Wesel Citadel: Brandenburg-Prussian Fortress Core in Germany
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Germany
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Brandenburg-Prussia, French, German, Kingdom of Prussia
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Citadel
On this page18 sections
History
Wesel Citadel is a Brandenburg-Prussian fortress complex in Wesel, Germany, built between 1688 and 1722 in the early modern period as the central core of the larger fortress of Wesel. In 1687, Frederick William of Brandenburg ordered its construction as part of his plan to develop Wesel into a fortified town and strengthen its garrison.
Foundation and completion
The citadel was planned south of the town and linked to the existing town fortifications. Johan de Corbin became associated with the project in 1692 and prepared plans for the five-pointed fortress. Jean de Bodt took charge of the artillery service and became fortress commander in 1702 or 1706. Frederick William I of Prussia may not have commissioned him to supervise the fortification works until 1716, but de Bodt built the principal gate in 1718.
Expenditure included 373,452 Reichstalers during an early building phase and an estimated 221,600 Reichstalers in 1701 and 1702. A Reichstaler was a silver currency used in the German states before the modern German mark. During this period, the wider fortress of Wesel was equipped with 250 artillery pieces. When de Bodt left Wesel in 1728, the expansion of the fortress was effectively complete, although extensive works probably reinforced its southern and eastern sides until the mid-eighteenth century.
Garrison and command
The military garrison included Prussian Infantry Regiment No. 56, known as “Vogel von Falckenstein,” and Infantry Regiment No. 57, known as the “Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick.” Regiment No. 57 had three battalions of four companies each, with a peacetime strength of 2,364 men and a wartime strength of 3,240. The 1st Westphalian Field Artillery Regiment No. 7 and the Cleves Field Artillery Regiment No. 43 were also stationed at Wesel.
Recorded governors included Alexander von Spaen in 1675, Friedrich von Heyden in 1692, Philipp Karl von Wylich und Lottum in 1702, Johann Sigismund von der Heyden in 1719, Konrad Heinrich von der Mosel in 1730, Hans Christoph von Bardeleben in 1733, Friedrich Wilhelm von Dossow in 1736, Friedrich of Hesse-Kassel in 1756, Heinrich August de la Motte Fouqué in 1757, Friedrich Wilhelm von Gaudi in 1787 and 1788, Martin Ernst von Schlieffen in 1790, Alexander Friedrich von Woldeck in 1792, Friedrich August Albrecht von Tschirschky in 1796, Wilhelm, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, in 1797, and Karl Friedrich Franciscus von Steinmetz in 1814.
The regiments continued to shape the memory of Wesel after their dissolution under the Treaty of Versailles, the 1919 agreement that imposed peace terms on Germany after the First World War. Traditional associations, commemorative newspapers, and garrison or regimental meetings continued until the late 1960s.
French occupation and demilitarization
French forces occupied Wesel from 1805 to 1814. During this period, they constructed a two-storey brick building inside the citadel, now called the former Barracks VIII. The former Garrison Bakery No. II was also built in 1809, while the former officers’ prison dates to 1727 and the grain magazine to around 1835.
After the First World War, demilitarization in 1919 and 1920 removed the former outer fortifications. The citadel was left open toward the Rhine and Lippe, the side that had originally faced a potential enemy. Only a street name recalls the former field gate.
Modern cultural use
Wesel Citadel now functions as a cultural centre. Its buildings accommodate the LVR Lower Rhine Museum Wesel, part of the Wesel Municipal Museum, the Wesel School of Music and Art, and the Wesel City Archives. LVR is the abbreviation for the Landschaftsverband Rheinland, a regional public authority in the Rhineland. Since 2002, the citadel has also been the principal venue for Wesel Cultural Night, held each September.
Remains
Wesel Citadel was laid out as a five-pointed star, with each point formed by a bastion, a projecting fortification designed to provide flanking fire along adjoining walls. The plan included five bastions and five ravelins, detached outworks placed in front of a curtain wall or gateway. Its defensive principles drew on systems associated with the French military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban and the Dutch fortification designer Menno van Coehoorn.
Defensive layout
Bastions and ravelins
The five bastions formed the points of the star-shaped plan, while five ravelins strengthened the approaches beyond the main defensive line. The ravelins had recessed flanks, and the surviving defensive features include the tenaille in front of the curtain wall and the transition from the tenaille to a bastion. A tenaille is a low, angular defensive work placed before the curtain wall, the main wall linking two projecting fortifications.
Main gate complex
Gate and defensive works
Built in 1718, the representative main gate connected the citadel with the town. Its complex includes a curtain wall, bridges, a tenaille, and a moat. Although the gate formed part of the defensive system, its principal purpose was to provide the connection between the citadel and Wesel. Renovation in 1823 altered the complex, which now contains the Schill Casemate section of the Wesel Municipal Museum.
Schill Casemate
The southern wing of the main gate contains a prison cell where the eleven officers associated with Ferdinand von Schill waited for trial. Schill was a Prussian cavalry officer who led a military uprising against Napoleonic rule in 1809, and the officers belonged to his force.
Former military buildings
Officers’ prison
The former officers’ prison was built in 1727 and survives in private ownership. It now accommodates dance and cultural studios, a ballet and stage-dance school, a corset-making workshop, and artists’ studios.
Garrison Bakery No. II
The former Garrison Bakery No. II dates from 1809. The surviving building is used by the Wesel City Archives together with a restoration workshop.
Former Barracks VIII
Former Barracks VIII was built in 1809 as a two-storey brick building without a basement. It survives within the citadel and was renovated for use by the Wesel School of Music and Art.
Grain magazine
The former grain magazine, dating to around 1835, survives as part of the complex and houses the LVR Lower Rhine Museum Wesel.
Later military remains
French mortar
A former French mortar was placed at the citadel after 1871. Together with the surviving gate defenses, bastion transition, and tenaille, it forms part of the military material preserved within the fortress complex.
Wesel Citadel is among the largest surviving fortress complexes in the Rhineland, with its star-shaped defensive plan and later military buildings continuing to define the surviving site.
