Memmingen fortifications
The fortifications in Memmingen exist some still around the historic city center . Among the remains are the listed ramparts with the city wall and the gates and towers that have been preserved. The fortifications served to defend the city and as housing for city servants.
The former three villages, Memmingen , the Kalchervorstadt and the Wegbachsiedlung grew into one unit over time, which can also be seen in the defenses. Memmingen was expanded three times in three centuries. Only with the construction of the inlet in 1475 were the defenses completed with the completion of the city development process. They consisted of 28 gates and towers and a three kilometer long city wall as well as the fortifications, moats and ramparts in front of it.
Until the 12th century
The first ring of the wall surrounded the so-called Guelph city . During excavations around the Antonite monastery, remnants of a defensive wall were found, which presumably existed before the year 1000. City gates were already mostly made of stone at that time, but there are no reliable indications for this. The first defensive walls made of stone were probably built around 1170/1180, or 1230 at the latest. This included four city gates, one of which still exists today. The boundary wall stretched from northern Notzentor across eastern inner Kalchtor , southern Upper Gate to the western Westertor out. Towers must have already existed at the four corners, but most of them were demolished or rebuilt during the extensions. It is also not known where the likely fortified Guelph castle was located. It used to be assumed to be on the site of the later Antoniterkloster , today it is assumed that this villa or the Burgus was located near today's Kalchstrasse / Ratzengraben at the inner Kalchtor.
On witch tower can be seen from around 1170 still on the lower level old tuff cuboid. The dungeon tower and an unnamed tower on the west side between the dungeon tower and the west gate must also have been built in this construction phase . The stump of this unnamed tower is now used as a residential building. No other tower structures could be found. This is probably related to the complete removal of the city wall on the east and south sides on the occasion of the second and largest city expansion.
13th Century
After the city had grown and become Staufer and the first monasteries had settled in the suburbs, a first extension of the city wall had to be considered. Until 1268 the Kalchervorstadt or also called Stauferstadt was provided with a wall belt. In the course of this expansion, the city's eastern border, which existed until the middle of the 19th century, was reached. The Hafendeckelturm was built , the Hexenturm got its current size and a tower was built at the current intersection of Bahnhofstrasse and Maximilianstrasse, one at the height of today's Rosengasse. The end of the Kalchervorstadt formed the Kalchtor (also called Augsburger Tor ).
14th Century
The second city expansion was the largest expansion of Memmingen in the Middle Ages . The Wegbach settlement, also known as the upper town , encompassed the area from the Weinmarkt in the north to the Hohe Wacht in the south. During this expansion, the entire southern part of the previous city wall was demolished and the moats, some of which can still be seen today, were filled. During the renovation of Maximilianstrasse in 2006, remnants of the defensive structures in the form of wooden palisades were found, which presumably served as additional defense against enemies in front of the actual city wall. According to the current state of research, nothing has been preserved of the walls themselves. The brisk construction activity on the Weinmarkt and Maximilianstrasse removed the last remains of the walls. However, you can still recognize the ramparts at that time by the wide street, which was untypical for Memmingen conditions.
From 1340 to 1395 a total of three new gates, the Lindauer Tor , the Kempter Tor and the Lindentörlein as pedestrian gates , as well as several new towers were built. In the west, five towers were built between the Hohe Wacht and the Lindauer Tor, one between the Swiss Mountain and the Lindauer Tor, and one on the Swiss Mountain. The east of the city was relatively poorly equipped with defenses, as the Haienbach was dammed there to the so-called Gschwöllt water , which made it almost impossible for attackers to storm the city from the east. The damming of the stream turned the entire east into a swampy area with a water level of about 20 centimeters.
A ditch was dug around the entire city, which was very shallow on the east and south side, as there was also protection from various streams there. The north and the west were relatively difficult to defend, which made a sophisticated system of entrenchments , trenches and walls necessary.
15th century
During the third expansion of the city, the so-called Ulmer suburb was included in the defenses. The Ulmer Tor was created as the northernmost city gate. It was flanked by the Luginsland Tower and the white flour sack tower . On the east side, the begging tower was built as a further defense tower. On the west side, the dovetail tower was supposed to secure the city's defense. This construction work was completed in 1445. As the last construction phase, the inlet on the east side was built in place of the old guard house in 1475.
The largest fortifications in the city were built on the west side of the Ulm suburb. Due to the rising terrain, the city builders had to proceed with particular care, as no moat was possible. Simultaneously with the walling of the Ulm suburb, the large roundabout and the Hohe Wacht with the Nudelburg as well as the ramparts around the entire city were built in the south of the city wall .
16th to 18th century
Memmingen was never besieged or taken until 1525. It was not until the peasant revolts that the peasants tried to storm the city. During the Thirty Years' War Memmingen was besieged several times and captured for the first time, which severely affected the city's defenses. One of the most violent skirmishes was the siege and capture by the Bavarian and imperial troops in 1647. Almost the entire western city wall was so badly destroyed by artillery that the Lindauer Tor and the Wester Tor had to be rebuilt. The east side was also badly affected by the destruction of the Kalchtor. Only the north and south of the city were spared. The city owed this to the strategically favorable starting point in the north and the well-developed entrenchments in the south. Even the new cannons could do nothing here. After that, however, reinforcement and expansion of the ski jumping hill and ramparts were necessary. Some of these were moved far outside the city. However, this did not help against the surprise attack by the Bavarian troops in the War of the Spanish Succession . In 1702 the city, like Ulm taken by surprise, was captured after three days and became Bavarian for the first time. Elector Maximilian II built the Red and Black Barracks for his troops on the west side of the city wall .
Memmingen was to be expanded into a Bavarian state fortress in 1702 . The project did not materialize, however, due to the early withdrawal of Bavaria and the return of Memmingen to the Reich as a free imperial city. According to the plans of the French war engineer Tardiff, further, complexly built encircling systems with 34 entrenchments were to be built in front of the actual city fortifications. This would have made Memmingen practically impregnable back then.
19th century
After the siege and capture of the city by Bayern in the Napoleonic war was Napoleon give the order to the city defenses grind . It was only through requests from the townspeople and the mediation of Baron von Lupine that Napoleon was induced to demolish only the four largest and most important towers. The Luginsland and the white flour sack of the Ulmer Vorstadt, the Hafendeckelturm of the Kalchervorstadt, the great Pechturm and the tower of the Hohe Wacht fell. All entrenchments had to be removed and the moats leveled.
Just a few years later, the then mayor of Zoller had a moat in the north of the city, the Ratzengraben, filled and a park (today's Zollergarten) created from it. He also had part of the city wall removed to a height of around 2.5 meters and parts of the battlements.
The largest wave of demolitions of the city defense systems occurred with the construction of the railway from 1863. Almost the entire eastern part of the fortifications was demolished, including the water tower protecting the water art , the Kalchtor, the Lindentörlein and the small pitch tower . Around this time the emergency center , the last gate in its original form from the 13th century, was demolished. The citizens of the Ulm suburb felt economically behind because of the narrow gate passage. The Bavarian Monument Office in Augsburg intervened against the demolition of the Kempter Tor through Wegbachvorstadt. It only allowed a wall breakthrough on the east side so that the larger wagons could drive into the city unhindered. These crashes were the last. The existing gates and towers were used as apartments until after the Second World War.
20th century until today
The two bombing raids in World War II in 1945 passed the defenses almost without a trace, as the attacks were limited to the station area in the east and everything there, except for the Powder Tower , had already been demolished and leveled in the 18th century .
Today the gates, the towers, the city wall and the remaining moats are carefully tended. The defense system with its five gates, five towers and the approximately 1.4 km long city wall is considered to be one of the best preserved city defense systems in Germany. The city wall around the Hohe Wacht was included in Haller's list, which lists the most important and best-preserved fortifications of the Middle Ages. The gates and towers are used by the various groups of the fishing day club . The trenches, which were filled in in the 19th century, are mostly used as park landscapes. City villas and large gardens have only been built on the west side. A green belt has been created around almost the entire old town, which is only cut through in the east by the train station and the adjacent buildings.
Web links
literature
- Christian Kayser: The city wall of Memmingen . In: Christoph Engelhard / Historischer Verein Memmingen eV (Hrsg.): Scientific series on Memmingen history . tape 8 . Memminger MedienCentrum AG, Memmingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-946241-08-9 .
- Michael Dapper: The settlement and city history of Memmingen from an archaeological point of view. In: Joachim Jahn , Hans-Wolfgang Bayer (Hrsg.): The history of the city of Memmingen. Volume 1: From the beginning to the end of the imperial city. Theiss, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-8062-1315-1 , pp. 21-73, here pp. 34-48.
- Karl Fackler: The old Memmingen . Publishing and printing cooperative Memmingen, Memmingen 1929.
Individual evidence
- ^ Michael Dapper: The settlement and city history of Memmingen from an archaeological point of view. In: Joachim Jahn , Hans-Wolfgang Bayer (Hrsg.): The history of the city of Memmingen. Volume 1: From the beginning to the end of the imperial city. Theiss, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-8062-1315-1 , pp. 21-73, here p. 35.
- ^ Günther Bayer: Memmingen - old views from town and country. Verlag Memminger Zeitung, Memmingen 1990, ISBN 3-9800649-9-9 , p. 32 f .
City gates
inlet |
Inner Kalchtor |
Kalchtor |
Kempter Gate |
Lindau Gate |
Lindentörlein |
Emergency center gate |
Obertor |
Ulm Gate |
Westertor
Defense towers Bettelturm |
Big pitch tower |
Harbor cover tower |
Witch tower |
Dungeon tower |
Small pitch tower |
Luginsland |
Powder Tower |
Dovetail tower |
Soldier Tower |
Water tower |
Welfenturm |
White flour sack |
Zwingerturm
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