Fort Kugelbake
The Fort Kugelbake is a former naval fortress in Cuxhaven in today's spa district Döse . It is located on the last headland at the mouth of the Elbe, behind the sea dike, near the sea mark that gives it its name, the Kugelbake . The fort was built between 1869 and 1879 at a strategically favorable position at the mouth of the river, with its 14 coastal guns to block enemy warships , then the French, from entering the Elbe . Today it is the last preserved artillery fort of the Navy on the German North Sea coast .
Building description
Fort Kugelbake is a five hectare pentagonal structure with an extension of 250 meters wide and 150 meters deep. The facility is surrounded by an upstream trench that was around 12 meters wide and around 2.5 meters deep. A dry trench was applied respectively on the two sides to sea or to the dike at which the approaching obstacle a shooting chart wall of bricks located. On the flanks and the side of the valley, the ditch was designed as a moat about two meters deep. The trench defense was carried out by shoulder trench defenses . The cannon wall on the lake side consisted of heaped earth over wall casemates, which were built in brick and in which the accommodation of the crew and the ammunition stores were. The gun emplacements were on top of the brick buildings. The individual positions were separated from one another by crossbars from the sea side to protect against enemy fire . By 1887, a massive structure was built in the courtyard of the fort as a central traverse, which divides the facility into two courtyards. Its purpose was to mitigate the effects of impacting projectiles and their splinters.
The main access was in the rear area on the land side. There was a bridge over the moat, which was originally designed as a drawbridge . The outer gate was defended by a stone block house , which is located outside the fort on the moat. In the interior of the fort, appropriate structures made it possible to defend the gate and the bridge. A well was drilled in 1876 to supply water to the crew. Because of its poor water quality, the fort got a water pipe and connection to the local waterworks around 1910.
Initial armament and crew
The first guns installed in 1870 had a caliber of 28 cm. Their firing range was up to ten kilometers, so that the entire fairway of the Elbe could be covered. In 1879 the system was fully operational. In 1880 the fort had a total of ten 28 cm cannons, which were positioned on a left and right battery with five guns each. Another four cannons with a caliber of 12 cm stood on the left flank of the fort facing the sea. In 1899, the fort got a siding for ammunition and material transport by a narrow-gauge railway to the Cuxhaven station, which was used briefly by the Cuxhaven tram in 1914 . In order to be able to see unlit ships at night, the fort was fitted with the world's most powerful searchlight in 1909 , with a cone that extended 4.5 km. The five-ton headlight was placed in a specially constructed concrete bunker and was ready for use in 1911. The power center of the fort provided the power for the operation.
The fort's crew consisted of ten officers and 446 NCOs and men. The crew was initially accommodated in the casemates , in which the crews slept in hammocks . Because of the harmful effects on health of being housed in the permanently damp casemates, a staff building was erected in 1913 on the site of the fort, which served as a barracks.
history
Establishment
Under the foreign rule of Napoléon , the strategic military importance of the exposed location at the mouth of the Elbe was recognized at the beginning of the 19th century. Around 50 years later, the Prussian rulers presented the first plans to build a fortress in 1867. In 1869 the General War Department of the Prussian War Ministry approved the construction of the fort so that the earthworks could begin that year. The foundation stone was laid on May 28, 1870 . The first guns were set up as early as autumn 1870 . The construction work was not carried out by military units, but by civil companies. From 1870 onwards they lay idle because of the Franco-Prussian War and were continued after the end of the war in 1871. It was then financed through French reparations payments . In 1873 the fort was completed in the first stage of expansion, in which it had more of the character of a coastal battery .
In the years 1876 to 1878 there were numerous alterations and building reinforcements. Because of constant moisture problems inside the fort, the ceilings of the casemates were sealed against water from above. Groundwater rose unexpectedly from below , so the moisture caused significant health problems for the teams. The humid storage conditions for black powder in the ammunition chambers were unfavorable because it is hygroscopic .
The Kiel Canal, which was opened in 1895 on the opposite side of the Elbe, increased the strategic importance of the fort, which was accordingly strengthened by 1911.
First World War
In the years before the First World War, seven more fortifications were built in the vicinity of Cuxhaven . During the war, however, no enemy ships approached, so the fort did not need to fire a shot. As early as 1914, five 28 cm cannons were relocated to Flanders .
After the war, according to the Treaty of Versailles , the fort could be preserved as a coastal defense system, but with a reduced number of guns and ammunition. In the 1920s, the military details of the fort had to be disclosed to the League of Nations . 1922 called for the Hamburg Senate , which was responsible for Cuxhaven at this time, the softening of the plant. In 1931, the first maintenance work began after the end of the war in 1918.
Second World War
Before the Second World War , a flak position was built in the fort in 1937 , which was operational in 1938. It initially consisted of four openly positioned 8.8 cm anti-aircraft guns . From around 1941 they were replaced by four 10.5 cm anti-aircraft guns in the version as rapid-loading cannons, which were provided with protective ceiling shields. They were named after the rivers in the region such as the Elbe, Weser, Jade and Ems. A round observation tower made of concrete in the courtyard of the fort around 1941 served as the control center . Immediately at the fort, a tower-like building was also built around 1941 as a control center with a radio measuring device that had the Freya radio measuring device . During the war, a Wehrmacht barrack made of relatively thin concrete walls was built on top of the fort and served as accommodation for the flak operators. At the beginning of the war, the fort's crew consisted of 350 soldiers and by the end of the war it was reduced to around 50 soldiers, including 25 naval flak helpers and around 25 Soviet prisoners of war as volunteers.
Shortly after the declaration of war of the United Kingdom against Germany on September 3, 1939, the anti-aircraft battery of the fort shot a British already on September 4, 1939 Wellington - bombers from; but afterwards it remained insignificant. During the entire Second World War, the Marine Flak Division 214 stationed in Cuxhaven , to which other batteries belonged in addition to the fort, achieved twelve enemy bombers shot down with 15,000 rounds. As in the first, the crew of the fortress did not have to shoot any enemy ships in the Elbe estuary during World War II. The Elbe-Weser triangle was occupied by the Allies from the land side in April / May 1945.
post war period
After the capture of Cuxhaven by the Allies towards the end of the war and the subsequent evacuation of the fort by the German military, the British military moved into it. It was also the base of the German Mine Clearance Service for two years . After the war it came to the softening of the fort by blasting the command stands on the center crossbar and the left flank of the four anti-aircraft positions and the anti-aircraft control station in the yard.
After the withdrawal of the military in 1947, the entire site of the fort with its buildings, casemates and bunkers continued to be used in various functions in the post-war period . Because of the housing shortage of the many refugees and displaced persons, it was used as emergency shelter for 24 families. During this time, a youth hostel was built in the fort, which remained until 1967 and was located in the concrete building of the Wehrmacht barracks. In addition, seven commercial enterprises subsequently use the buildings, including as a chicken farm, mink farm, foundry and as a covering shop .
Todays use
From 1969 the fort stood empty. In 1970 the city of Cuxhaven acquired it from the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1984 the Institute for Monument Preservation classified the complex as a building worth preserving under the Lower Saxony Monument Protection Act , with the aim of returning the fort to the structural condition of 1910. In 1991 an artist symposium took place in the fort under the motto "Protect Armament, Indignant". From 1992 to 1994 the fort was restored with funds amounting to 6.5 million DM , mostly with EU funding . As a result, the decay of the facility was stopped and the historical character was restored to some extent in order to do justice to the facility, as the last remaining naval artillery on the German North Sea coast. The work was extensive and technically complex. For example, before the restoration, the inner courtyard was covered with rubble deposits up to 1.5 meters high, the roofs of the cannon wall leaky, the moat silted up, all windows and doors changed, the bridge dilapidated, casemate passages flooded, and the outer sash wall largely damaged and covered with soil covered.
As part of the renovations, the control center in the fort's courtyard, which was blown up after the war, was made recognizable by paving. An identical 10.5 cm anti-aircraft gun was installed on a concrete platform at the original position. It is on permanent loan from the Norwegian fortress of Oscarsborg .
Today the approximately five hectare site with a small museum on the history of the facility can be visited on expert tours. The facility can be rented for events. In 2005 the Deichbrand music festival took place at Fort Kugelbake . The Störtebeker open-air theater has been performed here every year since 2009 .
Main entrance with bridge and stone block house for external defense
View over the systems in the inner courtyard in west direction to the Elbe estuary
Moat weir in the moat
Ammunition store in a casemate
Circumferential combat corridor in the casemates
See also
literature
- Joachim Pattberg: Naval fortress Fort Kugelbake and neighboring coastal fortifications of the 19th century in the Ritzebüttel office . Hardewiek-Verlag, Cuxhaven 1992, ISBN 3-929337-00-2 .
- Elke Schröder: Fort Kugelbake. A journey through history. Cuxhaven, around 1994.
- Gerd Wildfang: Fort Kugelbake and the fortress Cuxhaven from 1870 . Nordseeheilbad Cuxhaven GmbH, Cuxhaven 2001.
- Herbert Jäger, Gerd Wildfang: The coastal battery Fort Kugelbake in Cuxhaven. A documentation of the two-time destruction and the three-time construction. Cuxhaven 2001.
Web links
- Detailed description of the fort at relict.com
- Article on Fort Kugelbake at Stadtwiki Cuxhaven
- Brief description of the fort with photos
- Short history of the fort in years
- Brief description of the fort on the tourism website
Coordinates: 53 ° 53 ′ 26.3 " N , 8 ° 40 ′ 50.4" E