Szczecin fortress

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The city of Szczecin expanded into a fortress in 1642

Szczecin Fortress is the name given to the fortress-like extension of the city ​​wall of Szczecin .

history

At the end of the Thirty Years' War , Sweden received an estate on the south coast of the Baltic Sea , the so-called Swedish Pomerania, in the Peace of Westphalia . This was used as a strategic bridgehead for Sweden's hegemonic position in the Baltic Sea area and to expand Swedish ownership claims to the south. Correspondingly, the city wall of Stettin was expanded step by step like a fortress. Szczecin was significant for both projects because it could be approached from the Baltic Sea on the one hand, but on the other hand it was effective through the control of the Oder estuary deep into the Brandenburg region. Therefore the fortress was a latent threat to Brandenburg.

During the Swedish-Brandenburg War , Stettin was therefore besieged in August 1676 . The Brandenburgers had to stop their poorly prepared efforts for the city on November 16, 1676 and return to their winter quarters. At the beginning of July 1677 the siege continued. This time, a six-month continuous artillery bombardment led to success and the Swedes surrendered on December 26, 1677. With the fall of the fortress Stettin, Elector Friedrich Wilhelm could solemnly move into the Stettin Castle on January 6, 1678 . Through this gain and also through the successful siege of Stralsund in 1678, the Swedes lost their strategic bridgehead on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. Due to the unfavorable peace of Saint-Germain of 1679, Friedrich Wilhelm was ordered to return all territories conquered in Swedish Pomerania to Sweden by the end of the year. Sweden was obliged to implement the border treaty of 1653, according to which it should renounce the strip of land on the right bank of the Oder, with the exception of Damm and Gollnow , in favor of Brandenburg. Sweden waived the levying of sea tariffs on the Oder estuary. When signing the contract, the enraged Brandenburg Elector Friedrich Wilhelm is said to «  Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor!  »(German:“ Avengers, you will one day see me out of my bones! ”) Uttered a quote from the Aeneid of Virgil . Indeed, his grandson, Friedrich Wilhelm I , continued his grandfather's ambitions to acquire the fortress. In 1713 the Great Northern War saw the second successful siege of the fortress by the Brandenburgers. But this time in the Treaty of Stockholm in 1720 the fortress finally fell to Brandenburg-Prussia.

Friedrich Wilhelm I had Fort Wilhelm, Fort Leopold, Fort Prussia and the Berlin Gate and the King's Gate built in the fortification to protect against the sea and the Odra river , which have been preserved to this day. By relocating Infantry Regiment No. 7 Stettin became a strong Prussian garrison town . However , unlike the siege of Kolberg in 1806 , the fortress was captured by the French without a fight during the Napoleonic Wars and occupied until 1813.

Than in the industrial revolution to urbanization came Vorpommern, and the close fortifications inhibited the development of the city, this was dragged finally 1875th From 1900 the hook terrace was built on the site of Fort Leopold . Towards the end of the Second World War , the city was declared a so-called " fortress " in March 1945 . But this could not prevent the conquest by the Red Army .

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See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Büchmann : Winged words
  2. ↑ IV, 625 / Dido