Prussian, early modern fortification in Pomerania, a result of the Prussian - Swedish struggle

The Duchy of Pomerania, after the death of the last duke from the House of Griffins in 1637, was the scene of a struggle between Prussia and Sweden. Initially the duchy was divided into two parts - Prussian Farther Pomerania, and Swedish Hither Pomerania. But as a result of the Swedish defeat in the Great Northern War in 1720, Prussia also won a large part of Hither Pomerania, with the capital city and main fortress, Stettin and the entire estuary of the Oder river. But all of Pomerania was again a witness to Prussian -Swedish hostility during the Seven Years’ War. Its last act was the annexation of Swedish Hither Pomerania with Stralsund in 1815. One of the key factors for this struggle were the fortifications. They were built during the wars (field fortifications) and during peacetime as well (fortresses, autonomous forts or sconces and fortified cities). Siege warfare assumed an important role in the wars. The main stress in this paper will be on the presentation of the activity of the Prussian side of the conflict, mainly in the area of construction of new permanent fortifications from the last half of 17th century through the first half of the 18th century. This large period is divided into two smaller ones. During the first, between 1648 and 1720, Prussian activity was focused on securing the Farther Pomerania. Its main city and most important fortress was Kolberg. The bastion fortifications of this city were already built by Swedish forces during the last stage of the Thirty Years’ War, but the Prussians thoroughly rebuilt it during the long modernization between 1655 and 1715. Apart from Kolberg a fortress in Rügenwalde was also planned, but never built. The main achievement of the second period was the modernization of the fortress at Stettin. It lasted only fifteen years (from 1725 to 1740), but was very intensive, more than half of the Prussian engineering corps was involved in this large construction site. Just as in the previous period, also after 1720, another fortress was considered (in Stargard), but it also was never built. After 1720 the Prussian engineers had to handle the problem of a large number of smaller and weaker fortified complexes in the Hither Pomerania, „inherited” from Sweden, such as cities with bastion fortifications (Wolin, Damm, Cammin in Pommern, Neu Warp, Demmin, Dammgarten and Anklam), or single strongpoints such as sconces in Penemünde, Anklamer Fehr, Swinemünde and Divenau. Only some of them were modernized (Penemünde
and Anklamer Fehr Schanze) but all of them were preserved until the second half of the 18th century, and even took an active part in the Seven Years’ War. In the projects of Prussian fortifications in Pomerania different solutions are visible; traditional (casemates for guns in the
flanks of bastions in Rügenwalde); modern, French inspired, connected with the activity of Huguenot engineers such as Cayart or Montargues, and the solutions influenced by Scandinavian military architecture (powder magazines in Stettin, similar to those in Copenhagen).
Author - PhD Podruczny, Grzegorz, Adam Mickiewicz University, Słubice, Poland (Presenting author)