Fortress of Rastatt
Coordinates: 48°51′30″N 08°12′38″E / 48.85833°N 8.21056°E
Rastatt Fortress (German: Bundesfestung Rastatt) was built from 1842 to 1852. The construction of this federal fortress was one of the few projects that the German Confederation was able to complete. The fortress site covered the Baden town of Rastatt and, in 1849, played an important role during the Baden Revolution. It was abandoned in 1890 and most of it was eventually demolished.
On 3 November 1815, in the margins of the Paris Peace Conference the four victorious powers - Austria, Great Britain Prussia and Russia Mainz, Luxemburg and Landau were designated as fortresses of the German Confederation and, moreover, they envisaged that a fourth federal fortress on the Upper Rhine, for which 20 million French francs were to be set aside from the war reparations. As early as 1819 to 1824 a fortress construction commission was formed in which Baden, Bavarian, Württemberg and Austrian engineers jointly produced the plans, which were then shelved for 20 years for political reasons. Whilst Austria wanted to extend Ulm, Prussia and the south German states nearer to France favoured the construction of a fortress in Rastatt. In October 1836 the king of Württemberg, William I, proposed a compromise which was to build or extend both towns into fortresses. In 1838/39 Bavaria and Austria were won over. Not until the Rhine Crisis of 1840/41 did it happen, however, that the states of the German Confederation come to an understanding about defence measures against France and the federal assembly on 26 March 1841 agreed the construction of both fortresses. Rastatt was designated as a linking and border fortress, as well as an armoury for the VIII Army Corps. The Grand Duchy of Baden was given the right to appoint the governor, the commandant and the chief of artillery, the chief of engineers was to be appointed by Austria.
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