Weserforts Brinkamahof
Map with all coordinates: 
The Weserforts Brinkamahof were two Prussian fortresses on the Bremen side of the Weser estuary .
prehistory
As an independent state in the German Confederation , Bremen acquired an area for a seaport from Hanover at the mouth of the Weser in 1827. The military sovereignty initially remained with the Kingdom of Hanover . In order to secure the entrance to the Old Harbor , Fort Wilhelm was built as the first fortress in 1830–1834. In 1849 the dock battery at the lock to the New Harbor and the Weser main battery , the "tower fort", advanced to the north; because after the Treaty of Malmö (1848) a Danish invasion was feared. These early Weser fortresses were demolished without a trace before 1870; but the North German Confederation also feared invasions . The French era , the Hanseatic departments and the Bouches-du-Weser department were unforgettable. After the Schleswig-Holstein uprising and the German-Danish War , it seemed imperative for the Kingdom of Prussia to militarily secure the mouth of the Weser - and not without good reason: Before the Franco-German War , the Second Empire was considering a landing in northern Germany ; During the war, the French Navy put a sea blockade on the German North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts in 1870/71 . This explains the four artificial islands . Two forts were supposed to secure the left bank of the Weser in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg and two the right side of Bremen. In 1866 the Prussian Navy began to build earth walls and set up guns on both sides of the Weser .
Bremen side
In the marshland on the eastern side of the Weser, the Brinkama family owned a lot of land in Weddewarden . The first fort was built on their land and the family name was transferred to it. Thousands of tree trunks had to be sunk in the silt for the deep foundations . Shelters , casemates , shelters , long corridors, protected by thick brick walls and armed with 28 cm guns, the forts were supposed to ward off attackers from the sea; but that was never necessary.
Brinkamahof I
Fort Brinkamahof I (Lage) was built between 1867 and 1872 on the northwest corner of what will later be the Nordhafen-Wendebeckens .
Location map
Brinkamahof I (1870)
Location of Brinkamahof I (1928)
Demolition of Brinkamahof I (1929)
Brinkamahof II
Further downstream, north of Brinkamahof I, Fort Brinkamahof II was built in 1875–1881 (Lage) .
The four Weser forts were used for military purposes until the end of the First World War . On December 25, 1914, an English reconnaissance aircraft (biplane) was fired upon by the only machine gun available on Brinkamahof II. The reconnaissance aircraft had been reported by the Cuxhaven post, flew the entire mouth of the Weser and turned towards the outer jade at the level of the fort. Two days later, Wilhelmshaven reported that the aircraft was drifting in the outer jade with the tank shot at, no trace of the pilot. The military facilities were dismantled in 1918 on the instructions of the Entente Powers . When the north lock for the large ships of the Reichsmarine was built in 1928 and the north port was excavated, Brinkamahof I was in the way. The fort disappeared like before the eponymous farm of the Brinkama family .
During the Second World War , Brinkamahof II was part of the air raid protection ring for Wesermünde as the “Upolu” anti-aircraft battery . The 10.5 cm cannons stood in reinforced concrete rings. When the British Army and then the United States Army occupied Wesermünde after the war , the battery was blown up.
A groyne embankment made of basalt stones connected the island to the mainland. He could not be seen during high tide . A barbed wire reinforced gate in the middle of the dam was supposed to prevent children from playing dangerous games in the ruins; but at low tide it was easy to avoid. When the river quay grew to the north and the dike foreland was washed up, the groyne dam disappeared. Brinkamahof II could be reached by bike. 70 years after Brinkamahof I, the remains of Brinkamahof II were also removed in 2000. The area was washed up with Weser sand and covered with an asphalt surface. The resulting container terminal IIIa was not the final step; Terminal IV, which was created afterwards, formed this.
MFlA 244 " Upolu "
Brinkamahof II before Weddewarden, on the left the anti-aircraft control station on the dike
"Peninsula" Brinkamahof II
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barracks
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The forts were constantly manned by soldiers. They were housed in the Leher artillery barracks . From Kaiser-Wilhelm-Strasse (today's Hinrich-Schmalfeld-Strasse) they moved up Hafenstrasse for the changing of the guard , and then via a dirt road to the batteries of Fort Brinkamahof. The dirt road was expanded into a road in 1870 and was named Batteriestrasse.
Howitzer batteries
After the turn of the century , the Imperial Navy built a howitzer battery with four 10.5 cm guns near Weddewarden. From October 1906, the Wremen howitzer battery with four 28 cm guns was added to protect the mouth of the Weser.
Barracks and former howitzer battery in Wremen (III. Sailor Artillery Department, 3rd Company)
Powder magazine
In 1874/75 a powder magazine for ammunition storage was built in Speckenbütteler Park during peacetime. Powder and projectiles for the four Weser forts were stored there until 1914. Once completely forgotten, the powder shed and the guard's house on Siebenbergensweg remained intact. They were only rediscovered in 1989. The guard house and a few other unoccupied houses were demolished in 2008. Today only the powder magazine remains; it has been a listed building since 2010 .
Oldenburg side
See also
literature
- Karlheinz M. Reichert: Navy on the Lower Weser . Nordwestdeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Bremerhaven 1990, ISBN 3-927857-21-1 .
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Publications in the Niederdeutschen Heimatblatt
- Heinrich Janßen: In the 1st World War on Fort Brinkamahof . In: Men from Morgenstern , Heimatbund an Elbe and Weser estuary e. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 342 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven June 1978, p. 1–2 ( digitized version [PDF; 4.5 MB ; accessed on October 17, 2018]).
- Helmut Krummel: A hundred years ago: howitzer battery was built . In: Men from Morgenstern, Heimatbund an Elbe and Weser estuary e. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 664 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven April 2005, p. 2–3 ( digitized version [PDF; 4.1 MB ; accessed on October 17, 2018]).
- Peter Raap : The fortress island Brinkamahof II. Memory of a fortress island that disappeared in 2000 . In: Men from Morgenstern, Heimatbund an Elbe and Weser estuary e. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 727 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven July 2010, p. 2–3 ( digitized version [PDF; 1.5 MB ; accessed on October 17, 2018]).
- Hein Carstens: The howitzer battery at Wremen. Your story in and after the First World War . In: Men from Morgenstern, Heimatbund an Elbe and Weser estuary e. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 826 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven October 2018, p. 1–2 ( digitized version [PDF; 6.5 MB ; accessed on June 18, 2019]).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Helmut Krummel: A hundred years ago: Howitzer battery built . In: Men from Morgenstern, Heimatbund an Elbe and Weser estuary e. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 664 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven April 2005, p. 2–3 ( digitized version [PDF; 4.1 MB ; accessed on October 17, 2018]).
- ↑ Hein Carstens: The howitzer battery at Wremen. Your story in and after the First World War . In: Men from Morgenstern, Heimatbund an Elbe and Weser estuary e. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 826 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven October 2018, p. 1–2 ( digitized version [PDF; 6.5 MB ; accessed on June 18, 2019]).
- ↑ Gunpowder depot of the Imperial Navy Artillery (MDS). In: Website Förderverein Maritimer Denkmalschutz e. V. Retrieved October 17, 2018 .
- ^ Hermann Schwiebert: The imperial powder magazine in Speckenbüttel. In: DeichSPIEGEL - the online magazine from Bremerhaven. March 19, 2018. Retrieved March 19, 2018 .
- ↑ Monument database of the LfD Bremen