Today's (this week's? turned out to be this year's!) wondering stems from trying to figure out what the map to the right is. Unlike what one may expect on a quick glance, it is not a map of Europe, but mostly north central Europe: eastern Germany, western Russia, and northern Austria-Hungary. In addition, the big bold-faced names are not those (with some exceptions) of major European cities. So what is it?It is part of of what had been a fairly sizable collection of World War I materials saved by my great aunt. So, although undated, I have always known that it as some World War I German thing. In deciding to unburden ourselves of more stuff, I needed to figure out finally what the map is all about, so this is where I wandered.
The facts: the map is made of some sort of line, and it measures 16 1/2" x 16 1/2" (42 cm square). In looking at closely, I see that there is both a key (for distance) at the top and (perhaps) a title: the word "Festungen". So first things first, is the Google translate which gives me "Forts"; in parallel, Wikipedia takes me to Fortification.
This lists fortresses (Festungen) in existence in eastern Germany, western Russia, and northern Austria-Hungary, presumably at the beginning of the war. Undated, published by Verlag Sander & Gronau, Hamburg.
So now that I can see that each of the symbols denotes a fortress, my wandering takes me to each of them (roughly going from North to South) on the map. The big question, however, will still be why this map and who was it for!
Wiberg.
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| Vyborg Castle |
In the Wikipedia article of the castle itself, Vyborg Castle is described as "a Swedish-built medieval fortress around which the town of Vyborg (today in Russia) evolved." Most immediately, before WWI: "The castle owes its present appearance to extensive restorations undertaken in the 1890s. The military of the Russian Empire used the castle until 1918 for housing administration."
So, why was Wiborg on Germany's map? Googling "Vyborg Castle" yields little. In an "Vyborg Castle as a Symbol of Power Institutions", in Issue 18 of The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies (2017), authors Jani Karhu and Chloe Wells state: "During the First World War Vyborg was a significant Russian garrison town and important for the defense of St. Petersburg."
[Note: Vyborg was an important location for WWII defense of Leningrad. See 2015, Russian Military Historical Society publication "Military Historical Routes of Russia."]
Helsingfors
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| Suomenlinna (Sveaborg) |
Looking through the Wikipedia article for "fort" one finds a link to Suomenlinna, which has got to be the fortress relevant here. Suomenlinna is for Castle of Finland, and was known in Swedish as Sveaborg, literally Castle of Sweden. It is "an inhabited sea fortress built on six islands (Kustaanmiekka, Susisaari, Iso-Mustasaari, Pikku-Mustasaari, Länsi-Mustasaari, and Långören)."
Most immediately, before WWI: "The next stage in the arming of Suomenlinna and the Gulf of Finland came in the build-up to World War I. The fortress and its surrounding islands became part of "Peter the Great's naval fortification" [see below] designed to safeguard the capital, Saint Petersburg." However, the fortress also was the central part of Krepos Sveaborg, which "was an Imperial Russian system of land and coastal fortifications constructed around Helsinki during the First World War." [At least one article suggests that the names Suomenlinna and Sveaborg were interchangeable.] According to Wikipedia:
Due to technological advances in artillery the old fortress was no longer capable of providing a sufficient protection, and a new main defensive line was built well beyond the old fortress boundaries. New coastal artillery guns built on outlying islands protected Krepost Sveaborg from the sea, while fortified lines constructed around Helsinki were intended to stop any attacks on land. The primary coastal guns were 10 in (254 mm) model 1891 guns and 6 in (152 mm) model 1892 Canet guns. Older 11 in (279 mm) model 1877 guns were also used. In summer 1917 the fortress had two hundred coastal or anti-landing guns, of which 24 were 10-inch guns in six batteries, 16 were 6-inch Canet guns in four batteries and twelve were 11-inch guns in three batteries. The artillery used in land fortifications included older coastal guns, old fixed carriage guns and newer light field guns. In March 1917, Krepost Sveaborg had a total of 463 guns, although many of them were obsolescent. Krepost Sveaborg was still partly incomplete in 1917 when the February Revolution halted most of the construction work. Some further construction work was carried out during the remaining year, but all work halted during the October Revolution. Following the Finnish Declaration of Independence, parts of the land fortifications were used in the Finnish Civil War. The coastal fortifications were later taken over by Finland to protect Helsinki, while the land fortifications were mostly abandoned and disarmed.
While the fortress may have defended Russia from Germany, once civil war broke out in Russia and Helsinki was transferred to Finland, the Germans did invade. In an article in Finnish on Krepost Sveaborg and World War I, it is stated that "When German troops arrived at the front of western fortifications 11.4.1918, every Red Guard fronts in Finland had collapsed and White Army advanced from north. In Helsinki there were just 1500 men in the trenches. If there was any artillery in order, the Red Guard had no resources to use it. ... The German Baltic division strength was over 9000 men. It landed in Hanko 3.5.1918. The Reds withdraw to east. Germans attacked to Helsinki in three directions: from west through Leppävaara and Mäkkylä fortifications, from north through fortress area of Malmi and from sea to Katajanokka naval base." And, Helsinki was surrendered April 13, 1918.
Kronstadt
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| Kronstadt |
Most immediately, before WWI:
Kronstadt was thoroughly refortified in the 19th century. The old three-decker forts, five in number, which formerly constituted the principal defences of the place and had resisted the Anglo-French fleets during the Crimean War, became of secondary importance. From the plans of Eduard Totleben a new fort, Constantine, and four batteries were constructed (1856–1871) to defend the principal approach, and seven batteries to cover the shallower northern channel. All these fortifications were low and thickly armoured earthworks with heavy Krupp guns on their ramparts.In a Russian article on Kronstadt:
What was the Kronstadt in 1917 and what was its role in all those revolutionary events is no need to say, I think. Every educated man should know. And the uneducated ... let's try with Wikipedia. As the naval base Kronstadt was in deep rear and its garrison not participated in the hostilities of WWI, and the garrison was appreciative audience for the agitators of every persuasion. In March 1917 Kronstadt was the first city in Russia, where Soviet power was established. And just after three years Kronstadt uprising under the slogan 'Soviets without Bolsheviks', were drowned in the blood of the most cruel manner by Lenin, Trotsky and Co.
In 1918 was one more mark event in the history of Kronstadt naval base, namely audacious assault of British torpedo boats, which broke into the harbor, drowned and damaged several warships.
St. Petersburg
Searching the Wikipedia article on St. Petersburg, Russia, I find the Peter and Paul Fortress, which is the original citadel of the city. Notorious over its history for housing prisoners, such that it became a focus of the 1917 revolution, the Wikipedia article states:
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| Peter and Paul Fortress |
In the years before and after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, Peter and Paul Fortress was portrayed by Bolshevik propaganda as a hellish, torturous place, where thousands of prisoners suffered endlessly in filthy, cramped, and grossly overcrowded dungeons amid frequent torture and malnutrition. Such legends had the effect of turning the prison into a symbol of government oppression in the minds of the common folk. In reality, conditions in the fortress were far less brutal than believed; no more than one hundred pris
oners were ever kept in the prison at a time, and most prisoners had access to such luxuries a
s tobacco, writing paper, and literature (including subversive books such as Karl Marx's Das Kapital). When the fortress was liberated during the early stages of the revolution in February 1917, the prison was holding only nineteen recently incarcerated prisoners, the ringleaders of a mutinous army regiment that had sided with the revolutionaries during the mass protests on the 26th
Toompea Castle
Reval
Wikipedia redirects me to present-day Tallinn, in Estonia. In 1914, it was part of the Russian Empire. However, searching that article, and linked articles to Toompea, and to the Toompea Castle, doesn't make it clear to which fortifications the map indicated. While Tallinn was built as a fortified town, and various fortifications were added to both Tallinn and Toompea over the years, Wikipedia states that "Tallinn was removed from the list of fortified towns of the Russian Empire in 1857." Unlike the fortresses written about so far, Toompea Castle appears to have always functioned more as a castle and place of government than a military fortress.
Most immediately before World War I, Toompea Castle "housed the administration of the Governorate and the living quarters of the governor." After the fall of the Tsar and Estonian War for Independence, Germans, as part of their occupation of Estonia took over Tallinn on February 26, 1918.
One Google search find says that "The sea and land fortress of Tallinn surrendered" on February 27, 1918. Aside from the date difference, the reference to a sea fortress got me looking some more on Google and I found references to the Patarei sea fortress, which "started under the orders of Nicholas I in 1828. After completion, it began operating as an artillery battery. The premises covering 4 hectares have had different functions – barracks and a prison." However, I cannot find anything suggesting how it was used in 1914.
Libau
Wikipedia redirects this German name to the present-day town of Liepāja in Latvia. In 1914, it was part of the Russian Empire. The Wikipedia article references a Libava fortress, but has no separate article on it. The fortress "was the most expensive and ambitious project of the Russian army on the Baltic sea. The massive concrete fortifications with eight cannon batteries was built to protect the city and its population from German attacks. Secret underground passages of the fortress became the most famous Liepāja's urban legend."
Google searching doesn't help too much, mostly tourist sites. Fortress appears to just be in remains, such as the photo shown here. However, in one personal history, I find that Liepāja "was occupied like much of the Baltics by Germany during 1915-18" along with a photograph of German soldiers in the port. Searching on photo caption (in German), I find German Army report of taking Libau on May 8, 1915 (see newspaper clipping). Another, German encyclopedia article states: "In the First World War, Libau was the first large fortress in the chain of Russian border fortifications taken by German troops - with a simultaneous attack of land and sea in May 1915. In the same year Libau was incorporated into the military state Upper East of the German occupying power "
Dunaberg
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| Daugavpils Fortress |
Neither the town nor the fortress appear to have figured in World War I. On one travel site, it states that "[t]he fortress was not destroyed during the wars or significantly changed, it remains the only well-preserved this type of fortress in Eastern Europe and the last bastion-type fortress in the World."
Kowno
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| Barracks of Kaunas Fortress |
Kowno links to present-day Kaunas, in Lithuania. The city was taken over by the Russian Empire after the Third Partition of Poland, and was Russian at the time World War I started. To prevent possible easy access through the city and protect the western borders of Russia, the Kovno Fortress was built.
It was constructed and renovated between 1882 and 1915 to protect the Russian Empire's western borders, and was designated a "first-class" fortress in 1887. During World War I, the complex was the largest defensive structure in the entire state.
The fortress was battle-tested in World War I in 1915 when Germany attacked the Russian Empire, and withstood eleven days of assault before capture. However, according to one article, the fortress was unprepared:
The Russian defense of the fortress of Kovno had been going particularly poorly. Most of the defenders were second-rate troops who arrived in the last week or two, with little knowledge of the area. Despite a large amount of artillery (350 heavy guns and 1000 lighter ones) and hundreds of thousands of shells, it was poorly prepared, much of it sitting in the open and visible to the Germans. The fortifications themselves were over thirty years out of date and could be shelled with impunity to great effect. Woods near the fort had not been cleared, allowing the Germans to easily approach to within a half mile. The command structure of the Russian fronts was being reorganized to deal with the new German front in Courland, with Ruszki set to be brought back to command the new Northern Front; in the meantime Alexeyev took little responsibility for the area. The Russian armies flanking Kovno were drawn into other fights, and the commander of Kovno cooperated with neither one.
Grodno
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| Grodno Fortificiations |
Grodno appears to be Grodno, now a city in western Belarus. It originated as a small fortress and a fortified trading outpost, and, at in 1914, had been part of the Russian Empire since the Third Partition of Poland. However, the Wikipedia article makes no other mention of a fortress, only noting that "[a]fter the outbreak of World War I, Grodno was occupied by Germany (Sept 3 1915) and ceded by Bolshevist Russia under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918." There are references to a Grodno Castle; in addition, there are references to forts in a discussion of the First Battle of Grodno during the Polish-Soviet War that followed World War I: "Although the town had been fortified by Russians in the 19th century, the forts were in disrepair and did not provide much advantage to the defenders."
Looking beyond Wikipedia, I find a Belarus tourist site that discusses the fortifications around Grodno:
Looking beyond Wikipedia, I find a Belarus tourist site that discusses the fortifications around Grodno:
Grodno fortress - fortification system around the city of Grodno, functioned as a fortress of the Russian Empire, the German Empire and the Republic of Poland. Grodno fortress consisted of a large number of fortifications, among which the central place occupied by the forts. Forts of Grodno fortress surrounded the city of Grodno on all sides, at a distance of about 10 kilometers away. Today Grodno fortress abandoned and destroyed, but some of the forts of the fortress are still not completely destroyed condition.
Nowo Georgiewsk
Searching Wikipedia took me on a completely wrong start, as I followed a hint to Novo-Georgievsk and then to Novogeorgievsk, a city in the Ukraine that no longer exists, having was flooded by the Kremenchuk water reservoir since 1961. [At the time of World War I, the city was part of the Russian Empire and was one of the battlegrounds during the war and was protected by a citadel and an unfinished belt of forts. "Evacuation of its inhabitants, however, came too late because the trains were deployed to evacuate Warsaw."] But, as I saw all wrong! The correct chain to follow was to Siege of Novogeorgievsk and the Modlin Fortress, hundreds of miles away despite the same name!Modlin Fortress is one of the largest 19th-century fortresses in Poland. It is located in the town of Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki in district Modlin on the Narew river, approximately 50 kilometers north of Warsaw."The fortress was now designed to serve as a center of resistance deep behind enemy lines if the Russian army were forced to retreat from Poland. The works were carried out in great haste, not all equipment was fitted, and some construction materials were improvised and hence of lower quality. Even with these defects, the fortress with its nineteen forts was one of the strongest fortifications in Europe at the outbreak of World War I. The Russian high command expected that if surrounded by the German armies it would hold out for many months, serving as a major thorn in the German rear." Apparently, no such luck: The battle known as the Siege of Novogeogiesvsk took place after the Germans broke the Russian defenses at the Gorlice–Tarnów Offensive and approached Warsaw:
The Russians decided to defend the fortress of Novogeorgievsk .... It was garrisoned with 90,000 men when they evacuated Warsaw on 5 August. The German army led by General Hans Hartwig von Beseler approached Novogeorgievsk with 80,000 men including part of the powerful siege train used to capture Antwerp in 1914, six 16 in (400 mm) and nine 12 in (300 mm) howitzers. Novogeorgievsk was surrounded on 10 August and the bombardment began few days later and was concentrated on the north-eastern portion of the defenses, lying north of the rzeka Wisła. The German assault was helped after the capture of the fort's Chief Inspector with detailed plans of the fort's defences. After a heavy battering the Germans attacked 3 of the forts with 22 infantry battalions and captured two of them. The Russians were forced to the inner defenses north of the rzeka Wisła. With no prospects of being relieved and with their inner defenses vulnerable to bombardment the Russians surrendered at the dawn of 20 August, losing 1,600 cannon and approximately 1,000,000 artillery shells.
Warschau
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| Model of Warsaw Citadel |
As part of this reevaluation and the resulting changes in strategic deployments, it was decided that maintaining the Warsaw Fortress was no longer cost-effective. In 1909 the decision was made to abolish the fortress. Work started out to demolish its works but it proceeded slowly. In 1913, with the worsening international situation immediately before the outbreak of the First World War, the decision was reversed, and hasty work started to return the fortress to combat readiness. These defenses were never put to the test, as Warsaw was evacuated by the Russian army without a fight in August, 1915, during its general retreat that summer.Things did get a little more confusing when I left Wikipedia and Google World War I and Warsaw Fortress and got a link to a separate Wikipedia article on "Festung Warschau," which was "the term used to refer to a fortified and well-defended Warsaw. In the 20th century, the term was in use on three occasions during World War I and World War II. It was used when the Germans threw back the Russian advance in 1914, where Warsaw came within distance of the fighting in October." Furthermore, this Wikipedia article cross-references not the Warsaw Fortress article noted above, but yet another on on the Warsaw Citadel. According to that article, after occupying Warsaw in World War I "[t]he Germans blew up several of its structures, but the main part of the Citadel remained intact and German forces performed a mass execution of 42 people in 1916."
Jvangard
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| Gate of the Dęblin Fortress |
In October, 1914 a significant battle was fought in its vicinity, in which the Russian armies repelled a combined German and Austro-Hungarian offensive. After that battle the defenses of the fortress were further improved, and it became even more important as an anchor of the Russian position on the Vistula. However, reverses elsewhere along the front forced the Russians to abandon Ivangorod in August 1915.The fortress is now Dęblin Fortress, and part of the fortress is used as a museum and the area is owned by the Polish military.
Brest-Litowsk
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| Brest Fortress |
During World War I, the town was captured by the Imperial German Army on August 25, 1915, during the Great Retreat of 1915. However, the fortress was untouched:
After the fall of the forts at Kovno and Novogeorgievsk (see above), the Russians abandoned Brest fortress, carrying away most of the munitions that were stockpiled there. The Germans entered the fort on August 26, 1915. In 1918, the fort was the location of the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which made peace between USSR and the Central Powers.
Krakau
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| Wawel Complex |
Searching for Krakau fortress, one gets to an article on Kraków Fortress, which says that one could be referring either, narrowly, "to the 19th century Austro-Hungarian fortifications", or broadly, "to the interconnected fortifications in Kraków, Poland, including 18th century Kościuszko Insurrection fortifications, and the medieval Wawel castle and city walls." The Wawel Castle (or Wawel Citadel Fortress) certainly seems the biggest attraction, but there apparently is no World War I history to discuss. Kraków "was briefly besieged by Russian troops in November 1914. Austrian rule in Kraków ended in 1918 when the Polish Liquidation Committee assumed power." According to one Polish history site:
Despite the fact that Kraków was considered one of the most powerful strongholds of the Habsburg Empire due to its surrounding fortifications, several thousand people escaped from the city for fear of the Russian Army[1.36] During the brief period of battles the city was spared major physical damage, but its economic aftermath proved to be more dire as it brought about poverty, unemployment, famine, and social dissatisfaction.
Przemyśl
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| Fortification walls |
With technological progress in artillery during the second half of the 19th century, the old fortifications rapidly became obsolete. The longer range of rifled artillery necessitated the redesign of fortresses so that they would be larger and able to resist the newly available guns. To achieve this, between the years 1888 and 1914 Przemyśl [fortress] was turned into a first class fortress the third largest in Europe out of about 200 that were built in this period. Around the city, in a circle of circumference 45 km (28 mi), 44 forts of various sizes were built.
Unlike some of the other fortresses on the map, this fortress saw a lot of action during World War I. Here, again, from Wikipedia:
In August 1914, at the start of the First World War, Russian forces defeated Austro-Hungarian forces in the opening engagements and advanced rapidly into Galicia. The Przemyśl fortress fulfilled its mission very effectively, helping to stop a 300,000 strong Russian army advancing upon the Carpathian Passes and Kraków, the Lesser Poland regional capital. The first siege was lifted by a temporary Austro-Hungarian advance. However, the Russian army resumed its advance and initiated a second siege of the fortress of Przemyśl in October 1914. This time relief attempts were unsuccessful. Due to lack of food and exhaustion of its defenders, the fortress surrendered on 22 March 1915. The Russians captured 126,000 prisoners and 700 big guns. Before surrender, the complete destruction of all fortifications was carried out. The Russians did not linger in Przemyśl. A renewed offensive by the Central Powers recaptured the destroyed fortress on 3 June 1915. During the fighting around Przemyśl, both sides lost up to 115,000 killed, wounded, and missing.However, after 1915, "slight repairs were made, however the mostly ruined fortifications no longer had serious military significance."
Bobrinsk
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| Babruysk Fortress |
Google searching gets zero hits on either Bobrinsk or Babryusk and Germany, so clearly not a threat!
Kiew
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| Kiev Fortress |
The Germans took over Kiev as part of Operation Faustschlag. Taking advantage of the upheavals in Russia, this was the last major action of the war on the Eastern Front. "On 18 February, the German and Austro-Hungarian forces started a major three-pronged offensive against the Soviets with 53 divisions. ... The Southern forces broke through the remains of the Russian Southwestern Army Group, capturing Zhitomir on 24 February. Kiev was secured on 2 March, one day after the Ukrainian Central Rada troops had arrived there."
Thorn
Wikipedia redirects to the present day town of Toruń in north-central Poland, and says it is "one of the oldest cities in Poland." In 1914, Thorn was part of the German Empire. Toruń Fortress was:
built from 1872–1894 by the Kingdom of Prussia and ... is one of the largest fortresses in Central and Eastern Europe. The fortress complex – a chain of forts surrounding the city, as well as numerous smaller fortifications supplementing it – was intended to defend the eastern border of Prussia (with the Russian Empire). Despite much planning and investment, the fortress did not play a significant role in the First World War nor in any later conflict.As amplified, it was never besieged by Russian forces, and thus escaped any damage. According to the town's tourist site, only two objects are available for tourists: Fort IV and Battery AB IV.
German Threat
In a Wikipedia article on "Western Russian fortresses," the following is stated:
German threat and First World War
When relations between Germany and Russia deteriorated in the 1880s the fortifications saw a resurgence of importance, with the Russians modernizing some of them and adding new modern fortresses in between the old ones. In 1905, the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War caused a rethinking of military strategy, in particular the idea of concentrating forces in the interior away from the borders before hostilities began to gain popularity, eliminating the need for a chain of border fortresses.In 1909, General Vladimir Sukhomlinov, the new War Minister for the Russian Empire, planned to demolish the western fortress system believing the forts were obsolete. Sukhomlinov's plan was overruled by a vote in the Imperial Duma, instead it was decided to strengthen and expand the system instead, and construction of the new forts was still happening at the outbreak of World War I in 1914. When Russia was invaded by Germany the following year, construction of the forts was rushed with the intention of being holdouts behind German lines, but many of the fortifications were quickly captured by German troops. The collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917 rendered the fortress system effectively useless as much of it was now located in independent countries such as the Second Polish Republic and the Baltic states.
Further specific detail is provided in an article on Peter the Great's Naval Fortress (or the Tallinn-Porkkala defense station) which includes the following:
The system consisted of several zones of defence:
- The innermost zone consisted of the fortresses at Kronstadt, Krasnaya Gorka and Ino, and the land and coastal fortresses near Vyborg. The latter were to prevent the enemy circling the Kronstadt line by landing near the Bay of Vyborg.
- second line was between Kotka and Narva, following the between-lying islands.
- The third and main line of defence was between Tallinn and Porkkala.
- The fourth line was between Hiiumaa and the Hanko Peninsula.
Further, Helsinki and Tallinn were encircled with defensive lines on land, consisting of thousands of kilometers of railway, bunkers connected with tunnel systems, and cannon fire positions. The fortification around Helsinki, Krepost Sveaborg, was centered on the old fortress of Suomenlinna.The construction of the defensive system was slowed due to the outbreak of World War I. The naval fortress was only partly finished when both Finland and Estonia declared their independence, following the Russian October revolution. The German Navy performed one major landing operation on the shores of the Gulf of Finland during World War I. In April 1918, following a request from the Senate of Vaasa in Finland, the German Ostsee Division, led by Rüdiger von der Goltz, landed in Hankoo, joined the Finnish Whites in the fight against the Reds, and conquered Helsinki.
Modern European Military Fortifications, 1870-1950: A Selective Annotated:
Includes references to articles of various of the fortifications discussed above, so there is much more that could be learned!
Includes references to articles of various of the fortifications discussed above, so there is much more that could be learned!
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