider (ed.): Castles and palaces in Mittelbaden , (Die Ortenau 64), Historical Association for Mittelbaden, Offenburg 1984, pp. 260–271. online at the Freiburg University Library
- Hartmut Stüwe: fortress, town and village of Kehl 1771–1815: rise, heyday and fall. In: Die Ortenau, Volume 64, Historischer Verein für Mittelbaden, Offenburg 2000, pp. 359–390. online at the Freiburg University Library