Reduit (Mainz-Kastel)

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The detached caponier in the throat of "the Reduit" on the banks of the Rhine. Only equipped with loopholes for close defense.
Main entrance on the right face of the defensible barracks building "the Reduit".
The throat of the Reduit barracks ("the Reduit") from the Theodor-Heuss-Brücke. Left - d. H. actually in the middle - the detached caponier, behind it the defensible barracks building. The eastern flank of the main building can be seen on the right.
View from the Reduit to Kastel train station in 1840

The building in Mainz-Kastel , known today as “the Reduit ” , originally served as the Reduit barracks for the Kastel bridgehead of the Mainz Federal Fortress (due to the colloquial abbreviation of the original name, the Reduit is now generally referred to as “ the Reduit” in Mainz and Wiesbaden ). Today, the plant is located in the Wiesbaden district of Mainz-Kastel between the Rhine and the (former) Taunus Railway, directly at Mainz-Kastel train station.

On the building history and occupation

The Reduit barracks on the banks of the Rhine were built shortly after the completion of the main wall around Kastel, which was redesigned and strengthened between 1828 and 1830, by Austrian pioneers between 1830 and 1834 according to plans by the engineer general Franz Scholl under the direction of the engineer captain Christoph von Pittel next to the ship's bridge over the Rhine built (near today's Theodor-Heuss-Brücke ). It consists of a massive two-storey barracks set up for defense with crenellated (i.e. loopholed) walls on the outer sides for close defense of the plant. Its slightly bastioned front with two long faces meeting at an obtuse angle and two short flanks faces north on the land side. The Reduit barracks was founded on a pile grid by 1800 oak pilots . On the throat side on the banks of the Rhine, separated from the actual barracks by an enclosed courtyard, there is a detached caponier , which is only connected to the flanks of the defensive barracks by a free-standing crenellated wall. This gives the whole work the outline of a slightly irregular bezel . Directly behind the caponier was the stairway to the ship bridge to Mainz, which was therefore completely covered by the Reduit barracks. From the opposite bank of the Rhine, the works and the ship bridge were only covered by the small "Eisenthor Battery" (this was located roughly where today's Mainz town hall is) and flanked by the lower redoubt of the Rheinschanze on the (island) Maaraue .

The keystone of the gate in the right face of the barracks building is a Medusa head , which is flanked to the right and left by an olive branch or a laurel branch. Above the outside, a lion rests between victory trophies, holding a bundle of fasces in its claws. A suit of armor with six flags indicating the German Federal Army is attached. Underneath it stands in lapidary writing “Cura confoederationis conditum MDCCCXXXII”.

At the time of the German Confederation , Prussian and Austrian soldiers formed the garrison of the Mainz fortress. Around 1900 the 2nd Nassau Infantry Regiment No. 88 of the 21st Division was stationed there.

Use of the work today

The Reduit was damaged in the Second World War , and was restored in the 1950s and 1960s, but not completely restored. Today it houses several Kastel associations as well as a youth center and the Kastel local history museum Castellum . The inner courtyard is used for open-air cinemas, concerts and other events in summer.

References and comments

  1. ↑ L. Falck: The fortress Mainz. 1991; HR Neumann: The Federal Fortress of Mainz 1814–1866. 1987, p. 119.
  2. ↑ also referred to as "defensible barracks" on 19th century plans
  3. ↑ Military schematism of the Austrian Empire. from the kk Hof- und Staatsdruckerei , 1831 p. 366
  4. ^ Alfred Börckel : Mainz as a fortress and garrison from Roman times to the present . Verlag von J. Diemer, Mainz 1913, p. 178 .
  5. ↑ d. H. here freestanding
  6. ↑ derived from defensive , i.e. H. a building that was already intended for defense in the construction planning and was furnished accordingly (e.g. through the thickness of the walls, through loopholes and the special design of the interior fittings)
  7. ↑ cf. Plan of the Reduit-Kaserne Kastel in HR Neumann: The Federal Fortress Mainz 1814–1866. 1987, p. 119
  8. ↑ roughly: "Hats (or care) that was founded by the Confederation (i.e. the German Confederation) in 1832"

literature

  • Elmar Brohl : Fortresses in Hessen. Published by the German Society for Fortress Research eV, Wesel, Schnell and Steiner, Regensburg 2013 (=  German Fortresses  2), ISBN 978-3-7954-2534-0 , pp. 109–114.

Web links

Commons : Reduit (Mainz-Kastel)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 0 ′ 23.5 ″  N , 8 ° 16 ′ 52.8 ″  E