Grand dignitary battery
The Großwürder Battery was a fortress to protect the jade estuary in Großwürden near Eckwarden . With the jumps at Blexen , Groß-Fedderwarder, at the Waddens pump and the jump on the Ahne battery, it is one of the five "French jumps " of Butjadingen . On the other side of the Jade Bay, another battery was installed in Heppens , which, together with the Grand Duchy, controlled the entry into the bay.
construction
The battery was located at the "Alser-Ort" near Eckwarden, according to Rüthing it was built "on or on the wing dike". The "Alser-Ort" refers to the mudflats on the Jade Bay next to Grand Dignitaries. It was exactly on the headland that is now known as the Eckwarderhörne, here the sea dike to the south and west served as a wall of the battery. The land side of the battery was protected by a wall. There was a wide ditch in front of it.
Both the battery in Großwürden and the battery on the Oberahn fields were built with a heavily fortified log house and a powder magazine. A map from 1812 shows three buildings in the center of the complex.
Armament
The battery was armed with eight guns and two mortars. A map from 1812 shows five west-facing and four south-facing cannons.
history
construction
Napoleon considered building a war port near Eckwarden in order to take advantage of the favorable location of the Jade Bay. The purpose of the Grand Duchy battery, like the one on the Oberahn fields, was to protect this future port. The construction of the battery began in the autumn of 1810. Construction took place at the same time as the construction of the battery on the Oberahn fields. The work was demanded by the local population and became a great burden. The Brigadier General de Sailly demanded on November 17, 1810 materials and workers in Oldenburg . First, barracks and a powder magazine for the battery were to be built in grand dignitaries. 200 Butjadingers started work on November 27th. Earth was fetched from the Oberahn fields. The construction work was significantly at the expense of the local population, who was not only obliged to do labor service, but also suffered from billeting. 50 barrels with powder and military material were stored in the Eckwarder church. The schools were used for billeting and classes were suspended.
In the spring of 1811 1000 workers were needed to build the Grand Duchy battery. The need for labor could no longer be met by local residents. In March 1811, the Oberahnsche fields only needed 300 workers a day, later in the same month there were 800 workers. In April the number fell to between 600 and 650. The workers were not adequately cared for and also suffered from financial exploitation. The workers were fired in mid-June.
After the French era
After the withdrawal of the French units in 1813, the battery was "demolished" in the following years. In 1853 Prussia received 2.2 hectares of land from Oldenburg to build a coastal battery at the same place . In 1938 the Eckwarderhörne heavy flak battery was set up here.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Gustav Rüthning: Oldenburg history . tape 2 , 1911, p. 374 ff .
- ↑ Ludwig Kohli: Handbook of a historical-statistical-geographical description of the Duchy of Oldenburg including the inheritance of Jever and the two principalities of Lübeck and Birkenfeld . Oldenburg 1844, p. 161 .
- ↑ a b c Wilhelm Janßen: The Vareler harbor . Oldenburg 1993, p. 68 ff .
- ↑ Klause Dede: The shooting of the deserters gunners in front of the Blexer Church in 1813 . Fischerhude 2001, p. 65 .
- ^ Frank Gosch: fortress construction on the North Sea and Baltic Sea. The history of the German coastal fortifications until 1918 . 1st edition. Mittler, Hamburg / Berlin / Bonn 2003, ISBN 3-8132-0743-9 , pp. 51-64 .
- ↑ Strategically important place. Retrieved November 3, 2019 .
- ^ Friedrich August Greve: The air defense in the Wilhelmshaven section 1939-1945. 2nd Navy Flak Brigade . Hermann Lüers, Jever 1999, ISBN 3-9806885-0-X , p. 219-223 .
Coordinates: 53 ° 31 '15.2 " N , 8 ° 13' 56.5" E