Lübeck bastion fortifications
The Lübeck bastionary fortifications were laid out in the 17th century and represented the final stage of expansion of the Lübeck city fortifications .
history
At the beginning of the 17th century, the fortification with steep earth rondelles and walls, which had been laid out around 1535 and expanded over the following decades, was out of date due to the further development of artillery. Fortifications that followed the bastionary system with its acute-angled, flatter sloping bastions and ditches, which were first developed in Italy , were considered contemporary .
Already in the years 1595 to 1600 the Lübeck Council had a single bastion built according to the new system by the Jülich-Klevian state master builder Johann von Pasqualini . It was located in the southwest of the city, on the site of what would later become the cat bastion . However, this asymmetrical polygonal bulwark remained an isolated piece that did not become part of a larger system.
In 1604 the council commissioned the Dutch fortress builder Johan van Rijswijk with the creation of a concept for the complete, contemporary re-fortification of Lübeck. Rijswijk's design provided for the city island to be surrounded on all sides with bastions, and according to his plans, the first bastion, later called Commis , was built in 1605 between the Pasqualinis bulwark and the Holsten Gate . After that, however, work came to a standstill again.
It was not until 1613 that the fortress engineer Johan van Valckenburgh was appointed in view of the threat of war to get the Rijswijk plans going again. Valckenburgh worked out modified plans, but the council was reluctant to move on to the laborious and extremely costly work on a larger scale. From 1614 to 1618 only the bastion, later called Buniamshof , was built near the Mühlendamm .
The outbreak of the Thirty Years War in 1618 gave the expansion of the fortifications much higher priority, and in 1621 the Valckenburgh council recruited to finally begin work on a larger scale. Work on the Burgtor and Holstentor began in 1622 , but came to a halt again around 1631. Only with the appointment of Johann von Brüssels as a new chief engineer in 1634 did the activities start to flow again.
The construction work lasted until around 1670, at the end of which the Lübeck fortifications were essentially given their final shape, which they would retain until the early 19th century . After 1670, only minor work and additions were carried out, otherwise it was limited to maintaining and repairing the existing walls.
Valckenburgh's plan to completely encircle the city with a belt of bastions was only partially realized for reasons of cost. The east side with the Wakenitzufer never received the intended fortifications, but only a few small individual bastions. Here, the broad course of the river with its marshy banks promised sufficient protection against attacks, so that it was believed that this part of the ramparts could be dispensed with.
By the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss of 1803 Lübeck was guaranteed permanent neutrality and territorial inviolability. The council believed the city safe from future military threats. Because of this, and in order to underline the neutrality of the city, he decided on December 7th, 1803 to decongest the city. On June 16, 1804, work began, during which the bastions were partially dismantled and their gun emplacements and other military installations were stripped so that they could be used for civilian purposes. During the occupation of Lübeck by Prussian troops on November 5, 1806, however, the decongestion was not far advanced, so that it was possible to make the walls provisionally ready for defense in preparation for the battle of Lübeck . Even during the subsequent French occupation , the decongestion continued from 1808. After the end of the French period in 1813, most of the ramparts were redesigned into parks.
From 1850 onwards, large parts of the bastions that had been almost completely in place until then, especially on the Wall Peninsula , fell victim to the construction of the railway and the expansion of the port; The ramparts affected by the construction of the railway were converted into parks by Peter Joseph Lenné in 1850 , which were very popular with the Lübeck residents. A considerable part of the remaining ramparts was removed in the following decades, especially during the construction of the Elbe-Lübeck Canal from 1896 to 1900. The urban gardener Metaphius Theodor August Langenbuch carried out the horticultural redesign in 1897. Substantially preserved today are only the bastions Buniamshof and cat , sometimes there are the bastions Holsten, Commis, Powder Tower, and (rudiments) Schwansort . The so-called ramparts , according to the horticultural design in the 1920s, are today with some very old trees and crossed by paths.
Fortifications
| Name or designation | Built | Canceled | Remarks | location |
| Bastion castle gate | 1624 | 1804-1806 |
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| Burgtor-Ravelin | 1695 | 1804-1806 | Replaced a first rampart built in 1624 |
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| Bastion Bellevue (originally Teufelsort or Düvelsort ) | 1636-1642 | 1845 / 1885-1893 | In the 19th century, after the transformation into a park, it was a popular lookout point, for which the new name Bellevue became established |
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| Bastion Teerhof | 1636-1642 | 1885-1893 |
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| Bastion Fiddel (originally the Golden Tower ) | 1636-1642 | 1885-1893 |
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| Bastion Dammannsturm | 1636-1642 | 1885-1893 | The overburden that resulted from the removal of ramparts for the railway construction and the port expansion in 1850 was piled up on the Dammannsturm bastion. The resulting high hill with a lookout tower made of railway sleepers was called Chimborasso , and this name was subsequently used for the entire bastion. |
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| Bastion barn | 1635 | 1873 | Took the place of the Plönnies roundabout; removed for the extension of the railway facilities |
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| Roebuck Bastion (originally Kommerstein bulwark ) | 1643-1635 | 1885-1893 | Originally, after the builder, the Dutch engineer Tobias Kommer Stone named |
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| Holstentor-Ravelin | 1684 | 1804-1806 |
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| Bastion Holsten Gate | 1643-1635 | Only partially preserved |
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| Bastion cat | 1628 | Replaced the bastion that Pasqualini had built in 1595; |
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| Bastion Commis | 1605 | Only partially preserved |
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| Bastion Buniamshof | 1614-1618 | The Lübeck open-air theater has been inside the bastion since 1927 . |
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| triangle | 1633/1662 | Only remnants left |
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| Bastion Powder Tower (also Kaiser ) | 1644-1663 | Only partially preserved |
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| Mühlentor Ravelin | 1635 | 1804-1806 |
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| Bastion Schwansort (also windmill and mill gate ) | 1644-1663 | Also named after a windmill located here until the 19th century. During the construction of the Elbe-Lübeck Canal, a small remnant was removed |
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| Hüxtertor-Ravelin | 1636 | 1806 | The Ravelin trench was only filled in around 1880; its acute-angled shape is still evident today in the shape of Falkenplatz . |
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| Dog wall | 1646-1647 | 1896-1900 | Removed during the construction of the Elbe-Lübeck Canal |
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| Rosenwall | 1636 | 1896-1900 | Removed during the construction of the Elbe-Lübeck Canal |
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literature
- Hanseatic City of Lübeck (Ed.): The architectural and art monuments of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck. Volume I, Part 1: City plans and views, city fortifications, water arts and mills . Bernhard Nöhring publishing house, Lübeck 1939
- Rainer Andresen: Lübeck - The old cityscape. Volume I: History - Churches - Fortifications . Verlag Neue Rundschau, Lübeck 1988