A high plateau on a steep cliff, towering 118 meters above the Rhine – the rock formation of Ehrenbreitstein offered a natural defense against potential invaders. Since the turbulent times of the mid-Neolithic age around 4000 BC, groups of people settled on the plateau’s southern rock spur, which they found easy to defend. Around 1000 BC, the farmers and craftsmen of the Bronze Age enhanced its natural protection by digging a moat and erecting a palisade rampart. In the Iron Age, the high plateau was home to a Celtic settlement.

In the third century AD, the Romans established the first fortification that was purely military, leveraging the strategic location of the Ehrenbreitstein plateau high over the Rhine. The river served both as a protective barrier and a connecting artery, and the formidable height of the Ehrenbreitstein allowed them to control the Neuwied valley and the hub at the confluence of the rivers Rhine and Mosel.

In the Middle Ages, the electoral princes of Trier erected a fortification that was extended and upgraded until well into the 18th century. In 1801, the complex was blown up by the French conquerors. It was on these ruins that Prussian military engineers started to rebuild Ehrenbreitstein fortress in 1816, as it still dominates the plateau today.

The first lord of the castle to be mentioned in the records was a nobleman called Ehrenbert or Ehrenbrecht. In the late 10th century, he built a castle on the southern spur of the rock plateau. The rock was named after him - at first people referred to it as Ehrenbrechtstein, later as Ehrenbreitstein. In 1020, the ownership of the castle was transferred to the archbishopric of Trier. This allowed the rulers of Trier to extend their territory to the Westerwald and the Lahngau.

In the 12th century, Archbishop Hillin (1152-1169) fortified the unprotected northern flank of the plateau. At its most narrow spot, he erected a mighty frontal wall and had a deep moat (called Hellengraben) cut into the rock formation. The chapel, the living quarters and the formidable keep were protected by a ring wall. Soon, feudal vassals, laborers and craftsmen started to settle around the castle – in the area beyond the wall and moat, and further down in the valley. Before long, the castle and the settlement became the seat of one of the archbishop’s administrative and legislative offices.
 
From the middle of the 13th century, Ehrenbreitstein  also served as the temporary residential castle of the electoral princes. This new status meant that the fortress not only held an important strategic role, but also assumed administrative and representative functions for the Electorate of Trier.

Along with Mainz and Cologne, the electorate of Trier was one of the most important small Rhine states of the 17th and 18th centuries. Trier had always been both its capital and the residential town of its ecclesiastical rulers. France being a constant threat, the electoral prince of Trier Philipp Christoph von Sötern (1623-1652) took up permanent residence in the safety of the mighty state fortress of Ehrenbreitstein. In 1626, he erected the residential castle Philippsburg at the foot of the Ehrenbreitstein plateau. The 3-storey building was 160 meters long, and its rich plastering and frescos met the sophisticated requirements of an electoral prince.

His successors upgraded the small village of Ehrenbreitstein together with the fortress, turning them into a residence that was as fortified as it was representative. Soon, it was to become the political, administrative, and cultural center of the electorate of Trier. In particular in the 18th century, under the rule of electoral prince Clemens Wenzeslaus of Saxony (1768-1801), a glamorous court life flourished in Ehrenbreitstein and neigh boring Koblenz. This golden age came to a sudden end when the revolutionary troops of France reached the
Rhine in 1794.

The building activities of the electoral prince attracted great numbers of painters, plasterers, gilders, sculptors and stonemasons, who settled in the village of Ehrenbreitstein. The most renowned was Januarius Zick (1730-1797), the most important master of late baroque painting in Germany. From 1760, he was court painter in the service of the electoral prince, creating rich frescos both for Koblenz castle and for the prince’s hunting seat at Engers.

Yet, the glamour of the electoral court involved more than just a magnificent setting; it also included court music. In 1654, the electoral prince Carl Caspar von der Leyen (1652-1676) founded the court orchestra of Koblenz. In the years to come, the orchestra grew to almost 50 musicians, and eventually became one of the biggest and most renowned orchestras in Germany under the last electoral prince, Clemens Wenzeslaus.

The art-loving electoral prince Clemens Wenzeslaus (1768-1801) also sponsored the literary salon hosted by Sophie von La Roche, wife of Georg Michael von La Roche, privy councilor of the electorate of Trier. Their house in Ehrenbreitstein became a social focus of renowned writers, among them Basedow, Heinse, Lavater, Merck and the Jacobi brothers. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was among the writers who joined them in the years between 1772 and 1774.

Between 1817 and 1828, Ehrenbreitstein fortress was re-built and the Prussian army moved, in step by step, as individual sections became operational. To begin with, many soldiers lived in civilian quarters for lack of sufficient space in the barracks. In 1823, the first soldiers moved into the fortress – into the Turm Ungenannt (Non-named Tower), the Long Line Casemates, the main rampart, and the fortified Helfenstein building. In 1830, the remaining buildings became operational.

The casemate barracks offered orderly rooms, and quarters for enlisted men and non-commissioned officers. The more comfortably furnished apartments were reserved for officers and civil servants. In the event of war, an army of 1,500 soldiers was to defend Ehrenbreitstein with 80 guns. Ordnance would then be mounted in the casemate barracks and the furniture would be transferred to the interior of the fortress.

As of 1808, the military reforms of the 19th century, designed to strengthen the Prussian army, led to a more humane treatment of soldiers. As generations of conscripts came and went, the furniture, weaponry and uniforms also underwent gradual changes.

Most of the soldiers served three-years of compulsory military service with infantry, artillery, pioneers, or supplies. From 1814 to 1918, about 3,000 to 6,000 soldiers lived in Koblenz. In 1814, the city itself had about 10,000 inhabitants; in 1900 the population had grown to about 45,000.

This cast iron 6-pound barrel (manufactured in 1833) weighs 440 kilograms and uses 2.8-kilogram projectiles.
Their maximum range was 2,625 meters, but since they had no effect over this distance, only targets in the 1,000 meter range were selected under battle conditions.

Upon the command ”Cannon! Fire!”, the gunner would light the charge with a linstock. The black powder load would explode and the cannon ball left the gun barrel. Only a minute later, the cannon would be ready for action again.

Due to its weight of 440 kilograms, the two-wheel casemate gun carriage (a 1835 replica) was able to dampen the recoil after the shot. In addition, the cannon is fixed to a metal ring underneath the embrasure.

During military exercises, some of the casemates would probably look as war-like as in this reconstruction. Gun smoke could escape through the windows and through the vent in the vaulted ceiling. Sand bags and wooden beams were at hand to help the soldiers barricade the room fast, in case the enemy were to destroy the mbrasure. The beams would be placed into the strong fixtures in the wall.

Around 1900, barracks furniture was still simple but more convenient than in the early days of the fortress. Every soldier had a locker for his uniform, equipment and personal items, allowing for a certain degree of privacy in the quarters designed to house eight to twelve men.

The iron bedsteads were standardized to allow easy assembly from the individual components. Mattress and pillow were padded with horsehair. Slits between the bed boards allowed ventilation and helped to prevent pest infestation.

Soldiers still mainly used the wash stand for their personal hygiene, but from 1884 onwards hot showers were available in the bath house next to the Non-named Tower. The box by the oven contained Saarland coal to heat the barracks.

Underneath the embrasure, there is the apron for a 189-kilogram Maxim automatic cannon (caliber 3.7cm) from around 1900. The cannon barrel with its cooling jacket rested on a cone-shaped pivotable gun carriage. Boasting a maximum range of 3,000 meters, the cannon could fire artillery shells and canister shots to fend off assaults.

The reconstruction of these enlisted quarters is based on the regulations of 1874.

The fortress at Koblenz & Ehrenbreitstein represented something of a test laboratory for the Prussian military. The officer engineers used the location to develop new concepts for state-of-the-art fortress construction and validated their theories under practical conditions. In field tests, they studied the shot impact resistance of their constructions.

In 1818, at the height of construction activities, the building sites employed up to 6,530 men: stone masons, quarry men, masons, carpenters, navvies, handymen, and soldiers. Ehrenbreitstein alone hired 1,529 men, among them stone masons and brick-layers from Bavaria and Tyrol. General Ernst Ludwig von Aster headed the military construction effort in the Rhineland and was the supervisor of the officer engineers in Koblenz. Captain Carl Schnitzler was in charge of detail planning and implementation at Ehrenbreitstein.

Operational and defense issues at the fortress were the responsibility of the commanding officer. In times of siege, the defensive capabilities of the fortress had priority over civilian matters. The site engineer headed construction works, while the site artillery officer controlled the artillery facilities and led the artillery defense. In times of war, the fortified complex was designed to hold about 12,000 men: infantry, artillery and pioneers.

Ehrenbreitstein fortress was a modern, purpose-built military complex. Its architectural concept was far emoved from the idealized image of the romantic castles along the river Rhine. Despite all this, the ruins of Ehrenbreitstein fortress had all it takes to become a myth in the period known as “Rhine romanticism”.

The fortification had defied many sieges, and the fame and glory of the invincible fortress survived even after it was blown up in 1801. In 1813, the British poet Lord Byron even celebrated the complex as a “tower of ictory”. Stones bearing the coats-of-arms of several electoral princes of Trier keep alive the memory of a glorious past.

For two centuries, Rhine travellers and artists have been impressed and moved by the commanding building on the elevated rock plateau. Since 1821, visitors have been in awe when enjoying the spectacular view verlooking Koblenz and the “Deutsche Eck” – the confluence of the rivers Rhine and Moselle. Touristic interest in the ortress has not waned over the centuries. An important cultural memorial, it is under the special protection of UNESCO, and stands as a flagship monument at the gate of the upper Middle-Rhine world heritage.

The six prison cells here in the Long Line were probably set up just after the beginning of the First World War, in November 1914. The number of soldiers stationed at the fortress had grown significantly, so that additional prison cells were required. There was a solitary cell behind each window. A pot-belly oven was installed to heat two cells each. The wooden doors with the locking bar and peephole are part of the original equipment.

Soldiers would normally be confined for up to six weeks. Light confinement was more of a disciplinary warning, involving house arrest or solitary confinement, but no further restrictions. Standard confinement sentences involved solitary confinement without amenities such as tobacco. The prisoner would live on bread and water, receiving a hot meal only on one day out of four.

More serious offences were punished with severe confinement. For this purpose, two solitary cells were set up near the moat gate in 1863. The cells were dark and contained no bed. The prisoner would live on water and bread. On one day out of four he would be allowed light, a hot meal and a bed. Six weeks of severe confinement were imposed for on-duty offences such as sleeping or smoking when on sentry duty.

The Koblenz Fortress was primarily a permanent artillery position. The weapons on display here show the typical fortress armament of the 19th century up to circa 1870.

The ordnance was highly effective at long range in destroying enemy emplacements. The cannons fired at the enemy's defensive cover, guns, vehicles and soldiers in a flat trajectory. Mortars threw their projectiles in a high arc into the enemy positions. Howitzers combined the capabilities of cannons and mortars.

The main fighting distance of the muzzle-loading cannons was 1000 metres, while the breechloaders introduced in Prussia from 1859 were used at distances of up to 2200 metres. In 1900, cannons were effective at distances of up to 10 kilometres.

Until the 1850s, cannons fired iron balls or canister shots, which would scatter smaller bullets over the battlefield. Mortars and howitzers also used shells that detonated when they hit their target. The advent of breechloaders also brought with it the invention of explosive shells with fuses. Their effect increased rapidly from the 1880s onwards with the invention of highly explosive fragmentation shells. The Koblenz Fortress then offered little protection against them.

Circa 1830, replica
This small mortar with a wooden mount threw 3.3kg shells in a high arc into enemy fortifications and fortress trenches. The 250kg cast-iron barrel was modelled on a piece from the Sayn ironworks near Koblenz, which supplied the first armaments for the fortress. Only mortars were still loaded with loose powder in order to precisely influence the trajectory of the projectile.

The ”Greif“ cannon reflects the history of both Ehrenbreitstein fortress and Franco-German relationships at the contested confluence of Rhine and Moselle.

In 1524, the Archbishop of Trier, Richard von Greiffenklau, had the cannon cast as a siege weapon. Its high penetrating power was designed to “split towers and walls” as the inscription says. Whether it was ever called upon to do so, is not known. It was not until 2006, that evidence could be provided to show that the Greif had been fired at all.

In 1799, the French troops conquered the fortress, commandeered the „Greif“, and took it to Paris. In 1940, the German Wehrmacht returned the cannon from Paris to Ehrenbreitstein. When Koblenz became part of the French occupation zone in 1945, the “Greif” changed owners again. From 1946 to 1984, it was on display in the Army Museum in Paris.

As part of the Franco-German friendship, the „Greif“ was returned to Ehrenbreitstein in 1984. French President François Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl agreed that the “Greif” would be given to the fortress as a permanent loan from the French Republic.

“An army marches on its stomach“ – this military wisdom reflects centuries of practical experience. Providing the troops with food, ammunition and operating supplies supports combat efficiency and morale.

Hence, provision depots and kitchens were an integral part of every fortress. In times of war, the civilian administration helped to supplement stocks on the basis of requirement lists, making sure that the war garrison and its over 12,000 men could resist a three to six month siege. Fresh spring water reached the fortress cisterns via a water pipe, making the fortress independent of external supplies, if necessary.

In times of peace, the army stored its black powder in forward ammunition depots outside of the fortress. In times of war, they transferred it to a special bulletproof gunpowder magazine. The defensive capacity of a fortress depended to a great extent on the quality and quantity of its ammunition depots.

Another important factor influencing the morale of the troops was medical care. Soldiers who know, that their battle wounds will be attended to, will go to the fight with a lighter heart. Every regiment had its own doctor. In times of peace, he would be responsible for the sick bay. Soldiers with serious diseases or injuries would be taken to the military hospitals in Koblenz or Ehrenbreitstein.

Ehrenbreitstein Fortress since the First World War:

In 1918 Ehrenbreitstein Fortress ceased to be a garrison, however, it still had other military purposes. After the two World Wars, namely between 1919-1929 and from 1945-1950, first American and then French troops were stationed here.

Already a barracks for the Wehrmacht from 1936, the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress became an anti-aircraft defence position in 1941. Its guns supported the heavy railway anti-aircraft guns, which were intended to prevent air raids on the railway and the city centre. From 1943, the bunker under Ehrenbreitstein offered protection from bombs for up to 10,000 people.

During the war, the fortress also housed archives and museum collections from the Rhineland, including Cologne, Wuppertal and Koblenz. From 1946 to 1950, the fortress housed a refugee camp where mainly Hungarians and Poles lived temporarily.

After 1945, the fortress also provided housing. The residents, including Luzia and Peter Suderland, grew vegetables and kept small livestock to provide them with food. The couple came to the fortress in 1949. From 1957 to 1965, they lived here with their two children in this reconstructed flat in the so-called Ravelin.

In 1956, the State Service for Prehistoric and Early History was founded and situated at the fortress. This marked the beginning of its cultural usage, which has been continuously expanded ever since.