Fort in Sanssouci Park
The fort in Sanssouci Park was a fortress model to represent new gun technology with armor in fortress structures at the end of the 19th century. The Krupp company had the model fort built in 1893 in the north-western part of the Sanssouci park in Potsdam in order to convince Kaiser Wilhelm II of the basic principles of the new technology. In November 2004 the ruin was filled in by the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg and has not been open to the public since then.
history
As a result of the development in the armaments sector through the manufacture of a new type of high explosive grenade, the so-called explosive grenade, there have been international considerations since around 1890 on how to better protect oneself against the superior effects of this grenade. The brick-earth construction and gun equipment of the old fortresses could no longer withstand the new weapon technology. A modernization through a suitable design and equipment had become inevitable.
From 1890, the Gruson company developed and tested a new generation of fortress weapons and armor. They formed the basis of future armor armament for fortifications. 1892/93 which took Friedrich Krupp AG , the Gruson AG Buckau (since Friedrich Krupp AG Grusonwerk ), thus securing its leading position as an arms manufacturer.
The building typology of a triangle forts was based on the ideas of Henri Alexis Brialmont , who made a name for himself in fortress construction throughout Europe. Contrary to the prevailing opinion of German fortress construction engineers to set up artillery and infantry in separate plants , Brialmont preferred the amalgamation of the two branches of service in a so-called unit plant with strong artillery armament.
On the basis of the discussion about the design of fortresses and the technical development of armored guns, the Krupp company had the model fort built on a scale of 1:10 (length approx. 40 meters, depth approx. 15 meters). This was preceded by a cabinet order from Wilhelm II on December 22, 1892, with which he had made a fundamental decision to modernize all fortifications and the guns installed there.
The management of the model construction took over Lieutenant Colonel a. D. Julius servant. The former engineer officer was known to the emperor from his time as a prince as an educator in military training for questions of fortress construction and had worked as a department head for fortress construction at the Krupp company since 1889. In a letter from Diener dated July 14, 1893 to his employer Friedrich Alfred Krupp , the completion of the model fort is dated to the end of July 1893.
The elongated triangular fort was divided into a middle section, the central work, and a right and left connection battery. The central plant with barracks was equipped with four armored turrets , equipped with howitzers ( caliber 15 cm L / 11). The right connection battery was provided with an armored turret and concrete firing positions, the left connection battery had two armored turrets, each equipped with a spherical head cannon (12 cm L / 17), a "masked" armored turret and a sinker tower with a cannon each (caliber 5, 7 cm). With further ball head cannons (caliber 7.5 cm) and a mobile armored launcher (caliber 5.7 cm), the guns in the facility were distributed over a total of 20 open or armored firing positions. A slightly sloping apron ( glacis ) was connected to the front ; The fort was surrounded by a dry trench, divided into a faced trench (face = acute-angled side facing the enemy, as opposed to the right-angled flank) and two semicircular trenches in front of the connection batteries, whose side closer to the enemy ( countercarp ) was bricked up, while the inner one Side (Eskarpe) only had a small base wall. This model fort contained elements of various types of fortifications, which were later reproduced in real fortresses, including the fortress of Kaiser Wilhelm II in Mutzig- Molsheim, in Thorn ( Polish : Toruń ) on the Buchta mountain and some of the tank fortresses in Metz .
For a long time, the fort was mistakenly considered a prince's playground - it is also known by this name - especially since the princes and princesses' playground was very close, not far from the New Palace . It is likely that the princes used the model system for teaching purposes in the course of their military training.
literature
- Peter Feist : The fort in the park of Sanssouci . Kai Homilius Verlag , Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-931121-01-1
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 24 ′ 16 ″ N , 13 ° 1 ′ 10 ″ E