Communication (fortress)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Covered path behind the crenelated wall of the Moselflesche in Koblenz. In the background there is a trench

A communication (from French voie de communication , connection path ) is a "covered path" in early modern fortress construction , which connects different fortifications of a fortress. “Covered” means: a path that the enemy could not see and thus directly shot at (for example, by being protected on both sides by a wall). The communications also include the (always so-called) covered path that surrounds the entire fortress between the moat and the glacis. In the case of a belt fortress , they led from the main plant to the outer works or outlying works and also connected these with each other. In fortress construction, the term for connections, which was generally used in the military from the 17th to the 19th century, was thus adopted. During this time the lines of operations of the armies were also referred to as communication. The type of communication depended on the respective conditions and terrain. There were ramparts, ring roads, covered paths and posterns .

  • Wall roads were generally located within the core works and ran right behind the main wall. In addition to Wallstrasse, there was also a railway connection (mostly a narrow-gauge railway).
  • A ring road connected the detached forts outside the core plant, and here too the option of a rail link was often used.
  • Posterne is the name given to an underground corridor that leads to the advanced infantry units, the bastions , throat suitcases and other exposed combat rooms.
  • The covered path ran along the top of the wall below the turret or behind a crenellated wall. The passage behind the glacis on the wall of the counter-mount was also referred to as the covered path . (Thus all footpaths that were hidden from the direct enemy view, but could be fought by indirect fire.)

Examples

  • A communication that still bears this name today can be found in the old town in Brandenburg an der Havel . When entering the old town from the Millennium Bridge, communication begins about 20 meters behind the bridgehead and follows the course of the former city ​​wall and the northern bank of the Havel to the northeast to the former old town water gate.
  • In old Berlin there were several of these paths that had an addition according to their direction, such as Anhalt communication , Brandenburger communication , Communication at the New Gate , Communication between the Prenzlauer and Schönhauser Thore , Communication behind the Frankfurter Strasse , Communication between the Stralauer and Frankfurter Thore , Communication at Landsberger Tor or Communicationsweg and at the same time the address of residents.
  • In Koblenz , large parts of the communication between the fortress of Kaiser Franz and the no longer preserved Bubenheimer Flesche have been preserved.
    → Koblenz Fortress

After the abandonment of fortresses in the 19th century, this name was often adopted as a street name for new buildings (however, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, during the dominance of the French language in Germany, numerous connecting roads or continuous railway lines were referred to as "communicationen" have nothing to do with the fortress construction).

literature

  • Hartwig Neumann : Fortress architecture and fortress construction technology. German defense architecture from the 15th to the 20th Century. With a bibliography of German-language publications on fortress research and fortress use 1945–1987 (= Architectura militaris 1). 2nd edition, special edition. Bernard & Graefe, Bonn 1994, ISBN 3-7637-5929-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fortress . In: Riistow: Military concise dictionary. 1859
  2. ↑ Communication at the New Thor . In: General housing indicator for Berlin, Charlottenburg and surroundings , 1849, part 2, p. 20.
  3. ↑ Some examples:
  4. ↑ The Duden of 1908 therefore defines communication in a very general way: "Connection (in traffic)".