Fort Joseph

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Fort Joseph with the memorial for the soldiers of the foot artillery regiment "General-Feldzeugmeister" (Brandenburgisches) No. 3

The Fort Joseph , and Joseph Schanze called, was part of the second fortress around the baroque Mainz , capital of the electors and archbishops managed territory Kurmainz in the Holy Roman Empire .

Geographical location

The Josephsschanze was created right in front of the Gautor at the height of the Linsenberg, where you go down into the Zaybachtal to the pillars of the Roman aqueduct , next to the former Roman military road that led from the Porta praetoria des Kastrums . It is opposite the main stone and only separated from it by the imaginary valley. It extends to the edge of the hill and had two voreinanderliegende lunettes . With the main stone she was able to cover the whole of Bingerstrasse and the so-called Dalheimer Grund, up to over Zahlbach.

The tapering stone walls of the remains of the fort, which are still visible today and to which the flanks connected at the rear on both sides, are now bordered by Langenbeckstrasse and Czernyweg in the Upper City of Mainz , which lead to the University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz .

history

Corridor in Fort Josef

Fort Joseph was built between May 1713 and 1730 according to plans by the fortress builder Johann Maximilian von Welsch on behalf of Elector Lothar Franz von Schönborn in order to protect Mainz's interests on the Rhine . Twenty years earlier the fortress was liberated from French occupation by an imperial liberation army under the command of Duke Karl Alexander of Lorraine after three months of siege and bombardment of the city and ramparts on September 8, 1689.

The 16 bastions of Johann Philipp von Schönborn around 1692: An engraving by the Mainz cartographer Nikolaus Person

Now five new forts were supposed to contribute to the strengthening of the Mainz fortress, because the modernization of the weapons technology meant that the cannons reached so far that enemy troops could simply shoot over the Schönborn bastions of the first fortress ring. Fort Joseph, along with the four other detached forts, should better relieve the 16 old bastions to the west. Welsch was supported by Lieutenant Colonel Luttig, Colonel Engineer Gerhard Cornelius von Walrave and other engineering officers.

Forts and entrenchments of the association

The Karlsschanze Fort Karl was above the former pleasure palace Favorite , today's city ​​park , near the former Neutor. A crenellated masonry with trenches and parapets connected the Karlsschanze with the Fort Welsch, also called the "Welsche Schänzchen", built under Elector Philipp Karl . Likewise, the Elisabethenschanze Fort Elisabeth was connected to the Philippsschanze Fort Philipp by a crenellated wall. Between the forts Philipp and Elisabeth the road ran to Nieder-Olm and to the right of Fort Philipp a dirt road ran to Zahlbach . The double plier - "la double Tenaille " - with his three lying in front Ravelinen formed a tenaille the compound of the fort Elizabeth and Joseph. Fort Joseph had a log house to cover the retirade (Latin - Italian - French: place of retreat) and a large area in front of its top to line the so-called "holy valley", which was already in Roman times and into the 8th century for Funerals had been used.

The very large fortress put a considerable strain on the electoral state's budget. The “engineering command”, which was responsible for the entire fortifications of the city of Mainz, criticized the electoral administration for the lack of expansion and maintenance measures, which caused the facilities to slowly deteriorate. Rudolf Eickemeyer turned to the elector directly with several reports and pointed out the catastrophic condition of the fortifications. When French revolutionary troops under General Adam-Philippe de Custine approached Mainz in October 1792 , they had to pay for this with the renewed loss of the fortress to France.

The remains of Fort Joseph are now a cultural monument in Mainz-Oberstadt .

Web links

Commons : Monument Zone Fort Joseph (Mainz-Oberstadt)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Anton Schaab : The history of the federal fortress Mainz, historically and militarily based on the sources. Self-published by the author, Mainz 1835
  2. ^ Alfred Börckel : Mainz as a fortress and garrison from Roman times to the present . Verlag von J. Diemer, Mainz 1913, p. 71 .
  3. ^ Alfred Börckel: Mainz as a fortress and garrison from Roman times to the present . Verlag von J. Diemer, Mainz 1913, p. 71 .

Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 43 "  N , 8 ° 15 ′ 23"  E