Koblenz im Buga-Jahr 2011 - Festung Ehrenbreitstein 45

Ehrenbreitstein Fortress (german: Festung Ehrenbreitstein, ) is a fortress in the German

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

, on the east bank of the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

where it is joined by the Moselle, overlooking the town of Koblenz. Occupying the position of an earlier fortress destroyed by the French in 1801, it was built as the backbone of the regional fortification system, '' Festung Koblenz'', by

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

between 1817 and 1828 and guarded the middle Rhine region, an area that had been invaded by French troops repeatedly before. The Prussian fortress was never attacked. Since 2002, Ehrenbreitstein has been part of the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage Site Upper Middle Rhine Valley.

Location

Ehrenbreitstein is located on the eastern bank of the

at Koblenz in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It overlooks the confluence of the Mosel and the Rhine. The peak of the hill, which shares the name, is 118 metres above the Rhine. It is the northernmost point of the

World Heritage Site Upper Middle Rhine Valley. Koblenz - Panorama von Festung Ehrenbreitstein

History

Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1988-045-34, Koblenz, amerikanische Flaggenparade

Koblenz im Buga-Jahr 2011 - Ehrenmal des Deutschen Heeres 01

Previous structures

Ehrenbreitstein, the hill on which the eponymous fortress is now located, was first settled in the 4th millennium BC, and fortifications were built in the 10th/9th century BC. In the 3rd to 5th centuries AD a Roman fortification was sited there. More settlement followed in the 8th/9th centuries under the

Carolingian dynasty The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippin ...

. In about 1000 a noble called Ehrenbert (or Erembert) erected a castle on the hill. Its initial name "Burg Ehrenbertstein" later became ''Burg Ehrenbreitstein''. The castle was first mentioned in an extant written document in 1139, as a property of the

Archbishop of Trier The Diocese of Trier, in English historically also known as ''Treves'' (IPA "tɾivz") from French ''Trèves'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic church in Germany.Archbishop Hillin expanded it in 1152–1169. A supporting castle (''Burg Helferstein'') was built on the hill known as ''Helfenstein'' to the south. It was further extended by Archbishop Henry of

Fénétrange Fénétrange (; , Lorraine Franconian: ''Finschtinge'') is a commune in the Moselle department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Geography Fénétrange is located near the border between the Moselle department and the Alsace bossue. The rive ...

in 1286, and Archbishop John II of Baden in 1481. During the 16th century, work began to turn the castle into a fortress that could withstand the new gunpowder weapons. One of the first cannon was the 9 ton Greif cannon. At the foot of the hill, protected by the fortress,

Philipp Christoph von Sötern Philipp Christoph von Sötern (11 December 1567 – 7 February 1652) was the Prince-Bishop of Speyer from 1610 to 1652 and the Archbishop-Elector of Trier from 1623 to 1652. Biography Philipp Christoph von Sötern was born in Zweibrücken. He w ...

had the palace ''Phillipsburg'' constructed in 1625–1629. The fortress was further improved by his successors

Karl Kaspar von der Leyen Karl Kaspar von der Leyen (18 December 1618 – 1 June 1676) was Archbishop-Elector of Trier and a Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 1652 to 1676. Life A member of the noble Leyen family, Charles Kaspar was made a coadjutor bishop ...

and Johann Hugo von Orsbeck. In 1632, it was occupied by the French and in 1637 by Imperial troops during the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...

. Ehrenbreitstein guarded the most valuable relic of the Trier See, the

Holy Tunic The Seamless Robe of Jesus (also known as the Holy Robe, Holy Tunic, Holy Coat, Honorable Robe, and Chiton of the Lord) is the robe said to have been worn by Jesus during or shortly before his crucifixion. Competing traditions claim that the ro ...

, from 1657 to 1794. Successive Archbishops used the fortress' strategic importance to barter between contending powers; thus in 1672 at the outset of war between France and Germany the Archbishop refused requests both from the envoys of Louis XIV and from Brandenburg's Ambassador, Christoph Caspar

von Blumenthal The von Blumenthal family are Lutheran and Roman Catholic German nobility, originally from Brandenburg-Prussia. Other (unrelated) families of this name exist in Switzerland and formerly in Russia, and many unrelated families (quite a few of them Je ...

, to permit the passage of troops across the Rhine. In 1688, the fortress successfully withstood a siege by King

Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of ...

. Around 1730, Balthasar Neumann created the ''Schönborn-Werke'', a third ring of fortifications. France did succeed in taking it in 1759, but only held it for three years. LASB K Hellwig 0950

However, in 1794, French revolutionary troops conquered Koblenz; in the following years they besieged Ehrenbreitstein three times without success. But a one-year siege, starting in 1798 during the

War of the Second Coalition The War of the Second Coalition (1798/9 – 1801/2, depending on periodisation) was the second war on revolutionary France by most of the European monarchies, led by Britain, Austria and Russia, and including the Ottoman Empire, Portugal, N ...

, brought starvation to the defenders of Ehrenbreitstein who finally handed over the fortress to French troops in 1799. By the

Treaty of Lunéville The Treaty of Lunéville (or Peace of Lunéville) was signed in the Treaty House of Lunéville on 9 February 1801. The signatory parties were the French Republic and Emperor Francis II, who signed on his own behalf as ruler of the hereditary doma ...

, the French were eventually forced to withdraw from the right bank of the Rhine. Hence, they blew up Ehrenbreitstein in 1801 to prevent the enemy from taking hold of a fully functional fortress just a few meters away from French territory on the left bank of the Rhine. From 1803 to 1815 the area was part of Nassau.

Today's fortress

Under the Final Act of the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

in 1815, the

Rhineland The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section. Term Historically, the Rhinelands ...

became a Prussian province. The fortification of the Koblenz area became a Prussian military priority, because of its proximity to France and the fact that Koblenz was a bottleneck for all means of transportation (ships, railways, land transportation because of bridges). Hence, the Prussians built a system of fortification around Koblenz, the so-called ''Festung Koblenz'' ("Fortress Koblenz"), from 1815 until 1834. This referred to the strong ring of fortifications around Koblenz, of which the Festung Ehrenbreitstein was a part. Fortress Koblenz was said to have been the largest military fortress in Europe except for

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

. Ehrenbreitstein could be defended by up to 1200 soldiers. Under a peace treaty France paid 15 million francs towards a new fortress. Actual construction took from 1817 to 1828, and it was ready for service by 1834. Subsequently expanded several times, by 1886 Koblenz was classified as a fortification "of lesser importance". After the Koblenz fortifications west of the Rhine were dismantled in 1890–1903, the fortress and some lesser structures on the east bank alone covered the Rhine crossing until 1918. During its years of active service, the fortress was never attacked. It escaped being dismantled after the end of

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 ...

as a result of its perceived historical and artistic value. The American General Henry Tureman Allen, convinced of its historical value as a premier 19th-century fortress, prevented its intended destruction in 1922. It was occupied after 1919 by the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

as their headquarters during the Occupation of the Rhineland. In February 1923, Allen left the fortress, and the first U.S. occupation of European territory was over. After January 1923, Ehrenbreitstein was occupied by the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed Force ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the fortress served as a place of safekeeping for archives and cultural objects (1943–56) but also harbored three

flak Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...

guns (1943–1945). After World War II, the fortress was used by the French Army, before it was handed over to the State of Rhineland-Palatinate in 1947. In 1946–1950 it served as a refugee camp and then as residential housing, during the period of housing shortages from the early 1950s into the 1960s. In 1952, a

youth hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared ...

was opened, followed by a museum in 1956. In 1972, the ''Ehrenmal des Deutschen Heeres'' (a memorial to the dead of the German army) was inaugurated. In 2011, Festung Ehrenbreitstein was part of the '' Bundesgartenschau'' (National Garden Show) in Koblenz, following a multi-year restoration in 2007–2011.

Today

The fortress is open to visitors. It is connected to the town of Koblenz across the Rhine by a cable car and by an inclined lift to the foot of the hill. Ehrenbreitstein houses several museums: ''Haus der Fotografie'' (photography), ''Haus der Archäologie'' (archaeology) and the ''Landesmuseum Koblenz'' (temporary exhibitions). There is also a ''Haus des Genusses'', celebrating regional wine making and offering a Baroque dining experience. Permanent exhibitions at several locations inside the fortress cover the 5000 years of history of Ehrenbreitstein. There are also gastronomic establishments. The Koblenz youth hostel, with 157 beds, still occupies part of Ehrenbreitstein. The fortress serves as a venue for various cultural activities, such as open-air concerts and plays.

Cultural references

In 1822, the English translation of the castle's name, '' The Broad-Stone of Honour'', was used as the title of

Kenelm Henry Digby Kenelm Henry Digby (c. 1797 – 1880) was an Anglo-Irish writer, whose reputation rests chiefly on his earliest publication, ''The Broad-Stone of Honour, or Rules for the Gentlemen of England'' (1822), which contains an exhaustive survey of medi ...

's exhaustive work on chivalry. ''...this pulpit, I see, is a self-containing stronghold —a lofty Ehrenbreitstein...'' (

Herman Melville Herman Melville ( born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are ''Moby-Dick'' (1851); ''Typee'' (1846), a rom ...

, ''

Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod'', for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant whi ...

'') As the vine flourishes, and the grape empurples close up to the very walls and muzzles of cannoned Ehrenbreitstein; so do the sweetest joys of life grow in the very jaws of its perils. (

, ''

Pierre Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

'')

William Turner, View of Ehrenbreitstein (1835)

Here Ehrenbreitstein, with her shattered wall
Black with the miner's blast, upon her height
Yet shows of what she was, when shell and ball
Rebounding idly on her strength did light;
A tower of victory! from whence the flight
Of baffled foes was watch'd along the plain:
But Peace destroy'd what War could never blight,
And laid those proud roofs bare to Summer's rain—
On which the iron shower for years had pour'd in vain.
(

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...

, '' Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'' Canto III, v.58) Byron in fact refers to the previous structure, destroyed by the French, since the new fortification was only constructed after he wrote these lines. In 1835, J. M. W. Turner completed a major painting inspired by Byron's work, entitled "View of Ehrenbreitstein, or The Bright Stone of Honour and the Tomb of Marceau, from Byron's 'Childe Harold'." In April 2017, the painting was in a private collection and had an estimated value of £15m-£25m. Turner also painted a series of watercolors depicting views of the fortress and environs, some of which are held by the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

in London. In 1897, a monument to

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Wilhelm I William I or Wilhelm I (german: Wilhelm Friedrich Ludwig; 22 March 1797 – 9 March 1888) was King of Prussia from 2 January 1861 and German Emperor from 18 January 1871 until his death in 1888. A member of the House of Hohenzollern, he was the ...

was erected right below the Festung, but on the west side of the Rhine, known as the ''

Deutsches Eck ''Deutsches Eck'' (, "German Corner") is the name of a promontory in Koblenz, Germany, where the Mosel river joins the Rhine. Named after a local commandry of the Teutonic Order ("Teutonischer Orden"), it became known for a monumental equest ...

'' (German Corner). Both fortress and monument were considered as symbols for the "Guard at the Rhine", as in the song "

Die Wacht am Rhein "" (, ''The Watch on the Rhine'') is a German patriotic anthem. The song's origins are rooted in the historical French–German enmity, and it was particularly popular in Germany during the Franco-Prussian War and the First World War. The origi ...

". Today the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress is used for concerts and as a museum.

World Heritage Site

In 2002, the Upper Middle Rhine Valley became a

World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...

. The Site includes as its northernmost point the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * *

External links

Ehrenbreitstein official website (mostly German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ehrenbreitstein Buildings and structures in Koblenz Castles in Rhineland-Palatinate Landmarks in Germany Tourist attractions in Rhineland-Palatinate Museums in Rhineland-Palatinate