Rastatt fortress

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Coordinates: 48 ° 51 '30 "  N , 8 ° 12' 38"  E

Plan of the fortress from 1849

The federal fortress of Rastatt was built between 1842 and 1852. The construction of the federal fortress was one of the few projects that the German Confederation was able to complete during this period. The fortifications enclosed the Baden town of Rastatt and played an important role during the Baden Revolution in 1849 . They were abandoned in 1890 and then mostly demolished.

prehistory

On the fringes of the Paris Peace Conference , the four victorious powers Austria , Great Britain , Prussia and Russia designated Mainz , Luxembourg and Landau as fortresses of the German Confederation on November 3, 1815 , and also planned the construction of a fourth federal fortress on the Upper Rhine, for which 20 million French francs from the War compensation should be provided. As early as 1819 to 1824 a fortress construction commission, in which Baden, Bavarian, Württemberg and Austrian engineers participated, worked out the plans, but for political reasons they disappeared in the drawer for 20 years. While Austria wanted to expand Ulm , Prussia and the southern German states closer to France preferred to build a fortress in Rastatt.

In October 1836, King Wilhelm I of Württemberg proposed building or expanding both cities into fortresses as a compromise. In 1838/39 Bavaria and Austria could also be won over for this. However, it was not until the Rhine crisis of 1840/41 that the states of the German Confederation agreed on defense efforts against France and the Federal Assembly decided on March 26, 1841 to build both fortresses. Rastatt was designated as a connection and border fortress, as well as an armory of the VIII Army Corps . The Grand Duchy of Baden received the right to appoint the governor, the commanding officer and the chief of the artillery; Austria was allowed to appoint the chief of the engineering troops .

The construction

Fortress quarry on Eichelberg

Work on the Rastatt fortress began on November 15, 1842, but the foundation stone was not laid until October 18, 1844, as lengthy preparatory work was required. This also included the purchase of land or its expropriation for compensation. In addition to urban and manorial land, 345 private individuals bought or expropriated land for the fortress.

For the city, the construction initially meant an enormous economic boom, which was later paid for with the withdrawal of public facilities ( court court , district government). The Austrian lieutenant colonel Georg Eberle was appointed fortress construction director, as was almost all of the management personnel from Austria . The large number of construction workers deployed (4,000 in 1844) made it necessary to expand the urban infrastructure (police and medical services), for the financing of which there were disputes between the city, the Grand Duchy of Baden and the federal military authorities. Most of the building blocks came from an approximately 500-meter-long red sand quarry on Eichelberg near Oberweier and were transported to Rastatt on a 14.5-kilometer horse-drawn tram, with an output of up to 400 cubic meters per day. 400–1200 workers were employed in the quarry, for whom a separate barrack camp was built there. In addition to locals, Wuerttembergians, Austrians and Italians also worked here. It was planned to complete the construction in 1849, but this could not be realized due to financing problems and the Baden revolution .

In 1848 the fortress was put into operation with the appointment of the first governor, Lieutenant General Carl Felix von Lassolaye.

After the interruption caused by the Baden Revolution in 1849, work was resumed in 1850 and came to a preliminary conclusion in 1852. After heated disputes about the further expansion and its financing - especially between Prussia and Austria - the city fortifications and the station lunettes were completed in 1852–1854 , and in 1856 two external works were expanded.

Structure of the fortress

The shelter of Bastion XI in the middle connection, today in the city park
Casemates

The fortress was built in the New Prussian fortification manner that was prevalent in Europe at the time.

The fortress consisted of three parts that had to be defended independently:

  • Fort A "Leopold Festival"
  • Fort B "Ludwigsfeste"
  • Fort C "Friedrichsfeste"

The three forts were connected in the same order by the:

  • "Upper connection"
  • "Lower connection"
  • "Middle connection"

There were 30 works within this fortress core . Outside this ring there were more of these works , so that the entire fortress consisted of 47 of these works. The works were numbered from 1 to 47.

crew

The fortress should be able to hold up to 30,000 men in the event of war. Baden had undertaken to garrison 2,400 men in peace and 7,000 in war. Austria should provide 100 men in peace and 3,500 in war. After long and violent disputes between Prussia and Austria, the German Confederation granted Prussia a right of occupation on July 28, 1859. The peace garrison was set at 12,000 men, of which Austria 6,000; Prussia was to provide 4,000 and Baden 2,000.

Baden Revolution

Fighting in the course of the Baden Revolution of 1848/49

The federal fortress of Rastatt attained political and military importance in 1849 during the Baden Revolution , during which the Baden military mutinied the fortress garrison and submitted to the democratically elected government together with the vigilantes. The reaction of the neighboring reactionary states was not long in coming. Under the leadership of Prussia , the uprising was suppressed by military force. The memorial to it and a museum on the national significance of the survey of the soldiers and population of Baden is located in the nearby Rastatt Castle :

The mutiny of May 11, 1849

On May 9, 1849, at 7 p.m. on the parade ground of the Rastatt Fortress, a soldiers' meeting took place, in which almost all the teams and NCOs took part - there were fraternization scenes between line troops and Rastatt vigilante groups. The military leadership had asked the soldiers to submit complaints through official channels and not to participate in the meeting, but they had not issued a ban. On May 10th, another soldiers' meeting took place in the Gromer'schen Bierbrauerei, to which the artillerymen went out in closed formation with drawn sabers and black-red-gold flag.

On the morning of May 11th, soldier Stark was locked up by Captain von Renz in the detention facility of the 1st Baden Infantry Regiment in the Leopold Barracks because he had made inflammatory speeches at the soldiers' meeting. Soldiers of the 1st and 3rd Infantry Regiments, as well as fortress workers, gathered in front of the barracks at around 10 a.m. and demanded the release of Stark. The officers had a general march struck, but only a few men obeyed. Attempts by several officers to calm the crews down and / or to restore order through threats were unsuccessful and even led to fights against the regimental adjutant von Göler. The barracks guard who had been summoned refused to take action against their comrades. Finally, Stark, who insisted on official approval from his company commander, was released.

At 1 p.m. the general march was struck again, and again the men did not obey. In the 3rd Infantry Regiment, teams harassed the governor of the fortress, Wilhelm von Cloßmann , and other officers, who then drove the insubordinates out of the barracks with sabers drawn. A storming of the apartment of the commander of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, Colonel Pierron, was only prevented by persuading Private Haas - a leader of the soldiers' club. Around 6 p.m. soldiers, citizens and fortress workers gathered again in front of the Leopold barracks. The issue now was the release of Corporal Kehlhofer, who was imprisoned by the troops for insubordination and unauthorized absence. Colonel Hoffmann was injured by a stone throwing in the tumult and Colonel Pierron could only escape on horseback. The unrest now spread across the city and the officers were threatened in their homes. Eventually the governor tried to disperse the masses with a squadron of dragoons . After initial success, he tried to talk to the rioters, but was unsuccessful and lost control of his dragoons. Again stones and bricks were thrown and the governor was injured, the dragoons now largely refused to give orders. Individual officers were threatened on the street, and the apartment of Colonel Pierron, who had previously been able to escape to an adjoining apartment, was stormed. The military was now without a guide, as von Clossmann and Hoffmann were wounded and Pierron could not be found. The captains of the small Austrian contingent in the fortress kept their people together and remained withdrawn in the fortress.

The revolutionaries Gustav Struve and Karl Blind , captured since the Struve putsch in September 1848, were brought from Rastatt to Bruchsal on the night of 11-12 May. Very early on May 12, further riots broke out in the city against officers and a corporal loyal to the government. Around 8 a.m., Baden's War Minister Friedrich Hoffmann arrived at the fortress from Karlsruhe . At about the same time three squadrons of the 1st Baden Dragoon Regiment under Colonel Heinrich Wilhelm von Hinckeldey arrived with an artillery division. General Hoffmann visited the individual units and asked the teams to submit their complaints. In addition to the demand for higher pay, the participation of soldiers' representatives in the popular assembly planned for May 13th in Offenburg was demanded, which was granted. The pay increase was still blocked by the Baden meeting of the estates . At first there was a certain calming down, but this turned into armed riots in the evening through rumors about the mutinies in other locations and allegedly advancing Prussian troops. General Hoffmann drew the dragoon regiment together on Schlossgartenplatz. The rebels succeeded in seizing the general's artillery division or winning over the artillerymen. The dragoons were now threatened with artillery on the one hand and called on to fraternize on the other. So the dragoon regiment dissolved, but General Hoffmann was able to save himself with part of this regiment and the majority of the officers from Rastatt. The mutineers began a hunt for the officers, and town houses were also searched. This now prompted the Rastatt vigilante to intervene to ensure the security of the citizens. Joint patrols by vigilantes and rebel troops succeeded in restoring a certain degree of legal security.

On May 13th, the elected delegates of the Rastatt soldiers drove to the people's assembly in Offenburg. A safety committee was formed in Rastatt. City and fortress now shared the fate of Baden in the Baden Revolution .

Siege from June 30th to July 23rd, 1849

Memorial for the killed democrats in front of the former Bastion 30

The Prussian II. Army Corps under Lieutenant General Karl von der Groeben has been in Rastatt since June 30, 1849. After a three-week siege , the fortress was handed over on July 23, 1849. In this way the revolutionary government tried to prevent a massacre of the urban population. Nonetheless, the conquerors imposed heavy sentences on those they caught in the city, and 19 death sentences were carried out by shooting in the fortress trenches. One of those shot was Major Gustav Tiedemann , who was appointed governor of Rastatt fortress by Revolutionary General Ludwik Mieroslawski on June 29, 1849. Among other things, the Cavalier 1 in the Leopoldsfeste, which is still preserved today, served as a prison.

German War 1866

In the German War in 1866, the federal fortresses with common occupation posed a special problem. At the request of Bavaria , the Bundestag decided on June 9, 1866 that the Austrian and Prussian garrisons in the federal fortresses of Mainz and Rastatt withdrew and supported by troops from Bavaria and the small states in the German Confederation should be replaced Prussia withdrew its troops (including the fusilier regiment "Queen Victoria of Sweden" (Pomeranian) No. 34) on June 10th to Wetzlar and Koblenz. On June 13, Austria withdrew its crews from the federal fortresses of Mainz and Rastatt (including the Austro-Hungarian Infantry Regiment "Freiherr von Hess" No. 49). The crew was reduced to 4,800 men, with Baden 1,800 men, Sachsen-Altenburg and Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha each 1,000, Waldeck and Reuss each 500.

The fortress was only put into a state of war on July 18, 1866, which was only maintained until August 1. After Baden left the German Confederation, the federal fortress was placed under the Baden War Ministry. On August 4, 1866, the contingents that had been relocated to the fortress in June to replace the Austrians and Prussians withdrew from Rastatt.

The Fusilier Regiment "Queen Victoria of Sweden" (Pomeranian) No. 34 and the Imperial and Royal Lower Austrian Infantry Regiment "Freiherr von Hess" No. 49 both took part in the battle of Königgrätz . In the Rastatt garrison there was no tension between the troops of the two states before the outbreak of war.

In 1869 Heinrich Hansjakob was imprisoned in the fortress for a month and wrote the book Auf der Festung .

Franco-German War 1870/71

During the Franco-Prussian War , the fortress served as a rallying point for the southern German troop contingents. On July 22, 1870, the fortress was placed under siege, which was maintained until May 11, 1871. After the surrender of the fortress of Strasbourg on September 27, 1870, a prison camp for 10,000 French prisoners was set up in Rastatt, which existed until late summer 1871. The governor was Lieutenant General Ludwig Waag (1812–1879) at this time .

The fortress today

Former food store, converted into apartments
Karlsruhe Gate
Kehler Gate

Rastatt fortress was abandoned in 1890 because it had lost its position on the border and thus its importance. Most of the facilities were sold to the city of Rastatt for demolition in 1892. After the German Reich lost the First World War , Article 180 of the Versailles Peace Treaty stipulated that Germany also had to grind down its fortresses on the right bank of the Rhine in a corridor of 50 kilometers. The Inter-Allied Military Control Commission therefore also determined which remains of the abandoned Rastatt fortress were still to be razed.

The following remains today give an idea of ​​the dimensions of the fortress:

  • Kehler Gate
  • Karlsruhe Gate
  • Bezels 34, 35, 37, 42
  • Cavalier 1
  • The Contre-Escarpe-Gallery at Cavalier 1
  • The gun casemates of Flank 27 at the Karlsruhe Gate
  • Upper floodgate and lower floodgate with remains of the city fortifications
  • The car houses 1 and 2 at Cavalier 1
  • The fortress hospital (behind the carriage houses)
  • The provisions magazine parallel to this (in the vernacular "grain magazine")
  • The two barracks buildings of the Leopold Festival between the hospital and the provisions store

The casemates are accessible and guided tours are offered. In the eastern part of the former Leopold Fortress, 500 m of corridors are accessible for viewing.

reception

The Badnerlied , Baden's unofficial hymn , refers in the third stanza to the fortress, which was understood as a protection against French incursions.

"The fortress is in Rastatt
and that is Baden's happiness."

In 1988 Erich Schlossarek published his historical novel Auf Gnade und Ungnade , which deals with the siege of the fortress in 1849.

literature

  • Franz Simon Meyer : The whole story of my indifferent life. Volume 2. 1829 - 1849. In times of revolution. Edited by Sebastian Diziol. Solivagus Praeteritum, Kiel 2017. ISBN 978-3-9817079-6-0 .
  • Wolfgang Dreßen (ed.): 1848–1849. Civil War in Baden: Chronicle of a Lost Revolution. (Wagenbach's pocket library, 3). Wagenbach, Berlin 1975, ISBN 3-8031-2003-9 .
  • Gunther Hildebrandt: Rastatt 1849. A fortress of the revolution. ( Illustrated historical booklets No. 6, edited by the Central Institute for History of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR). VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1976.
  • Albert Neininger: Rastatt as a residence, garrison and fortress . Self-published, Rastatt 1961.
  • Carl Schurz : Escape from the Rastatt fortress. Memories of the Baden Revolution. With an introduction by Helmut Bender . Waldkircher Verlagsgesellschaft, Waldkirch 1983, ISBN 3-87885-086-7 .
  • Rainer Wollenschneider, Michael Feik: Federal fortress Rastatt. In memory of the laying of the foundation stone on October 18, 1844. Schütz, Ötigheim 1994, ISBN 3-925418-44-X .
  • Karl Alois Fickler : In Rastatt 1849. With a Rastatt tarpaulin. Rastatt 1853 ( online in the Google book search ).
  • Karl Leopold Frhr. Schilling v. Canstatt: The military mutiny in Baden. Including the events in Rastatt, Bruchsal, Karlsruhe, Lörrach, Freiburg, Gundelfingen, Krotzingen, Neustadt etc. Compiled from authentic sources by an officer from Baden. Karlsruhe 1849 ( online at the Frankfurt University Library ).
  • Carl von Rotteck , Carl Theodor Welcker : Staats-Lexikon - Encyklopädie der Staatswissenschaften. 3. Edition. Volume 4, Leipzig 1860: German Federal War Constitution, B. Die Bundesfestungen, pp. 506-514 ( online in the Google book search ).
  • Marco Müller: The federal fortress of Rastatt . In: Badische Heimat, issue 4/2005, pp. 499-515.
  • Karl Josef Rößler: Fight for the construction and occupation of the Rastatt fortress . In: Die Ortenau 42 (1962), pp. 264-273 ( online at the University of Freiburg ).
  • Hermann Kraemer: Rastatt in the revolutionary year 1848/49. Commemorative sheets for the centenary . Rastatt 1949.
  • Reinhold Wagner: Rastatt, the 4th federal fortress. A necrology. In: Preußische Jahrbücher , Volume 67 (1891), pp. 472–498 in the Internet Archive and pp. 663–684 in the Internet Archive

Web links

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

References and comments

  1. ^ Procès-verbal de la conférence de MM les plénipotentiaires des quatre puissances du November 3, 1815 à Paris, Annexe B, Système défensif de la confédération germanique. Art. 10, of November 3, 1815. In: State Archives of the German Confederation, edited by Johann Ludwig Klüber , Volume I, 3rd Issue, Erlangen 1816, pp. 389–391 online in the Google book search
  2. ↑ Müller p. 499
  3. ↑ printed by Philipp Anton Guido von Meyer: Corpus constitutionum Germaniae, or the entire constitution of the states of Germany , Frankfurt am Main 1845, pp. 95–96 online in the Google book search
  4. ↑ s. State Lexicon p. 509.
  5. ↑ s. Müller p. 505; Franz Simon Meyer : The whole story of my indifferent life. Volume 2. 1829 - 1849. In times of revolution. Edited by Sebastian Diziol. Solivagus Praeteritum, Kiel 2017. ISBN 978-3-9817079-6-0 , pp. 247, 261, 269 - 270
  6. ↑ Fickler p. 3
  7. ↑ Between 1843 and 1848, an average of 4,000 workers were employed in fortress construction, with the peak even reaching 6,000; s. Müller p. 501
  8. ↑ s. www.bundesfestung-rastatt.de; Retrieved November 22, 2013
  9. ↑ s. Müller p. 502
  10. ↑ Entry in discover regional studies online - Leo-bw ; Entry in the Baden biographies
  11. ↑ s. Roessler 265-266
  12. ↑ s. Karl Stiefel: Baden 1648-1952. Karlsruhe 1979, Volume 2, p. 1026; Roessler pp. 266-272
  13. ↑ so Schilling; according to Fickler (p. 35) only about 300 soldiers took part on May 9th
  14. ↑ s. Schilling p. 2.
  15. ↑ It was about the 24-year-old Johann Stark from Lottstetten
  16. ↑ the 4th squadron was already in Rastatt
  17. ↑ (* 1793; † 1852)
  18. ↑ s. Wolfgang Menzel: The German War in 1866 , Volume 1; P. 242
  19. ↑ Freiburg newspaper of June 12, 1866 online at the Freiburg University Library
  20. ↑ Austria's battles in 1866. From the K. and K. General Staff, Bureau for War History, Volume 1, p. 144.
  21. ↑ Freiburg newspaper of June 15, 1866, online at the Freiburg University Library
  22. ↑ s. Freiburg newspaper of August 5, 1866, online at Freiburg University Library
  23. ↑ as part of the 2nd Corps of the 1st Army
  24. ↑ as part of the Kirchsberg Brigade in the 3rd Army Corps
  25. ↑ s. Miller 512
  26. ↑ Governor from April 26, 1867 to March 8, 1873.
  27. ↑ the National Defense Commission in Berlin lifted the fortress as early as 1887; the imperial cabinet order dates from March 4, 1890; s. Karl Stiefel: Baden 1648-1952. Karlsruhe 1979, Volume 2, p. 1027.