Grauerort fortress is a German artillery

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...

river about 9 km (5.6 mi) north of

Stade Stade (), officially the Hanseatic City of Stade (german: Hansestadt Stade, nds, Hansestadt Stood) is a city in Lower Saxony in northern Germany. First mentioned in records in 934, it is the seat of the district () which bears its name. It is l ...

which was built between 1869 and 1879 to defend the

Port of Hamburg The Port of Hamburg (german: Hamburger Hafen, ) is a seaport on the river Elbe in Hamburg, Germany, from its mouth on the North Sea. Known as Germany's "Gateway to the World" (''Tor zur Welt''), it is the country's largest seaport by volume ...

. Its shape is hexagonal, taking advantage of the topography of the area and the location of the previously existing levee. The main armament of the fort were probably ten 21 cm breech-loading guns (as opposed to the initially planned four 28 cm and six 21 cm guns), but they are no longer in place. There were also 4 12 cm and six 9 cm guns. Construction materials were

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

and

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

;

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

was only used from 1885 onward. While the fortress was in service during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870–71, it was never involved in any battles. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Grauerort was converted to a naval mine arsenal. Unused since 1985, it has been mostly restored to its original 19th-century state since 1997, and now serves as a museum and cultural venue. Grauerort has a 250 m Elbe pier which was used to load ships with naval mines. After WW II, a popular restaurant, ''Klein Helgoland'' ("Little

Heligoland Heligoland (; german: Helgoland, ; Heligolandic Frisian: , , Mooring Frisian: , da, Helgoland) is a small archipelago in the North Sea. A part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein since 1890, the islands were historically possessions ...

"), was located on the pier. Its popularity was because until 1955, Heligoland was off-limits to passenger ships, therefore people from Hamburg visited ''Klein Helgoland'' instead on their day trips. Between 1959 and 1985, decommissioning of ammunition took place in Grauerort. 1992 and 1995 chemical analyses of the

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...

at Grauerort revealed significant concentrations of, among others, PCNs,

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

RDX RDX (abbreviation of "Research Department eXplosive") or hexogen, among other names, is an organic compound with the formula (O2N2CH2)3. It is a white solid without smell or taste, widely used as an explosive. Chemically, it is classified as a n ...

, and

cadmium Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of ...

up to a depth of 3 m, raising the concern that hazardous substances could leach into the local

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

supply. File:Grauerort Plan.png, Construction plan, with the river Elbe at the top of the map. The vertical profile at the bottom shows the wall towards the Elbe and the

casemate A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which artillery, guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to Ancient history, antiquity, th ...

s. File:Grauerort Bridge.jpg, Entrance with bridge. It was initially a wooden

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable ...

and was later redone using concrete. File:Grauerort facade 2.jpg, Facade with newly restored windows File:Grauerort vault.jpg, Casemate. The walls were formerly lined with

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

and

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall. ...

plaster for

thermal insulation Thermal insulation is the reduction of heat transfer (i.e., the transfer of thermal energy between objects of differing temperature) between objects in thermal contact or in range of radiative influence. Thermal insulation can be achieved with s ...

. File:Grauerort Iron Staircases.jpg, Main bunker entrance with original 19th-century iron staircases to the left and right File:Grauerort gun.jpg, 20th-century gun in the fortress yard File:Grauerort train.jpg, Narrow gauge train; previously used to transport naval mines

Notes

References

*''Festung Grauerort: Führung durch die Festung mit Hans-Herrmann Ott'', 2009, 40 min (DVD)

External links

Fort of GrauerortOfficial Homepage of ''Förderverein "Festung Grauerort" e.V.''
* {{in lang, de Infrastructure completed in 1879 Stade Buildings and structures in Stade (district) Forts in Germany Museums in Lower Saxony Military and war museums in Germany