Eye of the mouth

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Eye of the mouth
Coat of arms of Maubeuge
Maubeuge (France)
Eye of the mouth
region Hauts-de-France
Department North
Arrondissement Avesnes-sur-Helpe
Canton Maubeuge (main town)
Community association Maubeuge Val de Sambre
Coordinates 50 ° 17 ′  N , 3 ° 58 ′  E Coordinates: 50 ° 17 ′  N , 3 ° 58 ′  E
height 122-167 m
surface 18.85 km 2
Residents 29,944 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 1,589 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 59600
INSEE code 59392
Website www.ville-maubeuge.fr

Maubeuge ( Dutch Mabuse ; German Malbode ) is a French city with 29,944 inhabitants (at January 1, 2017) in Nord in the region of Hauts-de-France . It lies on both sides of the Sambre River , which is channeled here.

As a town fortress, Maubeuge is an old bastion fortification that served as the center of an enclosed camp with a diameter of about 25 kilometers. Most of it was built after the war of 1870/71 ; After the explosive shell appeared around 1890, it was modernized and reinforced (like many other fortresses, see e.g. Barrière de fer ).

history

Winner of Wattignies

Maubeuge ( Malbodium ) owes its origins to a double monastery for monks and nuns , which was founded in the 7th century by Saint Adelgunde , a Merovingian whose relics are kept in the church. The city subsequently belonged to the county of Hainaut . It was burned down by Louis XI. , of Francis I and Henry II of France. Finally it was awarded to France (then under Louis XIV. ) In 1678 in the Peace of Nijmegen .

Under Louis XIV the city was developed into a fortress by Vauban . In 1793, during the First Coalition War , it was besieged by the Austrian Prince Friedrich Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld . This blockade ended thanks to the French victory in the Battle of Wattignies on October 15 and 16, 1793. A memorial in the town commemorates these events . Also in June 1794 there was a battle at Maubeuge .

In 1814 Maubeuge was besieged unsuccessfully by a coalition army. During another siege, she surrendered on June 18, 1815, three days after the battle of Waterloo .

German soldiers during the occupation in World War I, 1914

After the Franco-Prussian War from July 1870 to May 1871 , the fortress ring of Maubeuge was built according to plans by the general and military engineer Séré de Rivières : Fort de Leveau in Feignies , five other fortresses and six intermediate structures. It was built around the citadel built by Vauban (1633–1707) and was considered a major pillar of the border defense.

First World War

Following the Schlieffen Plan , the German Army marched into Belgium on August 4, 1914. It wanted to cross neutral Belgium with infantry, cavalry and artillery in order to then take Paris. It was hoped that this would lead to a quick victory over France. Although the Allies tried to stop the German troops at Liège and Namur (see border battles # First World War ), the German advance towards the Franco-Belgian border continued.

From August 28 to September 8, 1914, the Maubeuge fortress was besieged by German troops ( Siege of Maubeuge ). This first siege in the First World War on the territory of France ended with the surrender of the fortress.

On August 28, 1914, 60,000 German soldiers encountered the fortress ring of Maubeuge and immediately began to siege it . The artillery shot and shot the defenses gradually with their grenades . The French defense could not defend itself adequately with its outdated material. On September 7, the fortress governor General Joseph Fournier announced the surrender; this became effective on September 8th. The siege of Maubeuge lasted more than two weeks; the Germans took about 45,000 prisoners when the fortress city surrendered.

A museum in Fort de Leveau in Feignies provides information about the history of the fortress.

Second World War

During the Second World War , the fortress town, which was defended by the 101e division d'infanterie de forteresse , was attacked from the air and later on the ground from the first days of the western campaign in 1940 and captured by the Wehrmacht on May 23 . In the historic center, 90% of the buildings were destroyed in the fighting.

On September 2, 1944, US troops under General Maurice Rose Maubeuge liberated ; on the same day they enclosed numerous German troops in the Mons pocket . The United States Army Air Forces then used Airfield A.88 , the Allied code name for Maubeuge airfield, between mid-September 1944 and mid-February 1945 as a base for transport aircraft.

Architectural monuments

See: List of Monuments historiques in Maubeuge

economy

There are important foundries , forges and blast furnaces , as well as manufacturers of machine tools and porcelain . From 1902 to 1951 the city was connected by an electric tram to the neighboring town of Hautmont , which is also a center of the metal industry . A Renault plant ( Maubeuge Construction Automobile ) is located near Maubeuge , where the Renault Kangoo and, in cooperation with the Mercedes-Benz Citan, are manufactured. Before 1959, Chausson buses were built here .

Institutions and schools

The city has a commercial arbitration tribunal, as well as a municipal college , commercial school, and vocational school .

Personalities

Town twinning

Maubeuge has partnerships with

literature

  • Le Patrimoine des Communes du Nord. Flohic Editions, Volume 2, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-84234-119-8 , pp. 1242-1246.

Web links

Commons : Maubeuge  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Mabuge in the Topographia Circuli Burgundici (Mathäus Merian)  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lijst van geographical names in Frans-Vlaanderen. Retrieved February 3, 2017 (Dutch).
  2. ^ Historical map as a digitized version of the University and State Library Düsseldorf .
  3. ↑ www.ville-maubeuge.fr (French)
  4. ↑ Wattignies 1793. ( Memento of November 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ This could - the sources are unclear, the first on the second (and 11 and 13) in June 1794 aerial reconnaissance have given
  6. ↑ The Siege of Maubeuge (August 25 to September 8, 1914) .
  7. ↑ Fort Cerfontaine postcard.
  8. ↑ a b c Feignies - the Fort de Leveau. In: Ways of remembering the First World War in the Nord-Pas de Calais. Regional Tourist Office of the Nord-Pas de Calais, accessed on November 24, 2012 .
  9. ^ Jean Glad: Maubeuge, place de guerre (1678-1945). Editions Publibook, 2007, pp. 133–161.
  10. ↑ Cf. Chapters XXXI and XXXII in: Martin Blumenson: Breakout and Pursuit (from the series United States Army in World War II - European Theater of Operations ), Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington DC 1961.