Fort Hartenberg

Parts of the former Fort Hartenberg, view from Hartenberg-Park in south direction (October 2019)

The Fort Hartberg was part of the third phase of the mounting fortress Mainz , following the reorganization of Germany by the Congress of Vienna as a fortress of the German Confederation .

Geographical location

Southern part of Fort Hartenberg right next to the bus stop, view in west direction (January 2020)

Fort Hartenberg was built on the Hartenberg, which was largely uninhabited at the time of its construction, to the north of the place where Jakob-Steffan-Strasse meets the Am Judensand road today . Its inner core, the reduit , was pentagonal; its outer walls also followed an essentially pentagonal structure. The entire complex had a diameter of almost 200 m and was closed to the east (towards the valley of today's Wallstrasse ) by a cavalier that is still well preserved today . Fort Hartenberg was connected to the similarly large Fort Hartmühl to the north by an approximately 300 m long connecting structure for unnoticed troop movements . Both forts are located on the site of today's Hartenberg Park. Remains of Fort Hartenberg can be found east of the basketball field, remnants of Fort Hartmühl north of the water games. The connecting structure was roughly where the asphalted park main path runs today. The reduit was excavated in 2017, archaeologically documented and then dredged. Immediately to the southwest of the Reduit there is a striking group of trees that used to provide shade for the schoolyard, will be preserved in the long term and will form a focal point for future residential developments. It enables good local orientation during and after the construction work.

history

The basement of the Reduit, which was preserved when the school was built in 1966 (left), uncovered in the course of its demolition in 2017 and then removed (panoramic view, looking south-west to north-west)

Preserved front of Kavalier Hartenberg (towards Wallstrasse, view to the west, 2014)

Rooms like this one in the throat of the fort served as emergency accommodation from 1945 and were not demolished when the school was built, but only bricked up and filled in (2014)

Fort Hartenberg was built in the 19th century as part of the Rheingau Wall, which was supposed to protect Mainz Neustadt from cannon fire. After the end of the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles , at the instigation of the victorious power France, the forts Hartenberg and Hartmühl, among others, were partially demolished in the early 1920s. Fort Hartenberg, however, initially retained a few vaults that were used as emergency housing by bombed out people in the Second World War at the end of the 1940s , and some of the interior was even painted with wallpaper patterns. These remains were later filled in, but some of them have been preserved to this day, although they are usually not open to the public. Only a few walls to the east of the basketball hoop in Hartenberg Park (not to be confused with the walls of Fort Hartmühl north of the fountains) as well as the Kavalier towards Wallstrasse have been preserved above ground .

After the new Mainz district of Hartenberg emerged from the end of the 1950s, a primary school was built for it from 1965 almost exactly above the former fort, the Hartenberg School , which opened in the summer of 1968. In the mid-1990s, when the US armed forces' housing area, a good 1 km south , was converted into a new residential area in Martin Luther King Park that could be used by all citizens , the primary school was moved there and its previous building was used as accommodation used for the Peter Jordan School ( special needs school ). In 2010, the Peter Jordan School had to leave the building because it needed renovation. In 2013, due to the difficult financing of the renovation, the Mainz city council decided to move the Peter Jordan School permanently to the Am Gleisberg school location.In 2014, it decided to demolish the school and move the site into residential development. From April 2014 to November 2015, the school above Fort Hartenberg was used by the Mainz cultural initiative Peng , and from December 2014 to mid / end of 2016 as refugee accommodation. Then test drillings and the first excavations began on the school's soccer field, and the school buildings were finally demolished in 2018.

As a result of the extensive excavation work for the planned residential development directly on Hartenberg Park, the extensive parts of Fort Hartenberg became visible again and its dimensions could be guessed at. The underground mining tunnels also came to light, which mainly extend to the west of the fort at a shallow depth. These relatively low corridors were not used to move troops, but to bring in and detonate explosive charges in order to be able to blow them up from below in the event of a siege by enemies who had survived the bombardment for whatever reason. In September 2019, a construction freeze of three months came into effect for the excavation work in order to enable the archaeologists to measure and document the facilities before they, if they are in the area of the planned residential development or its underground car park, have to give way.

literature

Rudolf Büllesbach, Hiltrud Hollich, Elke Tautenhahn: Bollwerk Mainz - Die Selzstellung in Rheinhessen , Morisel-Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-943915-04-4

Web links

As-is analysis of the urban development master plan "Residential quarter of the former Peter Jordan School (H 97)" with a sketch of the location (top right) of the forts Hartenberg and Hartmühle in relation to the current development (annex to the meeting of the building and renovation committee on October 1, 2014 in the council information system of City of Mainz)
"What happened to Fort Hartenberg" - report from September 13, 2019 in the Mainz online newspaper Merkurist about the excavations

Individual evidence

↑ Carina Schmidt: Concern for future use - Hartenberg-Park-IG would like to address traffic, barbecues and underground corridors with public participation . In: Allgemeine Zeitung (Mainz) . December 13, 2016, p. 12 .
↑ Michael Bermeitinger: School complex unused for years - vacancy: In 2010, the Peter Jordan School had to move away from Hartenberg . In: Allgemeine Zeitung (Mainz) . 12th March 2013.
↑ City planning office of the city of Mainz: residential area of the former Peter-Jordan-Schule. Retrieved October 16, 2019 .
↑ Michael Jacobs: Refugees in Peter-Jordan-Schule in Mainz: Kulturverein Peng leaves premises on November 1st. In: Allgemeine Zeitung (Mainz). October 13, 2015, accessed October 16, 2019 .
↑ Lili Judith Oberle: Excavators will rest until next year - archaeologists are documenting finds on the large construction site in Hartenbergpark . In: Allgemeine Zeitung (Mainz) . September 27, 2019.

50.009 8.24Coordinates: 50 ° 0 ′ 32.4 ″ N , 8 ° 14 ′ 24 ″ E

[1] Carina Schmidt: Concern for future use - Hartenberg-Park-IG would like to address traffic, barbecues and underground corridors with public participation . In: Allgemeine Zeitung (Mainz) . December 13, 2016, p. 12 .

[2] Michael Bermeitinger: School complex unused for years - vacancy: In 2010, the Peter Jordan School had to move away from Hartenberg . In: Allgemeine Zeitung (Mainz) . 12th March 2013.

[3] City planning office of the city of Mainz: residential area of the former Peter-Jordan-Schule. Retrieved October 16, 2019 .

[4] Michael Jacobs: Refugees in Peter-Jordan-Schule in Mainz: Kulturverein Peng leaves premises on November 1st. In: Allgemeine Zeitung (Mainz). October 13, 2015, accessed October 16, 2019 .

[5] Lili Judith Oberle: Excavators will rest until next year - archaeologists are documenting finds on the large construction site in Hartenbergpark . In: Allgemeine Zeitung (Mainz) . September 27, 2019.