Magdeburg Citadel
The Magdeburg Citadel was a central part of the Magdeburg Fortress . The citadel was located on an island in the Elbe , today's Werder district .
history
Building history
After the severe destruction in the Thirty Years' War , Magdeburg lost its independence in the second half of the 17th century . In 1666 a garrison from Brandenburg was stationed in the city. The Brandenburg Elector , who was in Cleve , then ordered the city's damaged fortifications to be repaired on June 12, 1666. At the same time, the question of the possible location of a citadel was raised. On June 23, 1666, the elector ordered the citadel to be built on the Elbe side of the city. The background to this was that the fortifications there along the banks of the Elbe were relatively poorly developed. The destruction of the city in 1631 was the result of an attack on this side.
Independently of this, the Brandenburg strategy for a building at this point may also have spoken. From a Brandenburg point of view, it was particularly necessary to secure the Elbe crossing. Magdeburg was the only Elbe crossing between Hamburg and Wittenberg . Troops coming from the west were to be prevented from crossing the Elbe into the Brandenburg heartland. The city of Magdeburg could be dispensed with for this purpose if necessary. With the citadel directly on the Elbe crossing, the Brandenburg troops were able to hold the Elbe crossing with only a small number of personnel.
The actual start of construction of the citadel, however, dragged on. It was not until July 18, 1679 that Lieutenant General de Maestre announced that he had "made a crack". On February 4, 1680, Colonel and Commander Schmied von Schmiedseck had piles unplugged on the future building site. The construction of the masonry began in 1683 and was completed in 1702. The casemates were only moved into a few years later, as the masonry had to dry out. The construction management was held by the chief engineer Heinrich Schmuchte , who also designed the Magdeburg town hall and the gates of the citadel.
To the west towards the city, the citadel had walls eight meters high. To the east to the tower hill , the walls were five meters high. The purpose of this lower height was the possibility that the eastern tower ramparts could set fire to the interior of the citadel from the eastern Brandenburg side in the event of an enemy storming the citadel. The citadel had large domed casemates that were protected from enemy artillery by earthworks .
Hydraulic engineering
Although the citadel was on an island in the Elbe, considerable hydraulic engineering work was necessary to ensure that the water in the area around the citadel was constantly deep. In 1736, a weir was built east of the citadel, which diverted water from the then Great and Middle Elbe between the citadel and Holzstreckenwerder into the Stromelbe. Only when there was a flood was water still channeled into the Old Elbe between Holzstreckenwerder and Friedrichstadt . A weir was built on the Rothehornspitze upstream. The Middle Elbe, which was the main body of water at that time, was blocked off and the water was also directed into the river Elbe, which had been shallow up to then. In 1739 a groyne was built in the Middle Elbe above the citadel . As a result of these measures, the Middle Elbe silted up, which today can only be seen as a subsidence on the Rotehorn Island , which was created in its present form . Later a lock channel was built south of the citadel between Stromelbe and Zollelbe . The street at this point today is therefore called Schleusenstraße .
Armed conflicts
The Magdeburg Citadel, like the entire Magdeburg Fortress, was never actively involved in a military conflict. Although it was located in a strategically important place, the size of the entire complex would have meant such a large effort by enemy troops and enormous losses for a storm that an attack would not have taken place. It therefore had an indirect effect on armed conflicts.
The only exception was the appearance of Napoleonic troops in front of Magdeburg in 1806. There were 23,000 Prussian troops and 800 officers in the fortress. Only 7,000 French soldiers had appeared in front of the fortress . Nevertheless, the commandant of the fortress, von Kleist , surrendered the fortress without a fight. Prussia had previously suffered severe military defeats at Jena and Auerstedt .
In 1814 the French withdrew without a fight. Due to the expected heavy losses, Prussia and its allies had refrained from attacking the fortress. The French fortress garrison did not surrender until Paris had already fallen and was able to negotiate a free withdrawal to France.
The citadel as a prison
The Magdeburg Citadel developed into an important and feared prison in Prussia. Criminals were used to carry out heavy excavation and quarrying work in the fortress. The extremely harsh working conditions, the poor diet and the poor hygienic conditions led to a very high mortality rate among the prisoners. Prisoners were harnessed to work carts and lived in a confined space in dark casemates on straw that was rarely changed. The execution of the penalties imposed by the courts such as flogging , the setting of brand marks , shootings , strangulations and quartering took place in the citadel.
In the citadel, however, higher-ranking persons were also serving prison sentences, some of which were considerably more favorable prison conditions and some servants could be brought along.
Werner Siemens was a known inmate . Siemens was a prisoner at the citadel in 1840 because of the forbidden participation as a second in a duel . During his imprisonment, he succeeded in galvanic gilding and silvering of metals. When he was pardoned after just one month, he asked for an extension of his detention so that he could continue his studies.
Friedrich von der Trenck was imprisoned in the citadel in 1754. Trenck tried to dig an underground tunnel in order to escape. It was then moved to Fort Berge , which also belongs to the Magdeburg Fortress .
In 1788, Magdeburg canon Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Wartensleben obtained lifelong custody for his son Hermann in the citadel from Friedrich Wilhelm II . The son had married Johanna Rosina Hartung , a handicraft daughter from Halle (Saale) , against his father's wishes in 1786 and had two children with her. After 20 months, the young family man was released due to a maternal inheritance, against the resistance of the father.
Other known prisoners were the revolutionary Gustav Adolph Schlöffel (1848 for six months), from 1823 to 1829 the democrat Dietrich Wilhelm Landfermann , the poet Fritz Reuter , the priest Eduard Michelis , the Polish marshal Józef Piłsudski , Gerhard Cornelius Walrave , one of the builders of the Magdeburg Fortress , the painter Polikarp Gumiński , the revolutionary Gustav Rawald and the officer Armand Baron Léon von Ardenne .
The citadel often served as a prisoner of war camp. So 286 Swedes who fell into Prussian hands near Stralsund in 1715 were interned here. During the Seven Years' War Austrians, French and Russians were trapped in the citadel.
The future entrepreneur and inventor Hermann Gruson was born on March 13, 1821 as the son of Prime Lieutenant Louis Abraham Gruson in the Magdeburg Citadel.
Abolition of the fortress
With the changing weapon technology, the Magdeburg fortress and the citadel lost their military importance by the end of the 19th century at the latest. The fortress was finally abolished in 1912. After the city of Magdeburg had tried to acquire the land for a long time, it then largely tore down the citadel from 1922 to 1927 after the transfer had taken place. The rubble was used to fill the streets that were just being built in Cracau .
Todays situation
On the former site of the citadel there is now an event space that is used by visiting circus companies and for folk festivals. The road leading to the site is still called the Citadel today. On the north side of the site there is still the former officer's house made of brick . An allotment garden located there also bears the name Citadel.
List of governors and commanders
Prussian governors of the Magdeburg Citadel
- 1675 August Duke of Holstein-Plön , General Feldzeugmeister
- 1681 Ernst Gottlieb von Börstel , major general. (Previously in command and governor of Szczecin.)
- 1687 Ernst Carl Graf von Schomberg , major general.
- 1691 Lüdecke Ernst von Schöning , major general.
- 1692 Wilhelm von Brandt , major general (later governor of Küstrin (1701) and before that of Pillau (1689–1691).)
- 1701 Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau , Field Marshal General
- 1747 Prince Leopold Maximilian of Anhalt-Dessau . (Later governor of Küstrin)
- 1755 Ferdinand Duke of Braunschweig , Field Marshal General
- 1759 Ferdinand Hereditary Prince of Hesse-Kassel, General of the Infantry. Vice governor
- 1766 Friedrich Christoph von Saldern , lieutenant general
- 1785 Christian August von Lengefeld , Lieutenant General
- 1789 Ludwig Karl von Kalckstein , Field Marshal General
- 1800 Franz Kasimir von Kleist , General of the Infantry.
List of commanders
- 1666 Johann Schmidt von Schmidtseck , Colonel
- 1675 Wolf Friedrich von Bomsdorf , Colonel, managing director
- 1675 Isaak du Plessis-Gouret , Colonel
- 1681 Ernst Gottlieb von Börstel, Colonel (later governor)
- 1682 Sigismund von Lichtenhain, Colonel
- 1687 Adam von Krusemark, Colonel
- 1688 Bernhard de Huet , major general. (previously in command of Minden Fortress )
- 1698 Johann Heinrich von Börstel , lieutenant general
- 1711 Ulrich Christoph von Stille , lieutenant general
- 1723 Jakob von Bechefer , lieutenant general
- 1731 Christoph Heinrich von der Goltz , Lieutenant General
- 1739 David Jürgen von Graevenitz , Lieutenant General (later governor of Küstrin)
- 1747 Anselm Christoph von Bonin , Lieutenant General
- 1755 Franz Andreas von Borcke , lieutenant general
- 1759 Johann Nikolaus von Reichmann, Colonel Vice-Commander from 1763 real commander
- 1782 Otto Kasimir von Meerscheidt called Hüllessem , major general.
- 1798 Otto Ludwig von Wobeser , major general.
- 1805 Jakob Ludwig du Trossel, Colonel
- 1815 Karl Friedrich von Hirschfeld , Lieutenant General
- 1815 Heinrich Wilhelm von Horn , Lieutenant General, First Commandant. (Later in command of Kolberg)
- 1816 Wilhelm von Beckendorff , Colonel, Second Commandant
- 1820 Karl Friedrich Ludwig von Lobenthal , major general. First in command.
- 1821 Carl Adolph von Carlowitz , Lieutenant General First Commandant. (from 1829 governor of Wroclaw)
- 1824 Gustav Graf von Hacke , Lieutenant General, First Commandant. (later governor of Wroclaw)
literature
- von Zedlitz : The state forces of the Prussian monarchy under Friedrich Wilhelm III. Volume 3: The military state. Maurer, Berlin 1830, digitized .
- Erich Wolfrom: The building history of the city and fortress Magdeburg (= Magdeburg cultural and economic life. No. 10, ZDB -ID 545106-1 ). City of Magdeburg - The Lord Mayor, Magdeburg 1936.
- Helmut Asmus: 1200 years of Magdeburg. From the imperial palace to the state capital. A city story. Volume 2: The years 1631 to 1848. Scriptum, Halberstadt 2002, ISBN 3-933046-16-5 .
- Sabine Ulrich: Magdeburg barracks (= state capital Magdeburg. Vol. 81, ZDB -ID 1222115-6 ). City of Magdeburg - Office for Public Relations and Protocol, Magdeburg 2002.
- Bernhard Mai, Christiane Mai: Magdeburg Fortress. Verlag Janos Stekovics, Dößel 2006, ISBN 3-89923-098-1 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Dietrich Mevius: Wolf Friedrich von Bomsdorff - The Executor . In: Official Journal Löcknitz-Penkun, No. 04/2011, pp. 17-18.
Coordinates: 52 ° 7 ′ 37.6 ″ N , 11 ° 38 ′ 40.1 ″ E