Philippsburg Fortress

Engraving of the floor plan and siege by Merian, Matthäus and Häiller, Martin

The fortress Philippsburg was in the period 1623-1799 a sometimes hard-fought fortress in the same northern Baden town in what is now the district of Karlsruhe .

In 1615, on the eve of the Thirty Years' War , the Speyer bishop Philipp Christoph von Sötern decided to expand his residence city of Udenheim into a modern fortress. He had huge bulwarks built, which made it necessary to demolish some buildings on the outskirts. With these construction measures, Philip wanted to protect himself from attacks from the surrounding Protestant territories and to expand and upgrade his main residence.

history

Engraving of the 1676 siege by Romanus de Hooghe

Copper engraving of the siege in 1676 by Johann Georg Walther

Udenheim-Philippsburg with the castle of the bishops of Speyer, 1590

The fortress was inaugurated on May 1, 1623, and the city was renamed Philippsburg, the previous name being Udenheim. Since the outbreak of the Thirty Years War , the newly built fortress was often a theater of war and was fought over by various parties. The city was besieged and conquered by the Protestant Swedes in 1634 and recaptured in January 1635 by imperial troops under Caspar von Baumberger .

In 1644 a French army under Turenne captured Philippsburg after three weeks of siege. The city remained French for 32 years. During this time, the fortress was greatly expanded by the well-known fortress builder Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban .

In 1676 the Imperial Army besieged the city and was able to win it back after heavy fighting; the fortress builder and miner Georg Rimpler took part. Most of the structural measures to strengthen the fortification of the cities go back to Rimpler. As early as 1688, the fortress was again besieged and conquered by France under the then commandant Maximilian Lorenz von Starhemberg ( Siege of Philippsburg (1688) ). The French established their base here, from which they destroyed Heidelberg in the Palatinate War of Succession .

It was not until the Peace of Rijswijk in 1697 that the city became German again and declared an imperial fortress . Until the War of the Polish Succession in 1734, the city was prosperous and peaceful under the commandant Hans Karl I. Graf von Thüngen and his successors. In 1734 a siege began that was to be the worst of all. Army commander Prinz Eugen tried unsuccessfully to blow up the French siege ring and to get through to General Wuttgenau's soldiers . According to contemporary reports, 30,000 people died as a result of the fighting, including the French Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Berwick .

The French were not forced to evacuate the city until the Treaty of Vienna in 1737.

In 1799 there was the last siege of the fortress by French revolutionary troops. After a six-day bombardment, the entire city was destroyed. There was the battle of Wiesloch and the French were driven out. After the Treaty of Lunéville , the fortress was demolished on the orders of Napoleon .

In his main work, From War, Carl von Clausewitz etched on the location of the Philippsburg fortress on the Rhine: Philippsburg was the model of a badly located fortress. It's like a stupid person who stands with his nose close to the wall.

Occupation of the fortress during the siege

During the siege in 1799, the fortress was occupied by the following troops:

The Oberrheinische Kreis-Regiment Solms-Braunfels under Colonel Heinrich-Friedrich Walram Rheingraf von Salm
The Upper Rhine District Regiment Prince Karl-Theodor von der Pfalz under Colonel Freiherr von Mogen
The Kurpfalz- Bavarian contingent under Colonel von Wetzel
The Kurpfalz-Bavarian Infantry Regiment Duke Pius von Birkenfeld under Colonel von Triva
The Franconian District Battalion under Major Rieße
The Franconian Jäger Corps under Major von Hornstein
The Electoral Trier contingent from the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress under Colonel von Faber
The electoral Cologne contingent under Major Klespe
The Fürstlich Würzburg infantry battalion under Major von Stetten
The Princely Salzburg Reich Contingents Battalion under Major von Lehr
A company of the Fulda vigilante group
A company of Frankfurt city soldiers
Half a rifle company from Eichstädt
A squadron of Bamberg Dragoons

A total of 4519 men and 491 civilians

present

Since the fortifications were completely destroyed in 1799, there is little left of the former large bulwark on the Rhine. Only a few streets bear the names of upstream parts of the fortress (e.g. Hornwerk, Kronenwerk) or the names of the fortress commanders (e.g. Thüngen or the last commandant of the fortress, Rheingraf von Salm). In addition, a monument with original cannon balls from the bombing of 1799 commemorates the destruction of the city. Furthermore, a model of the fortress was recently exhibited, which is a faithful copy of a model in the Musée des Plans-Reliefs in Paris. The rock cellar, which has been renovated since 1996 in a private initiative (Association for Fortress Casemates), is a reminder of the once mighty fortress.

Individual evidence

↑ Ray von Saint Genies: Art of War: Or: The service in the field, for the general, Staabs-Officier, Hauptmann and Subaltern-Officiers: Two parts. With copper. Two improved and misprints cleaned edition . Published by Christian Friedrich Günther, bookseller in Glogau, 1772 ( google.ch [accessed on February 18, 2019]).
^ Christian Pantle: The Thirty Years' War. When Germany was on fire . Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-549-07443-5 , p. 272 f .
^ Carl von Clausewitz: "Vom Kriege" (Edition of the first edition from 1832/34) Ullstein, Berlin 2008, p. 431.
↑ Adam Ignazius Bachsteller "Excellent brochure about the settlement and conquest of the German fortress Phillipsburg by the French in 1799" Frankfurt am Main 1806 (A copy is in the city archive of the city of Koblenz)
^ Collections des maquettes du Musée des plans-reliefs: Philippsbourg (Philippsburg). Musée des Plans-Reliefs , accessed on April 28, 2020 (French).

literature

Egon Fuchs: The relationship between the Frankish imperial circle and the imperial and imperial fortress Philippsburg 1698 to 1734 Acheron, Achern, undated (approx. 1995), ISBN 3-928207-10-5

Heinz Musall: Floor plan of the fortress Philippsburg 1745 , Historical Atlas of Baden-Württemberg

Engelbert Strobel: The former imperial fortress Philippsburg. A journey through their history. In: Badische Heimat, Volume 52 (1972), pp. 219-225 pdf

Web links

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

Wikisource: Philippsburg / City and Fortress - Sources and full texts

plan
Historical maps as digital copies of the University and State Library Düsseldorf

49.236606 8.454135Coordinates: 49 ° 14 ′ 11.8 " N , 8 ° 27 ′ 14.9" E

[1] Ray von Saint Genies: Art of War: Or: The service in the field, for the general, Staabs-Officier, Hauptmann and Subaltern-Officiers: Two parts. With copper. Two improved and misprints cleaned edition . Published by Christian Friedrich Günther, bookseller in Glogau, 1772 ( google.ch [accessed on February 18, 2019]).

[Pan272f-2] Christian Pantle: The Thirty Years' War. When Germany was on fire . Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-549-07443-5 , p. 272 f .

[3] Carl von Clausewitz: "Vom Kriege" (Edition of the first edition from 1832/34) Ullstein, Berlin 2008, p. 431.

[4] Adam Ignazius Bachsteller "Excellent brochure about the settlement and conquest of the German fortress Phillipsburg by the French in 1799" Frankfurt am Main 1806 (A copy is in the city archive of the city of Koblenz)

[5] Collections des maquettes du Musée des plans-reliefs: Philippsbourg (Philippsburg). Musée des Plans-Reliefs , accessed on April 28, 2020 (French).