Wismar fortress
The fortress Wismar was in the early 18th century, the largest fortification in Europe. It was razed until the end of the Great Northern War , so that today no remains of the fortress and only a few remains of the fortifications are preserved.
History of the fortress
The city of Wismar is located on the Baltic Sea . The island of Poel is in front of the lake . The first fortifications from palisades surrounded the city center around the Marienkirchspiel since 1250 . From 1276 a simple stone city wall was built, which was expanded and completed until the 15th century. In the 13th and 14th centuries, a Landwehr was created in the Stadtfeldmark. In 1470 the city fortifications consisted of 36 towers and Wiek houses on the city wall.
From 1522 to 1619, the first fortifications were built in front of the medieval city wall at the harbor, in front of the Lübeck Gate and in front of the Poeler Gate. From 1627 to 1628 new ramparts, rondels and breastworks were built in front of all four main gates . In 1629 all trees and fences were removed about 500 paces apart. In 1631 the construction of the citadel began , also known as the "New Works" or "Fort".
From August 1631 Wismar was besieged by Sweden , and in January 1632 the city surrendered. The city was henceforth part of the Swedish Empire . Due to its strategically important location within the German possessions of Sweden, Wismar was developed into one of the largest fortresses in Northern and Central Europe.
From 1632 to 1675, until 1635 under the Swedish Colonel Wilhelm von Salzburg, all installations in front of the city wall were given moats . The harbor up to the Altwismartor and Lübsches to the Mecklenburg Gate were protected with bastions and curtains . From 1681 the existing fortifications were fundamentally redesigned by Count Erik Dahlberg . The citadel was assessed as the weak point of the fortification and was demolished.
The western entrance between Poel and the mainland was blocked by a small island, the whale , on which an outer structure of the fortress was built. Approaching the land made it difficult to reach swampy terrain, which was only accessible through five gates on dams . The Poeler Tor led to the northeast to the village of Nedentin, the route to the east to Hornstorf led through the Wismar Gate, the Mecklenburg Gate to the south and the Lübeck Gate to the northwest. The so-called Galgenberg rises in front of the Mecklenburg Gate. Around 1700 the fortress had around 700 cannons, 18 bastions, 9 revelins and 2 citadels. City maps from the 18th century show the fortifications in the form of a multi-level bastion belt.
The importance of Wismar as a Swedish fortress was to create a secure connection between Swedish Pomerania and Bremen-Verden . During the Great Northern War, the city surrendered after ten months of siege on April 19, 1716. It had held out the longest of all German fortresses in Sweden.
The city's importance as a fortress died out when Bremen-Verden was ceded to Hanover after 1721 . The fortress was razed after the capture by the allies Hanover, Denmark and Prussia . Wismar's return to Sweden was conditional on the city not being allowed to be fortified again.
The names of earlier fortifications are still reminiscent of Wismar's Swedish times. Remains of the fortifications, such as part of the old town wall, can be seen at the Lindengarten .
literature
- Max Wiegandt: Wismar in the Thirty Years War. Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology, Volume 82 (1918), pp. 1–126. Full text / digitized
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 20, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
