Verdun

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Verdun
Verdun coat of arms
Verdun (France)
Verdun
region Grand Est
Department Meuse
Arrondissement Verdun ( sub-prefecture )
Canton Verdun-1 , Verdun-2
Community association Grand Verdun
Coordinates 49 ° 10 '  N , 5 ° 23'  E Coordinates: 49 ° 10 '  N , 5 ° 23'  E
height 194-330 m
surface 31.03 km 2
Residents 17,475 (January 1, 2017)
Population density 563 inhabitants / km 2
Post Code 55100
INSEE code 55545
Website verdun.fr

Template: Infobox municipality in France / maintenance / different coat of arms in Wikidata

Verdun [ vɛʁˈdœ̃ ] ( German medieval Wirten / Virten , at times also German Verden (Maas) ) is a city on the Meuse (French: Meuse ) in northeast France with 17,475 inhabitants (January 1, 2017). The old diocese and fortress town and its surroundings were the scene of the Battle of Verdun in 1916 , one of the bloodiest material battles of the First World War .

Geography and administrative affiliation

Seat of the sous-prefecture

Paris is 260 kilometers from Verdun, Metz 80 kilometers, Nancy 90 kilometers. The city is also accessed by the Canal de la Meuse ( formerly: Canal de l'Est, branche Nord , German: Maas Canal), which is formed by the canalized Meuse.

Verdun is the seat of a sous-préfecture in the Meuse department (55) and belongs to the Grand Est region (until 2015 Lorraine ).

history

Middle Ages and early modern times

Verdun, Latin Virodunum, has been a bishopric since the 4th century . In 843, the Treaty of Verdun decided to partition the Frankish Empire . In the early and even in the Middle Ages Verdun was a thriving long-distance trade city, the wealth of its merchants was proverbial. It was one of the main transshipment points for slaves who were abducted from the areas east of the Elbe and exported to the Caliphate of Córdoba . Since the demand for eunuchs there was great, the men affected were castrated in Verdun . The historian Charles Verlinden calls Verdun a “real 'factory' for eunuchs”.

In the early 11th century the city experienced an extraordinary economic boom . During this time Nikolaus von Verdun was born, one of the most famous goldsmiths of the Middle Ages. Their decline began by the 13th century at the latest . The monasteries and monasteries , once the engine of urbanization , had now become forces of perseverance.

Verdun belonged to Lorraine and thus since 925 to Eastern Franconia , from which the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation emerged . As a free imperial city , however, it fell to France in 1552 through the Treaty of Chambord with the Trois-Évêchés and finally in 1648, through the Peace of Westphalia . The Treaty of Chambord states that the inhabitants of Verdun were “not German”, and the city was left to the French king by the Protestant princes in opposition to the Roman-German emperor in order to obtain his support in the fight against the emperor.

Expansion into a fortress

Fort Vaux near Verdun

In 1552, Major General François de Scépeaux, comte de Durtal commissioned the Sieur de Saint-Rémy with the fortification of Verdun. The expansion continued in the 17th century. After a brief siege , the city and fortress were handed over to the Allies in 1792, but were recaptured a short time later. After the Franco-Prussian War , the Barrière de fer was significantly expanded on the French side along the new border by Séré de Rivières . Fortifications on the heights around Verdun were modernized and expanded again at the turn of the century. When the European arms race intensified in the run-up to the First World War , the facilities were modernized again, some of them completely rebuilt and new lines of defense were laid out with ouvrages . In the last stage of expansion, Verdun was surrounded by 39 more or less large forts and ouvrages, connected by a dense network of infantry bunkers, artillery positions and machine gun posts (including the "Casematte Pamard" type). The German attack on the city and surrounding heights in World War I turned into one of the bloodiest battles of the war.

First World War

Street in Verdun 1916

The battle for Verdun lasted from February to December 1916. In view of the emerging quantitative inferiority, the German Supreme Army Command planned to get the western front moving again by attacking the Verdun fortress . In addition, Verdun represented an indentation in the German front arch . However, the Verdun fortress was more difficult to take than expected. The German advance came to a halt on the right bank of the Meuse in the funnel field between the destroyed village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont , Fort de Souville and Souvillenase . Both sides suffered massive losses in the bitter struggle. The city of Verdun suffered severe damage and some villages in the surrounding area were also destroyed. French supplies came from Bar-le-Duc via the road soon to be known as “la Voie Sacrée ”. It remained in French hands; the German offensive on the left bank of the Maas was also unsuccessful. In view of the failure, the German Chief of Staff Erich von Falkenhayn tried to reinterpret the target at a later date. From the beginning, the primary goal was to "bleed" France out. This was supposed to give the negative German myth of the "blood mill of Verdun" an alleged meaning. 170,000 French and 150,000 German soldiers died during the battle. She became a symbol of the horrors of modern war.

Second World War

On the evening of June 15, 1940, Wehrmacht troops marched into Verdun (→ Western campaign ). On August 31, 1944, six days after the liberation of Paris , they gave up Verdun as troops of the 3rd US Army advanced.

Population development

year 1962 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2008 2017
Residents 21,982 22,013 23,621 21,516 20,753 19,624 19,147 17,475

present

  • Customs gate (Porte Chaussée)

  • The Porte Saint Paul

  • City center view

  • View over the central pedestrian zone

  • Victory Monument of the Battle of Verdun

  • World Peace Center in the former bishop's palace

Today the city lives mainly from the service sector : tourism , administration and the diocese . In addition to the military cemeteries and museums in the area, the main attractions are the former battlefield ( Battle of Verdun ), the city ​​center with the quay on the Maas and the cathedral with the World Peace Center in the Bishop's Palace.

Regular events

Every summer, the show Des Flammes à la Lumière ( From the flames to the light ) depicts the events of the Battle of Verdun in World War I. It is organized by the Connaissance de la Meuse association and welcomes thousands of spectators every year. Simultaneous translations into English and German are available via headphones.

Local products

The Dragées de Verdun contained grains of aniseed until the 18th century . These were later replaced by almonds . In France, this type of dragées is given away at baptisms and weddings.

traffic

Verdun station is at the intersection of the Saint-Hilaire-au-Temple-Hagondange railway with the Lérouville – Pont-Maugis railway .

Personalities

literature

  • Le Patrimoine des Communes de la Meuse. Flohic Editions, Volume 2, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-84234-074-4 , pp. 1110-1143.
  • Verdun - a name makes history . Edited by Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V., State Association of Rhineland-Palatinate. Mainz 2008.
  • Frank G. Hirschmann : Verdun in the High Middle Ages. A cathedral city in Lorraine and its surroundings as reflected in the spiritual institutions. (= Trier historical research. 27). Trier 1994, ISBN 3-923087-26-8 .

Web links

Commons : Verdun  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Verdun in the Topographia Palatinatus Rheni (Matthäus Merian)  - sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Charles Verlinden: Was Medieval Slavery a Significant Demographic Factor? In: Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte 66. Heft 2 (1979), pp. 153–173, here p. 159.
  2. ↑ Becker, Krumeich: The great war. Germany and France 1914–1918. 2010, p. 225 ff .; Gerhard Hirschfeld , Gerd Krumeich , Irina Renz in connection with Markus Pöhlmann (Ed.): Encyclopedia First World War . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2009, ISBN 978-3-506-76578-9 , pp. 942 ff., 959, 445 f .; Kurt Fischer, Stephan Klink: Searching for clues near Verdun. A guide to the battlefields . Bernard & Graefe, ISBN 3-7637-6203-5 , pp. 20 ff .; John Keegan: The First World War. A European tragedy. From the English by Karl and Heidi Nicolai, Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-499-61194-5 , p. 390 ff .; Holger Afflerbach: Falkenhayn. Political thinking and acting in the German Empire. Oldenbourg, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-486-56184-7 , p. 360 ff., 543 ff.
  3. ↑ www.cheminsdememoire.gouv.fr
  4. ^ The play about the First World War , accessed on May 10, 2011.
  5. ^ Guides Gallimard (ed.): Lorraine . Gallimard, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-7424-0908-4 , pp. 66 . (French)
  6. ↑ Dragée de Verdun, Aftouch-cuisine.com (French / English) Retrieved May 8, 2010.