Rüsselsheim Fortress

The Rüsselsheim Fortress is a former fortification in Rüsselsheim am Main . Today it houses, among other things, the Rüsselsheim City and Industry Museum, founded in 1976 .

history

Main gate of the fortress

A castle ( fixed house ) of the Counts of Katzenelnbogen , who wanted to secure the position of their southern dominion, was first mentioned in a document in 1399 . The castle was only expanded to become the actual fortress from 1479, when Rüsselsheim under Heinrich III. of Hesse fell to the Landgraviate of Hesse , which then built a fortress with ramparts, ditches and five bulwarks by 1546.

In the wars of the following centuries, the fortress played an important role in the defense of the Hessian territorial state. After the defeat in the Schmalkaldic War , Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous had to hand over the fortress to Emperor Charles V in 1547 , who had it razed . It was rebuilt in the years 1560–1563.

French troops captured the fortress in the Palatine War of Succession in 1688 and blew it up on April 6, 1689. The military importance of the Rüsselsheim fortress was lost. For centuries, its ruins were of no significant use and at times served as a prison, military hospital, for mushroom cultivation and as a youth hostel. It was not opened to the public until 1954, when the city of Rüsselsheim acquired the fortress. Since the 1990s, the fortress has been restored in accordance with a listed building.

Todays use

Today the Rüsselsheim City and Industry Museum, which was awarded a museum prize by the Council of Europe in 1979 , the city archive, the café in the fortress and the local history association are located here. A craft market takes place here regularly.

gallery

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

literature

• Elmar Brohl : Fortresses in Hessen. Published by the German Society for Fortress Research eV, Wesel, Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2013 (=  German Fortresses  2), ISBN 978-3-7954-2534-0 , pp. 159–166.
• Rudolf Knappe: Medieval castles in Hessen. 800 castles, castle ruins and fortifications. 3. Edition. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2000, ISBN 3-86134-228-6 , pp. 515f.
• Monika Vogt: Opening the door to modern times. Encounters with Philip the Magnanimous in Hesse. Ed .: Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Hessen-Thüringen / State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen , Wiesbaden 2003, pp. 32–35.
• Rolf Müller (Ed.): Palaces, castles, old walls. Published by the Hessendienst der Staatskanzlei, Wiesbaden 1990, ISBN 3-89214-017-0 , p. 308f.
• Wolfram Heitzenröder: The fortress Rüsselsheim. Waldemar Kramer publishing house, Frankfurt / M. 1999, ISBN 3-7829-0497-4

Web links

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

• "Rüsselsheim Castle, Groß-Gerau District". Historical local dictionary for Hessen. In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).
• Rüsselsheim Fortress at gg-online.de
• Renaissance castles in Hesse (project at the Germanic National Museum by Georg Ulrich Großmann )

Remarks

1. ↑ At the beginning of the Schmalkaldic War there were 58 guns in Rüsselsheim. see. Michael Matheus, Jürgen Oldenstein (Hrsg.): City and defense construction in the Middle Rhine area . Franz Steiner Verlag, 2003. ISBN 351508228X , p. 105. Google Books

Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 57.4 "  N , 8 ° 25 ′ 9.8"  E