Heilsberg triangle

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The map of the peace provisions of the Versailles Treaty shows the Heilsberg triangle as the only area in East Prussia in which fortifications could be built.
To emphasize the strength of the country's fortifications, General Brauchitsch introduced the designation "Panzerwerk" on June 9, 1939 . Partly preserved Pz.W. No. 1 at Braunsberg (2015).

The Heilsberger Dreieck was a fortified position to protect East Prussia .

history

After East Prussia was separated from the German Empire by the Versailles Treaty , new considerations had to be made to protect the area around Königsberg . As demonstrated in 1923 when the Lithuanian armed forces occupied the French mandate of Memelland in a flash , invading troops could not be stopped long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Due to the provisions of the Versailles Treaty, which stipulated a minimum distance of 50 km to the border for fortifications, military installations were only allowed to be built in a small area around Heilsberg in what was then East Prussia . Against this background, the construction of a fortification line began in 1931 to protect the East Prussian capital Königsberg from possible attacks from Poland or Russia. After its completion in 1937, the defense line consisted of around 800 combat bunkers, several hundred observation posts, anti-tank traps and wire entanglements. The fortification belt ran from the Curonian Lagoon west of the Deime in a southerly direction to Tapiau , further to the west of Bartenstein and then further north of Heilsberg and west of Braunsberg to the banks of the Frischer Haff . Since the eastern end of this triangle was north of Heilsberg on Großendorfer See, this fortification was given the name "Heilsberger Dreieck".

At the end of the Second World War , however, the facility was not a major obstacle to the advance of the Red Army .

Today you can walk in the footsteps of the former fortification line on a three-kilometer tourist path. In 2014, a circular hiking trail was laid out by the local forestry office near Wormditt in the Polish Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship . The "Szlak Fortyfikacji Trójkąta Lidzbarskiego" (German route of the fortresses of the Heilsberg triangle) leads to a total of twelve stations. There the visitor will find individual, secured, cleaned and repaired bunkers, all of which are provided with information boards in Polish and English.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Map of the Heilsberger Triangle; accessed on July 14, 2015.
  2. ↑ Press information from the Polish Tourist Office No. 13/2014; accessed on July 14, 2015.
  3. ↑ hiking map of the forest administration; accessed on July 14, 2015.