The Lines of Stollhofen (german: Bühl-Stollhofener Linie) was a line of defensive earthworks built for the Reichsarmee at the start of the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...

(1701–1714) running for about from Stollhofen on the Rhine to the impenetrable woods on the hills east of Bühl. The lines were constructed by order of Margrave Louis William I of Baden-Baden in order to protect northern Baden from the newly erected French fortress of Fort Louis on the River Rhine.

Location

The roughly long and only partly fortified line started in the east near Obertal (today part of

Bühlertal Bühlertal is a municipality in the district of Rastatt in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Geography Geographic location Bühlertal encompasses almost the entirety of the Bühlot Valley and its side valleys on the Western slope of the Nor ...

), ran westwards over the heights to Bühl and then northwest in the Rhine valley via Vimbuch (today a village in the municipality of Bühl), Leiberstung (today part of

Sinzheim Sinzheim is a municipality in the district of Rastatt, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located 6 km west of Baden-Baden, and 11 km south of Rastatt Rastatt () is a town with a Baroque core, District of Rastatt, Baden-Württemb ...

) and Stollhofen to the River Rhine. It comprised linear '' schanzen'' in the terrain, as well as individual star ''schanzen'', hornworks, small forts and fortified villages, and used the watercourses on the Rhine Plain in order to flood the fields of fire and approach using

weir A weir or low head dam is a barrier across the width of a river that alters the flow characteristics of water and usually results in a change in the height of the river level. Weirs are also used to control the flow of water for outlets of l ...

s. At the same time, by including the villages of Bühl and Stollhofen, it enabled control of the old trade routes from Basle to Frankfurt (today the Bundesstraße B3) at Bühl, and from Strasbourg to Frankfurt (old Roman road, today the B 36). Until 1707, the line bounded the operational area of the French troops and barred the easiest route to

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...

via Pforzheim. File:Stollhofener Linie Bodenehr.png, 1720 plan of the whole line File:Stollhofener Linien Nordteil.jpg, Northern section File:Stollhofener Linien Mittelteil.jpg, Central section File:Stollhofener Linien Südteil.jpg, Southern section

History

Following his Rhine crossing in mid-February 1703, Marshal Villars found the passes through the

Black Forest The Black Forest (german: Schwarzwald ) is a large forested mountain range in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany, bounded by the Rhine Valley to the west and south and close to the borders with France and Switzerland. It is ...

to be still impassible because of snow. Therefore, he initially occupied Kehl Fortress on 12 March as his base east of the Rhine, united with the army of Marshal

Tallard Tallard (; oc, Talard) is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. Location Tallard is to the south of Gap, close to the road from Gap to Marseille. The motorway A51 ends jus ...

, and on 19 April 1703 began an attack on the Bühl-Stollhofen Line. He bombarded the line south of Kappelwindeck and tried to bypass the line to the east with 25 battalions under Blainville. Both attempts, on 19 and 24 April, failed because the French could not capture the fortifications at Obertal. On 25 April, Villars pulled back. In summer 1703, however, Margrave Louis William could not stop Villars marching up the Kinzig valley and on into Bavaria. There, Villars was victorious in the

First Battle of Höchstädt The First Battle of Höchstädt (the Second Battle of Höchstädt became known in English as the Battle of Blenheim) was fought on 20 September 1703, near Höchstädt in Bavaria, and resulted in a French-Bavarian victory under Marshal Villar ...

. Likewise in 1704, Tallar passed through the

unhindered along the

Dreisam Valley The Dreisam Valley (german: Dreisamtal) is a valley east of the south German city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Freiburg. The valley lies within the Southern Black Forest Nature Park in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Location The Dreisam Valley ...

. After the death of Margrave Louis William (9 January 1707), Villars captured the Bühl-Stollhofen Line in May without a fight and had it destroyed. Several months after the loss of the Bühl-Stollhofen Line, work began on the

Ettlingen Line The Ettlingen Line (german: Ettlinger Linie) or Lower Line (''Untere Linie'') was a defensive line built in 1707 during the War of the Spanish Succession from brushwood (''Verhauen'') and palisades, which replaced the 1701 Bühl-Stollhofen Line ...

under the Rhine Army commander, George Louis of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The line was reinforced during the

War of the Polish Succession The War of the Polish Succession ( pl, Wojna o sukcesję polską; 1733–35) was a major European conflict sparked by a Polish civil war over the succession to Augustus II of Poland, which the other European powers widened in pursuit of thei ...

(1733–1738), was destroyed by the French in 1734 broke and was rebuilt in 1735.

Today

As a result of the canalization of the Rhine by Tulla in the 19th century and the construction of roads and settlements in the last century the remains of the line are now visible in places only in the wooded areas east of Bühl. In the Bühl Municipal MuseumStadtmuseum Bühl
is the 1703 map of the Bühl-Stollhofen Line drawn by Major Elster.

Location

History

Today

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links